BUILDING & RENOVATION
Architectural Rebirth
Sixteen On Center breathes new life into this historic Tiverton home.
B Y K A I T LY N M U R R AY | P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y N AT R E A
The owners of this mid-nineteenth century
colonial revival on a two-acre parcel in Tiverton pur-
chased it with the intention of breathing new life into
the property. They wisely turned to a locally renowned
design / build firm to get the job done.
“We pride ourselves on reworking existing structures,”
says Shawn Harris of Sixteen on Center. “Renovations
are one of our strong suits, especially deep retro fits like
the one you see here. We like to make use of the existing
square footage that we have, bring it up to current
energy and efficiency standards, and really recreate
what the interior of that space is. We love to take a
historic home, put a modern take on it and play with
those two languages.”
But it wasn’t the first time this home’s etymology was
revisited. In the 1900s, two modifications were made
in the form of a single-story addition to the back of
the home which eventually was built up into a nar-
row, bland, two-story mass. Harris says the additions
unfortunately missed the mark of the original home’s
character.
“We kept that mass and tried to work with the exist-
ing footprint,” he explains. “But we transformed it into
a screened porch with knotty red cedar siding, black
casement and awning windows and a flat roof, giving
it a more modern look.”
The new porch both affords the homeowners more
privacy and allows them to enjoy uninterrupted views
of the adjacent bird sanctuary.
The interior of the home, however, had largely been
left untouched since its conception, leaving them with
Though porches were added and large
portions of the interior were updated, Sixteen
on Center kept quite a few of the home’s
original characteristics intact, including the
stairway, flooring, windows, siding and trim.
64 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY’S NEST |
2020