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U.S. Weather Bureau Station

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1903, Harding and Upham. North side of Beach Street, 500 feet northeast of Ocean Ave.
  • (Photograph by Chris Goldberg, CC BY-NC 2.0)

Following a formula for weather stations repeated at least once elsewhere (in Narragansett, demolished) this building introduced to Block Island a bit of turn-of-the-century classicizing federal monumentality, albeit in almost miniature size. This was built just as the Weather Bureau sought to enhance its institutional status, and the foursquare, symmetrical, classically detailed building, prominently sited on a hill near the center of the island and overlooking several ponds, clearly established an island presence. Technological changes in reporting meteorology made this building obsolete by 1950, and it has served since as a summer residence.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

George W. Willis House
Narragansett Hotel (Lake Shore Dining Hall, Samuel D. Mott House)
L. U. Maltby House (Ninicroft Lodge)
Island Cemetery
David Van Nostrand House (Innisfail)

Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "U.S. Weather Bureau Station", [Block Island, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-BI2.

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