You are here

Benjamin F. Greene House

-A A +A
1868, Clifton A. Hall. 85 Cross St.

Another mill owner's house, again by Hall, this originally belonged to a partner in the Greene and Daniels Thread Company. It had operated on the site which Greene sold, a few years earlier, to the Pawtucket Hair Cloth Company ( CF2), after relocating his own much enlarged plant in Pawtucket directly across the river from its old site. The house is among the finest examples of preserved Victorian Second Empire in the state, and it is something of a miracle that such an elaborate panoply of ornamentation has survived in an area where most architecture of its vintage has been badly treated. The curvature of a bonnet gable in the flared mansard is reinforced, first by its arched and balconied window, then below in a tripleted variation (like the Fales House cupola [ CF4]) by way of aggrandizing the arching entrance and its ornamental porch. Tripled post-like Corinthian columns support the corners of the porch, which is further embellished with a mix of bracketing, paneling, leafage, and crosses of Lorraine. Heavily framed windows on either side have segmental-arched hoods on the first story, and flat hoods above. Two first-story window bays project toward what used to be a lawn to the corner of Dexter Avenue and extending most of a block along it. From the east, a recessed service wing has its own porch in the manner of the other.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "Benjamin F. Greene House", [Central Falls, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-CF5.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,