Preview
Description
Work on the Rhode Island State House began in 1892, the design being awarded to McKim, Mead & White, whose design won a "competition," in which several different designs for the new state capitol were contenders. Prior to the completion of the present day State House, Rhode Island used a rotation system in which the governor and legislature would move between different state houses, at one time including as many as five. By the later half of the 19th century, only the Old Providence and the Newport State House's were employed in this system. This view, taken from the Francis and Gaspee Street perspective, clearly presents McKim, & Mead & Whites "American Renaissance" design, which incorporated Renaissance and Classical design elements in rejection of Victorian era designs, which McKim felt were gaudy and whose ornamentation he felt was idiosyncratic.
Creator 1 Role
Photographer
Creator 2 Role
Architect
Building Style
Neoclassical
Country Name
United States
Region Name
Rhode Island
City Name
Providence
Street Address
90 Smith Street
Recommended Citation
Thomson, Debra and McKim, Mead & White, "Rhode Island State House (Francis and Gaspee Street)" (2018). Images of Rhode Island Architecture from Special Collections. 9.
https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/ri_architecture/9
Keywords
state capitol; State House; renaissance; classical; neoclassical; neoclassical; mckim, mead & white; dome; architecture;
Notes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). For more information contact Digital Initiatives at James P. Adams Library, (401) 456-8380, Rhode Island College, 600 Mount Pleasant Ave., Providence, RI, 02903, digitalcommons@ric.edu.