William G. Low House Model

WILLIAM G. LOW HOUSE
BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND, BUILT 1887; DEMOLISHED 1962
ARCHITECT: MCKIM, MEAD & WHITE
The Low house exemplified an American architectural style that emerged in the late 1800s. After the 1876 Centennial, American architects adopted the materials, simple forms, and sense of comfortable domesticity found in the colonial houses of New England. Firms like McKim, Mead & White married this humble building tradition with grand architectural compositions. The Low house design is recognized today as the Shingle style, a term coined by the historian Vincent Scully in 1955.