The Newport Armory (1894) - RILF Armory Antiques (Newport, Rhode Island)

 armory, antique shop

 Upload a photo

RILF Armory Antiques is a group shop representing over 60 antiques dealers in the heart of the Newport, Rhode Island harbor district. We are located in the Newport Armory, a historic building that functioned, as the name suggests, as a military armory from 1894 until the 1980s.

www.armoryantiquesnewport.com

The Newport Armory (1894; Edwin Wilbur, architect, and M.A. McCormick, builder): A low, hulking,uncoursed-granite-ashlar building, the Newport Armory has two distinct sections, a 2-story street elevation in front of a large, high-ceiling 1-story drill hall. A large segmental-arch entrance dominates the façade, flanked at each end by large circular-plan seemingly-machicolated-cornice low-conical-rooftowers that rise above the central, 3-bay section; paired windows are symmetrically arranged in the central section, and the towers have tripartite windows. The front section provided office space, and the rear section was used for military exercises and gatherings of all sorts. Like most armories in Rhode Island (and many elsewhere), the Newport Armory assumes the appearance of a fortified castle, a commonly used and highly appropriate architectural metaphor for its original use. The state funded construction of three armories in the mid-1890s, with others on the Bristol waterfront and in downtown Pawtucket; all were located in areas dominated by largely working-class laborers at a time when labor unrest was becoming more common in that pre-union era. Its construction also coincides with increased national attention on strengthening naval force, both in the ocean-going fleet and in coastal installations. The state militia and its successor, the National Guard, occupied the building into the mid-20th century. From the 1960s through the 1980s, international reporters used the building as headquarters during the America’s Cup races held off Newport’s coast. Now converted to retail use as an antiques mall, it still retains a high degree of integrity both outside and in.

www.preservation.ri.gov/pdfs_zips_downloads/national_pd...