Inspired by late mediæval rural English parish churches and like its predecessors, this is a low, somewhat stout building strongly anchored to its site. The buttressed corner tower is a forceful mass; it must have seemed almost overwhelming when the church was first built, before the nave was extended three bays to the west and the narthex was constructed in the 1940s. The random-course granite walls recall traditional building materials, but the use of cast-stone trim was an early 20th-century innovation. On the interior, the detail is superb, thanks to the early 20th century’s most talented ecclesiastical outfitters: reredos designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, wood carving by Irving & Casson, and the stained glass chiefly by the Goodhue, Wilbur Herbert Burnham, and Reynolds, Francis & Rohnstock shops. The earlier glass was designed in greyed tones more common to early English churches, but by the time the nave was enlarged, the taste in glass inclined more toward highly colored French exemplars, so the earlier windows were given brighter glass overlays. Wallis Howe (1868-1960), the principal in charge of the original church, the 1920s parish house to its rear, and the 1940s enlargement, was a son of an Episcopal bishop and thereby well steeped in both liturgy and ecclesiastical form. Between church and parish house is a glass-roof atrium, designed by parishioner William Kite, that deftly creates a central circulation spine that makes the whole complex highly accessible.
— 2010 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook
Clarke & Howe’s take on late medieval rural English churches shows all the restraint and good taste so appealing to Episcopalians. Howe was the designer in charge of the whole complex: original church (1917), parish house (1925), and sanctuary addition (1946); as a son of an Episcopal bishop of Western Pennsylvania, he was well steeped in both liturgy and architectural form. On the interior, the vocabulary may be Gothic, but the syntax is Colonial Revival, not surprisingly for one of Rhode Island’s greatest practitioners of that style. The detail is absolutely superb, with the reredos designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the wood carving by Irving & Casson, and the stained glass chiefly by the Goodhue, Wilbur Herbert Burnham, and Reynolds, Francis & Rohnstock shops. The earlier glass was designed in greyed tones more common to early English churches, but by the time the nave was extended two bays to the west in the mid-1940s, the taste in stained glass inclined more toward highly colored French exemplars, so the earlier windows were given brighter glass overlays. In the 1990s, William L. Kite, a parishioner, designed the glass-roof atrium between church and parish house, deftly creating a central circulation spine that makes the whole complex highly accessible. An unknown masterpiece of the early twentieth-century Gothic, the church is a compelling and comfortable presence on the street.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
The triptych above the altar at St. Martin’s is by Hildreth Meière. She was a renowned early 20th Century muralist with many important commissions including at Radio City, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Nebraska State House and many others. It is notable that she gained these commissions in what was very much a man’s world. Reference to the work should be included in any discussion of St. Martin’s.