Samuel Gerald House

At the corner of Cooke and Power streets, number 2 Cooke, built for an importer of wines and liquors, merits attention, first as a loosely organized Queen Anne house with unconventional colonial details scattered about, such as a pediment folded over a corner window. Then, too, the porch capitals and the paneling of the front gable show curvilinear ornament of exceptional energy (exhibiting influence from Art Nouveau, which is unusual for Providence). In fact, the “Corinthian” capitals for the sweeping veranda seem to have been derived, not from architectural plates, but from direct observation of fern fronds.

Facing the intersection is 169 Power Street, a fine three-bay, end-gable Greek Revival house with an Ionic portico, built by Samuel Gerald, a carpenter, as his own house. He had earlier lived next door, at number 171 (1828), presumably having built this late Federal house as well. If so, then this carpenter literally moved with the style changes of his time.