William G. Low House

Bristol, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Designed and built in 1886–1887 by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White, the William G. Low House was a shingle style seaside cottage in Bristol, Rhode Island, that embodied the movement's core principles of horizontality, simplified massing, and minimal ornamentation. Its most distinctive feature was a single 140-foot-long gable that unified the home's form. Constructed for lawyer William Gilman Low and his wife Lois Robbins Low, the house came to exemplify the high mark of Shingle Style architecture despite being little known in its own time. Architectural historian Vincent Scully regarded it as both a climax and conclusion to McKim's work in the style, representing a prototype the architect would soon abandon for more conventional neoclassical designs. Demolished in 1962, the house was preserved through measured drawings and photographs by the Historic American Buildings Survey.