The Clemence/Irons House, a Rhode Island Stone-Ender

History Notes is a biweekly entry in the Sun Rise that features a passage from the Johnston Historical Society. This week’s story comes from July 2008.

A stone-ender is a type of house, unique to Rhode Island and nearby Connecticut and Massachusetts, in which one wall is made up of a large, usually exposed, stone chimney.
Occasionally, the stones are stuccoed over, as in the Eleazer Arnold House in Lincoln. Sometimes, only a small portion of the stone shows through a section of clapboarding, as with the Joseph Smith House in North Providence. In general, though, the stone making up the end chimney is exposed.
The stone is local field stone, which is held in place with limestone mortar. This type of house is found almost exclusively in Rhode Island, although a few examples are known from southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut. It is thought that these houses were built by settlers who came here from the western counties of England, where almost identical houses can be found.
All of the known examples in this area date from the 17th century or from the first couple of decades of the 18th century. The houses were built from materials that were readily available in the area, timber, fieldstone, and limestone for mortar. By the third decade of the 18th century (or even earlier) there were no more of these houses built. They required large amounts of stone and mortar and were not easy to heat.
It is not known how many stone-enders were built in this area, but they were a fairly common house type it seems. There are probably less than a dozen examples still left in Rhode Island, though. Other notable stone-enders include the Eleazar Arnold and the Valentine/Whitman Houses in Lincoln, the John Tripp House in Newport (moved from Manton Avenue in Providence), and the Thomas Fenner House in Cranston.

The Clemence/Irons House

The Clemence/Irons House is located on George Waterman Road in Johnston. It nestles besides Assumpsett Brook and was part of a large farm that stretched to the Woonasquatucket River.
The oldest standing house in town, it has had a number of construction dates attributed to it. For much of the 20th century, it was said to have been built in 1654, when Thomas Clemence bought land in what would later become Johnston. There is, however, no evidence that a house was built by him at that time at this site. From around mid-20th century, and until very recently, a 1680 date was assigned to the house.
It was thought for a time that a 1654 house on the site was burned during King Philip’s War and then was rebuilt immediately after the war. This was disproved when the house was restored and no evidence of a fire was uncovered. A circa 1680 date stayed with the house until recently when it was given by a 1691 date. The name of the builder of the house has also changed over time.
It was originally thought to have been built by a Manton. For many years after that it was thought Thomas Clemence built the house. Recent research indicates that Thomas’ son, Richard, was the probable builder.
After Nellie Irons, the last owner/occupant of the house, died in 1938, the property was purchased by Ellen Sharpe and Louisa Sharpe Metcalf. They and their brother, Henry Sharpe, saw the importance of the house and hired Norman Isham, a famous historic architect, to restore the house. He died before the job was completed, but the house was restored by the early 1940s. The lean-to, long through to be an addition, was found to be an original feature. This led directly to the conclusion that the house had an original four-room plan, not the one-room plan that was thought to be original until that time.
The reproduction houses at Plimoth Plantations were built with one room, basing that design on the erroneous thinking that the one-room floor plan was what was used at the Clemence/Irons House. Recently published books still talk of the house as being of this type, but it was built with four rooms, not one.
Isham, a giant in his field, did many things during the restoration that would not be done today. He used old wood to achieve the right “old time” effect. He had workmen “fake” adze marks on the beams that were replaced. He also tore out some outstanding early work that was added to the original structure. Today, these things would not be done, but at the time that was the way things were handled.
The mortar used in the stone work is quite interesting. It is very possible that the limestone needed for the mortar was quarried right here in Johnston. There actually was a working limestone quarry in Manton at that time, in addition to the much larger quarry in Lime Rock in the Town of Lincoln.
If you were going to build stone-enders, you needed a good source of limestone. Your only choices were limestone quarries or seashells. Using stone instead of shells was easier, so the quarries were the better choice.
An outstanding feature of the house is the medieval-style, pilastered (decorative work from the roofline up) chimney. The front door, with its many fancy nails, dates to the restoration and is of the type that may have been used at the house. Much of the woodwork is original, including vertical board paneling and the summer beam with its decorative chamfering and stops.
The windows in the house now are pure speculation because nothing remained of the original windows when the restoration was begun. The leaded glass windows are copies that were produced based on a piece of a window found at the Thomas Fenner House (another stone-ender from the same period) in Cranston. The furniture is made from recycled wood and is based on design of Norman Isham. They bear no real relationship in design to original period pieces.
All in all, the Clemence/Irons Hosue is a wonderful example of an early, vernacular house style with many original features. It is a real treasure.