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Earles Court Tower

Restoration of an Historical Landmark

About Us

My name is Vincent Jacques and I live within a football field’s length from Earles Court Tower, right in proximity to where one of the first Earels Court cottages had existed. As the owner of VinsDomains, I thought I do my part and create a website in hopes of increasing awareness of the project, raising more funds to get it done and to document the progress of things as they occur.

My ultimate goal is to document the construction process with several photos per day, in order to create a time lapse video of its reconstruction. However, like we say throughout this website, there is a long way to go to raise the funds necessary to see this project to its end. I plan to do my part to contribute to any fundraisers that are held and will utilize my online skills to raise outside capital from people who believe some historic preservation is vital to our society.

Let me be the first to express my gratitude for visiting us here and for considering a donation to the cause!

What Can I Do?

What can you do? Glad you asked! While Mr. Briggs donation of $10,000 through the John Paul Mitchell Foundation was an awesome start, many more dollars need to be raised to see this project through. For now, if you would like to make a donation towards the effort, you can make a check payable to:

“Town of Narragansett/ECWT”
25 Fifth Avenue
Narragansett, RI

This project cannot happen without your help! Over the coming months, we will be planning some fundraising events for this cause. So, if you cannot afford a donation at this time, perhaps you can afford to donate your time or gift towards our upcoming fundraising events in 2014. If YOU would like to get involved, please complete the contact form below and we will be in touch soon!

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Earles Court Tower Jubilee

November 24, 2013 by EarlesCareTaker Leave a Comment

Earles Court Tower Jubilee – On Columbus Day, October 14, 2013, a number of citizens from the Town of Narragansett got together at Earles Court Tower to take part in a Jubilee Celebration, which included the first donation towards the restoration of the Tower for $10,000. The event also featured the revealing of architectural drawings of what the restored tower would look like. The event was capped off with a “125” people formation for the Jubilee, which was captured in an aerial photograph taken by Don Bousquet (see the picture below). I was fortunate enough to have attended and video record the event, which can be seen below.

Earles Court Tower Restoration Donation Ceremony

As can be seen in the video, James Callahan of the Narragansett Town Council kicked things off by introducing Keith Lescarbeau, Chairman of the Narragansett District Historic Commission. Mr. Lescarbeau stressed that this is just the very beginning of a long process to get to the finish line. As he stated, once construction begins, the majority of the work to pull the project off will have already been completed. The majority of the work is on the front end, including some serious fundraising that will be required to see this project to the end. He discussed the question as to why take on a project like this during these hard economic times and talked about the dwindling number of historic structures that survive the wrecking ball, fire or mother nature over time and how preserving a select few of these is an important thing to do.

earles court tower

Mr. Lescarbeau, with the help of Sallie Latimer, then revealed the architectural drawing of what is proposed for the tower restoration. The stone base of the tower currently sits at 26’8″ high, while the proposed restored tower will stand an impressive 81′ high, which is as high as The Towers, another restored historical Narragansett landmark along Ocean Road. The finished project will also support a 22 foot carbon fiber griffen, just as it appeared all those years ago. What an impressive sight that will be!

earles court tower

The microphone was then passed along to Mr. James Briggs, who provided Sallie Latimer with a check of $10,000 to start out this project on the right foot. Ms. Latimer, who was responsible for organizing the event, was very much appreciative of Mr. Briggs and talked about his service as a veteran of World War II. With the help of the assistants of Don Bousquet, she then organized the entire crowd to assemble along Earles Court Road in front of the tower to form a human chain 125 to celebrate both the Tower and Narragansett’s 125th Jubilee anniversary. Don Bousquet and his son Nathan Bousquet then utilized there “magic” portable flying camera device to take aerial photographs of the assembled neighbors. It really was fun to be a part of and even more fun to have documented the event for you to now enjoy!

earles court tower
earles court tower

A big hat’s off to Richard and Sallie Latimer; Mr. James Briggs and family; James Callaghan , Town Council President; John Paul Mitchell Foundation; Don Bousquet and son; James Transue; Mark Hintsa; The Gibson Avenue Association; Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner; Patty Roosa; Michael Delucca; David Presbrey; Keith Lescarbeau; Shaws of Wakefield and Jerry’s Hardware. A big thanks as well to Narragansett Town Council, Narragansett Department of Public Works, Narragansett Community Development Department, Narragansett Parks and Recreation Department and the Narragansett Police Department, who also contributed to this event.

earles court tower

Earles Court Tower Restoration Donation Ceremony

Earles Court Tower Restoration Donation Ceremony

Filed Under: Tower Jubilee Tagged With: Don Bousquet, earles court, earles court tower, Narragansett, Sallie Latimer, tower restoration, water tower, water tower restoration

Earles Court Water Tower History

November 24, 2013 by EarlesCareTaker Leave a Comment

Earles Court Tower History – In the 1880’s, Narragansett, RI, specifically Narragansett Pier, was a bustling go to summer destination for statesmen and highly regarded professionals from around the country.  By that time, Ocean Road was already lined with numerous hotels that were primarily built between 1856 and 1871.  People from as far as Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, Richmond, New York and Philadelphia  frequently visited and revisited Narragansett Pier, which was gaining popularity for its fine bathing and sandy beach.

With the increase of summer populations, various churches were constructed, the Narragansett Pier Railroad was added and numerous structures were added around the landscape.  In 1882, Ocean Road was extended all the way to Point Judith, through the estates of John K. Brown and Joseph Peace Hazard, large land owners in the area at that time.  Shortly thereafter, land from these estates were sold to others, were stipulations that the land never be used for commercial purposes.

Most developed these seacoast properties with unique isolated structures, although several clusters of large summer cottages were also erected, with each cluster having similar design,  construction and aesthetics. The most prominent of these clusters became known as Earles Court, which was built between 1886 and 1887, and consisted of four large Late Victorian dwellings along the south side of Earles Court Road.  These dwellings were designed by D and J Jardine and Constable Brothers of New York , who were commissioned for the project by Edward Earle. Mr. Earle was a New York Lawyer and an influential summer resident who fell in love with Narragansett and wanted an extensive development.

earles court tower

Earle’s Court Tower History

A similar cottage cluster known as The Sherry Cottages was constructed just to the west in the late 1880s.  These dwellings were arranged around a grassy court commonly referred to as Kentara Green, situated at the head of Earles Court Road and featuring Sherry’s Casino, a centralized restaurant serving the clustered cottages.

Aside from the eclectic and eye-catching cottages themselves, a shared water tower set in the middle of Earles Court Road, served as one of the very early green initiatives and beginning of a trend of clustered homes with shared common utilities/services.  It certainly was the first of its kind in Narragansett. The original tower consisted of a wooden superstructure, which sat upon a cylindrical stone base and included a balcony that incorporated a spectacular giant griffin. The tower was built between 1887-1888, the same year the Town of Narragansett was incorporated.

Before being constructed, a drawn design of the structure appeared on the cover of the Architects and Builders Edition of Scientific American in March 1887.

earles court tower

Earle’s Court Tower History

According to Wikipedia, a griffin is a legendary creature with the body, tail and back legs of a lion and with the head and wings of an eagle, with the eagle’s talons as its front feet.  As the eagle was considered to be the king of birds and the lion the king of beasts, the griffin was a powerful and majestic creature that was considered the king of all creatures.

earles court tower

Griffins were known for guarding priceless possessions and treasures, which may be why it was constructed there in the first place.  Unfortunately, the power of the griffin and the water tower itself was not enough to stop an awful fire that destroyed three of the cottages in 1912.  This fire actually started in the kitchen of Sherry’s Casino and with heavy winds sometimes typical of the area, crossed over Gibson Avenue to do more damage.  The early stages of the fire were actually photographed and can be seen in an historic postcard from that day.

Earles Court Tower

In 1928, a violent storm destroyed the upper wooden portion of the tower, but the cylindrical stone base of Earles Court Tower still stands today and serves as a reminder of the rich historic past and interesting architectural history of the area. It is rumored that the former owner saved the griffin, although it has never be found.

In 1999, the Town of Narragansett acquired the tower as a gift from Anthony and Lucille Micacci. As can be seen on this website, there is an effort underway to raise funds to restore this wonderful piece of history for all future generations to cherish and learn from.

earles court tower

Earles Court Tower History

Filed Under: Earles Court Tower History Tagged With: Earle Court, earles court, Earles Court Road, earles court tower, Narragansett, Narragansett Pier, New York, tower restoration, water tower, water tower restoration

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