John Noble Alsop Griswold House, 1862-64; architect: Richard Morris Hunt.
the home of the Newport Art Museum, the Griswold House was designed in
the Modern Gothic or Stick Style. Hunt was commissioned in 1861 by
Griswold to design this Newport summer cottage. During his travels
to provincial France, England, and Germany Hunt sketched medieval houses
that served as his inspiration. The house used balloon-frame
construction, and the distinctive stickwork half-timbering is
designed the Redwood Library in the Palladian style, carefully
studying the details and proportions in Palladio's publications. There
have been many renovations and additions to the library, notably one by
George Snell in 1858 which added a large reading room.
of the shingle style, McKim Mead and White were true innovators of
architecture. The Bell House has many references to other historic
styles, but no one prevails. It has the massing of a Queen Anne, a
Georgian Palladian eyebrow dormer, and single lancet palladian windows.
It even has Japanese influences in the faux bamboo columns and bronze
the Redwood Library, the Touro Synagogue is a Palladian building and
the result of intense study. Harrison studied Sephardic Jewish
Synagogues, resulting in a sparsely ornamented building at an odd angle
to the street. The angle resulted from the need for the Torah ark to
face east toward Jerusalem.
Munday was not a trained architect but a master builder. He designed
the Colony House in the Early Georgian or Wrenian Baroque Style. Munday
died soon after construction began. It is likely that Peter Harrison
steped in to oversee the construction.