Hilltop (Newport, Rhode Island)

 house, place with historical importance, cottage

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Hilltop, Rose and Theodore W. Phinney House (1871-72, ca 1895; Richard Morris Hunt [1871-72] and William Ralph Emerson [ca 1895], architects):

A massive yet low-slung, asymmetrically massed, random-course ashlar, 2-story, L-plan, complex-hip-roof house with largely blind walls on the north, entrance elevation, large entrance tower toward the west end of the façade, broadly curved west elevation, projecting curved pavilion at the west end of the south elevation flanked on the east by a broad 1-story porch, and modern 1-story flat-roof addition at the southeast corner.

Oriented toward the south, in which direction the house originally no doubt enjoyed fine views toward Almy Pond and the ocean, this is a smaller version of other rugged stone houses in the district, notably Indian Spring at 325 Ocean Avenue (q.v.; also Hunt; 1889-92) and Shamrock Cliff at 65 Ridge Road (q.v.; Peabody & Stearns; 1894-96).

The Phinneys’ daughter Rose was married to William Grosvenor and summered at Roslyn, a similar stone house also designed by Emerson (see 26 Beacon Hill Road).