The New Shoreham Historic District Commission continued a proposal to renovate a late-1800s High Street building, leaving the applicant team to reconsider how to make its second floor usable without substantially changing the roofline. The design would raise the ridge by five feet and enlarge the dormers. Commissioners set no date for the application to return.
The building is part of an approved six-room hotel, with four rooms on the lower level and two upstairs, according to Uprise RI. The upstairs rooms are currently used for staff housing; the applicant team said it wants to convert them to rentals. The proposal also includes a rear deck for an exterior egress staircase and a porch wrapping around the building.
Head Height and a Noncompliant Bathroom Drive the Redesign
The applicant team said limited head height upstairs is the central design problem. It also cited a small bathroom that does not meet code and a staircase with too little clearance. The late-1800s building has had two additions, and its floor joists run in different directions, the team said, according to Uprise RI.
The team said that avoiding a higher ridge would require raising the knee wall and changing the roof pitch, leaving room height at about seven feet in the center and roughly four feet at the sides. Its stated aim is to retain the existing structure and build around or above it, while preserving the side most visible from High Street.
Historic-District Review
A Rhode Island Ethics Commission opinion from 2010 quoted New Shoreham’s Historic Commission Guidelines as requiring property owners to obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness before construction or alteration of a structure or its appurtenances in a historic district. The opinion does not specify design criteria for rooflines, dormers or additions, according to the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
Commissioners Say West and North Sides Are Most at Risk
Commissioners focused on how the proposed changes would affect the building’s character, particularly on its west and north sides. One member identified those elevations as the most historically significant, noting that the north side faces High Street, and objected that the higher ridge would alter the historic portion of the house. The member also felt the design read as more contemporary than historic.
Members also challenged the scale and arrangement of the additions, questioning whether the extent of the work was warranted for two rooms. They described the existing building as attractive and said the proposed rear additions did not fit its setting. Commissioners objected to dormers that reach the ridge and sit near the corners, suggesting lower dormers set closer together. The applicant team said the architect had placed them to create continuity on both sides and was willing to consider a location between the existing and proposed positions.
Belly Band and Staircase Location Still Unresolved
The design would add a horizontal belly band, or decorative trim, to the west side, which now has a single shingle type. A commissioner questioned the trim, and members asked the applicant team to reconsider using two types of shingles on that elevation.
The exterior egress staircase remains another open design question. The applicant team said an interior stair was not feasible and that the east side was unlikely to work; it identified the south side, which faces a parking lot, as a possible location. Commissioners asked the team to explore that option further and said the stair’s placement would be important to the proposal.
The commission continued the application without setting a return date, giving the team time to revise the design. Uprise RI reported no indication of when it may return to a future commission agenda. The High Street proposal follows other hotel plans debated on Block Island, including plans presented in November 2023 for a hotel on the former Harborside Inn site on Water Street, as reported by Turn to 10.
