Hotel Narragansett

 hotel  Add category

133-foot, 12-story Beaux-Arts hotel completed in 1902. Designed by George Hill, it is clad in limestone and red brick. The 7-story building to the north, connected by a 1-story commercial annex, was built around the same time as apartments, but was connected in 1908 to the 12-story building and together operated as the Bonta-Narragansett Hotel, continuing in this capacity until it was sold in foreclosure in 1941. By 1942 the Bonta portion of the hotel was converted to apartments, now called the Van Gogh, while the 12-story building continued to operate as a separate hotel.

The ground floor has a pair of modern metal-and-glass storefronts, with the hotel entrance in between. It has glass-and-metal double-doors in a surround of red granite. The 2nd floor is limestone, with heavy banding, including across the thick surrounds of the four bays of double-windows, the middle two of which are placed closer together. Four sets of oversized, paired console brackets wrapped with wreaths support a projecting stone balcony at the 3rd floor, with a stone front wall and balustrades at the end bays.

The brick 3rd floor has stone banding and stone surrounds at the windows, each with a pair of small, slender brackets carrying triangular pediments. The floors above are all brick, with stone quoins at the ends. The windows have stone surrounds with bracketed sills and keystones. The top three floors are limestone, banded on the top two. The 10th floor has another four sets of oversized, paired console brackets (without wreaths), and the 11th floor has triangular pediments topping the window surrounds. The roof line is marked by a grey metal cornice with dentils and a frieze with wreaths.

The south facade rising above the church next door is clad in reddish-brown brick and also has stone quoins at the ends. It is divided by a light well into two wings, both with two bays of single-windows with simple stone sills and flat lintels. There are stone band courses below the 11th floor. The brick at the interior of the light well is greyer, and there are several bays of single-windows. A water tower is visible on the roof at the southeast corner of the west wing.

The north facade is also clad in reddish-brown brick, with five bays of single-windows paired with smaller windows. A black metal fire escape runs down one of the bays. The ground floor is occupied by a Pinkberry frozen yogurt, and a Subway sandwiches.