Rockry Hall
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Albert Sumner House (Rockry Hall)
1848. 1880s, addition. 425 Bellevue Ave. (at Narragansett Ave.)
This two-and-one-half-story house sited catercorner to the intersection of Bellevue and Narragansett was built as a country retreat for the Bostonian Albert Sumner (brother of the famous abolitionist Charles Sumner) while the surrounding area was largely rural. The original section of Rockry Hall sits closest to Bellevue Avenue, its high-pitched roof, stone trim, and trefoil window giving the cottage a Gothic air, in keeping with the nearby Kingscote (NE144) but somewhat heavier and less ornamental in its overall effect. The main block of the house, terminating in the crenellated tower at the west end, is a later addition whose combination of shingles, stonework, and revival details subsumes the original cottage into the Queen Anne vocabulary popular in the 1880s.
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