Like neighboring Williams Street immediately north, Sheldon’s appeal resides in its tightly serried, usually well-restored houses built for those who gained their livelihood from the maritime trades that so dominated this southern section of College Hill near the water. Here is the place, obviously much loved and well lived in, but largely lacking the conspicuous consumption that so often plagues the preservation movement. The block between Brook and Benefit Streets includes a variety of unusual variants on local early nineteenth-century modest domestic-architectural forms, including the side-hall-and-center-chimney-plan Cross House (1828-29) at number 56, the elaborately fenestrated Budlong-Hall House (ca 1828) at number 50 (blue house to left of red house, above), the three-bay-façade center-entrance Nicholas Stillwell House (ca 1806) at number 21, as well as a number of typical small-scale, three-bay-façade late Federal houses, like the William G. Budlong House (1828) at number 46, the Samuel Warren House (1828) at number 40, and the Abraham and Isaac Wilkinson House (1825) at number 18.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
The red house in the featured photo is of 52 Sheldon Street.
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