Clingstone Mansion, Rhode Island
Clingstone, an unusual, 103-year-old mansion in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. The house was abandoned in the 1940′s until it was bought by Henry Wood in 1961 for $3,600.
Henry Wood, the owner, runs the house like a camp: all skilled workers welcome. The Jamestown Boatyard hauls the family’s boats and floating dock and stores them each winter in return for a week’s use of the house in the summer. Mr. Wood, a 79-year-old Boston architect, bought the house with his ex-wife Joan in 1961. It had been empty for two decades.
Clingstone had been built by a distant cousin, J.S. Lovering Wharton. Mr. Wharton worked with an artist, William Trost Richards, to create a house of picture windows with 23 rooms on three stories radiating off a vast central hall.
The house is maintained by an ingenious method: the Clingstone work weekend. Held every year around Memorial Day, it brings 70 or so friends and Clingstone lovers together to tackle jobs like washing all 65 of the windows. Anne Tait, who is married to Mr. Wood’s son Dan, refinished the kitchen floor on one of her first work weekends.
The total cost of the construction, which was completed in 1905, was $36,982.99. Today, the mansion which has 360-degree views of the bay offers a combination of grandiose opulence and rough beach house charm. The mansion itself is massive containing 23 room, including 10 bedrooms spread out over three floors.
Credits must go to http://mystic-places.blogspot.com, who have created a fantastic blog of mystical places – something that I’ve always wanted to do. They got there before me!
November 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
hi, any interest in exchanging blog roll links with a PR5 blog? if yes, leave your blog url as a comment
at:
http://bigmoneylist.blogspot.com/
i’ll link to you first, then when you have time, link back.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:31 am
NO way! WOW and for 3600.00? I know 1961 well before my time and all but my goodness 3600.00? this is an absolute gem I’ll have to check out the mystic places blog too. Thanks for writing about this batman, I felt completely swept away on a journey here with this photo blog. wonderful!
metta
sky
February 6th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. This is very useful.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
This is an amazing home! I am curious though, how do the owners combat the inevitable erosion to the land that it’s built on?
June 24th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
hi linda
haha – you raise a very good point. i’m not sure what they could do about it, other than hope it’s built on a nice solid, erosion-resistant foundation.
take care
July 16th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Erosion? The Falone’s off San Francisco bay (Google Earth ‘em) are still there after millions of years. Must just be Lucky, or? They are the last of the Faralone ‘Plate’ that is now under North America. ‘Stuff’ does not happen quite as fast as some seem to want others to believe. cretaceous.wordpress
July 17th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
a very nice place…just wondering how electricity is transported there? Anyone know?
August 16th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I would think in earlier times they’d have used a generator (gasoline or diesel) that they used for electricity. In looking at the pix there is a 3 blade stantion above the home – I’m thinking they have either supplemented with wind power or have made wind power their main source of power.