This rambling little farmhouse is perhaps the most charming and picturesque house in the city. Its relatively small core, buried within the mass of the house, is of less interest, especially from the outside, than the many and varied additions that seem to have been added as need dictated and affluence allowed. How fortunate for the ultimate effect here is the lack of congruence among them: above the front door (itself in its own projecting vestibule) both shed and gabled dormers and in the attic of the southernmost wall a delightful, diminutive oriel window. The interior is an intriguing sequence of intimate spaces that culminates in the somewhat unexpected ample room on the north with skylights.
Beyond the building itself, the scaped-garden setting enhances immeasurably the storybook-like image of the complex. It certainly seemed that way to Providence author H.P. Lovecraft (more on Lovecraft at 140 Prospect Street), who lived for a while around the corner at 10 Barnes Street and described it quite lovingly. Set within a spanking white picket fence, it projects the very image of the picturesque colonial farmhouse, one of America’s most potent cultural icons.
— 2006 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook
The earliest section is probably a very modest eighteenth-century cottage. What is compelling for the visitor here are the numerous additions, especially, the early twentieth-century studio with large skylight on the north side. Additions, shutters, bay windows, trellises, pretty plantings, and a picket fence combine charmingly to create the very picture of the picturesque colonial farmhouse, one of America’s most potent cultural icons.
— 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
133 Peter Pratt? house, c. 1775 et seq. 1-1/2 stories; cross gable; clapboard; small farmhouse on south with entrance in vestibule with bullseye window; pergola’d terrace on south; glass studio roof to north; attached garage with large shed dormer.
— College Hill National Historic District; 1976
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