Historic Walking Tours of Narragansett Pier
Tour Map # 1 Treasures Tour # 2 Cottages Tour # 3 Cottages Tour # 4 Cottages
Cottages: Central Street Historic District
Central Street, which had been platted in 1867 but had remained largely undeveloped, was the site of much building activity
in the 1880s and 1890s. The newer houses – large Stick Style, Shingle Style, Queen Anne, and "Colonial" dwellings with quaint names such as Shingle-nook, Homeleigh, Sonnenschein, and Tyn-y-coed – were set back from the street on large landscaped
lots and differed in size and scale from the more modest bracketed and Stick Style cottages of the 1860s and 1870s.
Some of these were built by summer residents for their own use, while others were constructed for rental--many of the people
who summered at Narragansett did not maintain their own summer residences. This contributed to the continuing popularity
of hotels, and prompted the development of numerous rental properties. For example, Nancy K. Bishop of Providence built four houses on Central Street between 1884 and 1886; she retained one for herself and rented the others seasonally. The structures standing on Central Street are of great historical importance, for they illustrate successive phases in the Pier's evolution as a
summer resort.
From Historical and Architectural Resources of Narragansett, 1991
Homeleigh Idlewild La Sata
65 Central Street 40 Central Street 94 Central Street
1885 1869 1887
Linger Long Metatoxet Sansea/Stones Throw
93 Central Street 64 Caswell Street 56 Central Street
1880 1885 1902
Seacroft/Rosalind Shingle-nook Sonnenschein
55 Central Street 50 Central Street 60 Central Street
1885 c 1887 1884-85
Starr Cottage Sunnymead J. A. Tucker/Maplehurst
68 Caswell Street 106 Central Street 84 Central Street
1883-84 1887 1890-95
Tyn-y-Coed Willow Cottage Yellow Patch
75 Central Street 45 Central Street 115 Central Street
1884-85 c 1870 c 1916