Historic Walking Tours of Narragansett Pier
Louis Sherry Cottages
Gibson Avenue & Earles Court
The Sherry Cottages, built around 1888, was a group of four Shingle Style frame dwellings set around a grassy courtyard.
These houses are 11/2-story cubic masses with very tall hip roofs; the two immediately adjacent to Gibson Avenue have
cylindrical corner towers with conical roofs. The complex originally included two more houses and a central restaurant and
dining hall. These buildings were all built for New York restaurateur and caterer Louis Sherry, who rented the cottages to
summer guests.
The buildings are noteworthy for their continuity of scale, form, and architectural detail and their carefully planned siting, factors
which make them an important element of the town’s visual and architectural fabric. In addition to the Earlscourt buildings and
Sherry Cottages, the district includes a few other structures which were not built as part of the developments but which help to maintain the architectural and historical character of the area.
Sherry was contracted to become the first Steward Superintendent for the newly opened Narragansett Pier Casino in 1884. He soon recognized the trend of the wealthy to prefer private summer cottages to hotels.
In 1887, Sherry purchased the five-acre Kentara Green, located just past the end of Earles Court on the other side of Gibson Avenue, and hired the New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White, which also designed other Pier landmarks, including the Narragansett Casino.
The Swiss-Moorish style buildings were built in 1888-89, handsomely furnished and equipped with electric lights. The six Sherry cottages and impressive The Sherry dining hall.
casino became one of the first developments of uniform architecture formed in a compound around a central green. The venture also included the Earlscourt Cottages along the road, now known asEarles Court,that he built between Gibson Avenue and Ocean Road.
The Sherry enterprise was successful until 1912, when a fire that started in the casino's kitchen destroyed the Casino and three of Sherry's cottages and then jumped across Gibson Avenue to burn three of the Earles Court cottages. The three surviving Sherry cottages, along with one that was rebuilt, remain in private ownership on Kentara Green and were placed on the National Historic Register in 1982
Earle's Court history is recounted on a sign at the intersection of Gibson Avenue and Earles Court.
SCM photo-jrt 2011