Governor Henry Lippitt House
199 Hope St.
Providence, Rhode Island
I've been curious about this house since Bear and I first saw it, there on the corner of Hope and Angell Streets. It's a big brick Victorian (Renaissance Revival with Italian Palazzo elements, according to the site) built in 1865 for Henry Lippitt (then a textile merchant), his wife Mary Ann and their six children. Lippitt served as Governor from 1875-1877. In time, one of his sons would serve as Governor, and another son as a Senator. His great-grandson, John Chafee, was Governor, Senator and Secretary of the Navy, and this year his great-great grandson, Lincoln Chafee was elected Governor. A true Rhode Island political dynasty.
The house was designated an historical landmark in 1976 and donated by the Lippitt family to
Preserve Rhode Island in 1981.
At some point, the back part of the house was converted to condos that are still used as private homes.
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| front entrance |
We toured the house on December 19 for their Holiday Open House. Bear literally gasped when we walked inside.
The doors, which look like steel, but are in fact painted wood (one of many tromp l'oeil effects in the house) open into a main hall with beautiful parquet floors, a huge mirror and a marble statue of an ancient Greek goddess.
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| entry hall mirror detail |
To your right as you enter is the reception room, where guests would wait until the family came to greet them. It's got a door out to the side garden and fountain, a fireplace that's been converted to forced-air, and the original furniture, as the docent told us. In fact, most of the furniture in the house is original, based on photographs from when the house was inventoried. The docent also pointed out that the beautiful inlaid woodwork on the ceiling was, in fact, hand-painted, and not wood at all.
For the holidays, the room boasts an adorable child's tree, with toys and gumdrop garland. I kept coming back to that tree... I really must figure out where to get fake gumdrop garland.
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| Receiving room tree |
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| Receiving room tree detail |
The mantel was likewise decorated with nutcrackers.
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| Receiving room mantel |
Like most large homes of the time, the rooms were able to be closed off to keep the heat contained in winter, and opened up to let the breezes through in summer. The next room was the library.
Bear and I were both goggle-eyed at the blue and gold wallpaper, but we loved the pair of cobalt glass mirrors.
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| Library |
The ceiling painting was beautiful, although we were surprised at the small amount of books for a library room.
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| Library ceiling detail |
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| library shelves |
From there, the sliding doors (with frosted glass woodland scenes, naturally) led into the dining room.
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| sliding doors between library and dining room |
As with the mansions in Newport, the dining room was filled with depictions of hunting and food preparation. There was a painting of a slaughtered rabbit over the china cabinet, and carved heads of hunting dogs
on the china cabinet.
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| China cabinet |
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| Figurine in front of hunting dog detail on china cabinet |
This was the height of Victorian fashion, and the Lippitts entirely fashionable. I was very charmed and intrigued by a couple of pieces I found in this room.
I loved the mantel decor. The shiny apples, evergreens and lights were old-fashioned and beautifully arranged
and the painting of a serving woman (Dutch, perhaps?) above the buffet really grabbed my attention. Note also another hunting dog.
Of course the dining room had another spectactularly painted ceiling.
In back of the dining room was the butler's pantry. It was roped off, but we got to see a portion of it from the doorway.
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| butler's pantry |
Leaving the dining room back into the hall, you face a staircase to the second and third floors (closed for the event). At the first floor landing, there is a beautiful stained glass window.
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| stairs with stained glass window |
To the right of the stairs was a room that I think may have been a study, but was pressed into service as a coatroom for the event. There was a piano, some artwork and, just beyond the red fringe lamp, a built-in roll top desk.
Now the other side of the grand hallway was mostly taken up with the living room .It's a bit bigger than the other rooms, and - if possible - more formal. There's gold-flocked wallpaper and white paint.
And there beside the big, formal tree sat Tiny the Elf, who read The Elf on the Shelf for the guests.
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| Tiny and tree |
