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| RHODE ISLAND'S BUILDING - If the visitor left
the front of the Art Palace and passed north
on the avenue between
New York and Massachusetts, he would find at the right in the
rear
of the Bay State's John Hancock House, the notable Greek mansion of the
smallest State in the Union. There were two great porches, bearing
enriched Ionic columns and heavy entablature, Ionic pilasters, ornate
cornices, and a crowning balustrade, which followed the rectangular
and semi-circular contour of the building, and was accentuated with
urns and pedestals. The porches, however, were not in front and
rear, but at the sides, while no canopy guarded the archways which
offered a main entrance, or it may be held that the entire
semi-circular structure was itself a vestibule. The area of the
edifice was thirty-nine by thirty-four feet, and the main hallway
extended through the centre. Midway was a fire-place and marble
mantel, taken from the old Rhode Island house in which the Americans
formed the plan for the destruction of the British schooner "Gaspee,"
June 9th, 1792, a plan which was carried to success the next day.
Upstairs, the Governor's room was circular in form, and at the centre
of the floor a balustrade looked down on the massive stairway and
hall below. The main hall led outdoors into a vine-clad arbor, where
there were many flowers. Stone, Carpenter & Wilson, of Providence,
R. I., were the architects. Cost, $7,000. |
