Few temple-front Greek Revival houses were built in Providence, and this is the only remaining one. Until the summer of 1976, it remained in its original west-side location, on Marshall Street near Westminster. Its origins are obscure; why someone built an architecturally ambitious building in an obscure location remains a puzzle. But at least it was perceived as worth saving. The vacant lot to which it was moved was the site of a large Italianate house that was the first home of the Jewish Community Center in the early twentieth century, when this area was heavily populated by Eastern European Jews. The ungainly dormers are a compromise between what the building’s renovator had begun (framing six individual gable-roof dormers) without proper permitting, and what the local historic-district commission suggested as appropriate (the shed-dormer form seen here). Unfortunately, both the dormers and the humongous additions to the rear visually oppress the modest original section.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture