Shepard Avenue, number 2, in Newport, Rhode Island, is where the William Watts Sherman House rises in front of you. This National Historic Landmark is generally acknowledged as one of H. H. Richardson’s masterpieces, with later interiors by Stanford White, and is often cited as the prototype for what became known as the Shingle Style in American architecture. The house is now owned by Salve Regina University and contributes to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District.
It was built in 1875–1876 for William Watts Sherman of the banking firm Duncan Sherman & Co. of New York and his first wife, Annie Derby Rodgers Wetmore, daughter of William Shepard Wetmore of the nearby Chateau-sur-Mer. The design is credited to the firm of Gambrill and Richardson, though records note no evidence of Gambrill’s hand, and the house was built by the Norcross Brothers. A Newport Mercury article of January 9, 1875 reports that its frame was constructed in New Jersey and shipped to Newport for assembly.
The original house rose 2+1⁄2 stories, basically rectangular and about 53 by 81 feet (16 by 25 m), with a porte-cochere. Notice the nearby Chateau-sur-Mer and the Bellevue Avenue streetscape framing this landmark for you.