This ample, forthright Colonial Revival house and its first occupant, George O. Sackett, brilliantly symbolize turn-of-the-20th-century Providence, then the wealthiest community per-capita in the country, thanks to manufacturing, which funded this house’s construction. Sackett was an executive at the Kendall Manufacturing Company, whose principal product, Soapine, “…washes everything… no matter what… easier, quicker, cheaper, and better.” The company’s success with this miracle product enabled Sackett to employ Providence’s premier architectural firm, Stone, Carpenter & Willson, to design this large gambrel-roof house with full-width front porch that overlooked the cultivated fields of the Dexter Farm across the street. The form and details of the house drew on American architectural heritage, a focus that gave cultural validity to a nation then emerging as an economic and political power on the world stage.
– 2010 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook
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