The Edward King House, is a monumentally scaled residence at 35 King street in Newport,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

. It was designed for Edward King in the "Italian Villa" style by

Richard Upjohn Richard Upjohn (22 January 1802 – 16 August 1878) was a British-born American architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to su ...

and was built between 1845 and 1847, making it one of the earliest representations of the style. It was the largest and grandest house in Newport when it was built. Edward King was the largest landowner in town by 1860, having made his fortune through the China Trade. The house is built in brick, has asymmetrical massing, arched window heads, and a prominent three story tower. It was Upjohn's first use of the "Italian Villa" style. These elements would later come to be considered typical features of

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

design. The house was featured in

Andrew Jackson Downing Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...

's ''The Architecture of Country Houses'' in 1850, including an engraving of the house and

architectural plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

s. Downing described the house as "one of the most successful specimens of the Italian style in the United States." He went on to note the great variety of window sizes and types and noted the harmony of the design. The Edward King House was donated to the city of Newport in 1912 by Edward King's son and subsequently housed the Newport Public Library. It is now a senior citizens' center, The Newport Senior Center at the Edward King House. It was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on 15 October 1970 and designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

on 30 December 1970. It has a notable Southern counterpart in Kenworthy Hall, designed by Upjohn a decade later. That house is also a National Historic Landmark.

References

External links

Edward King House official website
{{Authority control Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Houses in Newport, Rhode Island National Historic Landmarks in Rhode Island Italianate architecture in Rhode Island Houses completed in 1847 Richard Upjohn buildings Villas in the United States 1847 establishments in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Newport, Rhode Island

See also

References

External links