William R. Walker designed this stout house with Second Empire pretensions. Despite its mansard roof, one can hardly identify this too closely with the architecture of Emperor Napoleon III that was then arising in France, especially in comparison with the elaborate interpretation of the same idiom across the street (141 Waterman Street), designed by the same firm ten years later. The two reveal that the Walker firm’s learning curve was a little on the low side. It’s charming nonetheless, as so many nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Providence houses are, because of its inherent naïveté.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
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