{{Use American English|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox building | name = William G. Low House | native_name = | native_name_lang = | logo = | logo_size = | logo_alt = | logo_caption = | image = LowHouseBristolRI.jpg | image_size = | image_alt = | image_caption = 1962 photo from the Historic American Buildings Survey | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_alt = | map_caption = | pushpin_mapsize = | pushpin_label = | pushpin_relief = | former_names = | alternate_names = | etymology = | status = Demolished | cancelled = | topped_out = | building_type = Seaside cottage | architectural_style = Shingle style | classification = | location = | address = 3 Low Lane | location_city = Bristol, Rhode Island | location_country = | coordinates = | altitude = | current_tenants = | namesake = | groundbreaking_date = | construction_start_date = 1886 | topped_out_date = | completion_date = 1887 | opened_date = | inauguration_date = | relocated_date = | renovation_date = | closing_date = | demolished_date = 1962 | cost = | ren_cost = | client = William G. Low | owner = | landlord = | affiliation = | height = | architectural = | tip = | antenna_spire = | roof = | top_floor = | observatory = | diameter = | circumference = | weight = | other_dimensions = | structural_system = | material = | size = | floor_count = | floor_area = | elevator_count = | grounds_area = | architect = Charles McKim | architecture_firm = McKim, Mead & White | developer = | engineer = | structural_engineer = | services_engineer = | civil_engineer = | other_designers = | quantity_surveyor = | main_contractor = | awards = | designations = | known_for = An extreme example of the Shingle style | ren_architect = | ren_firm = | ren_engineer = | ren_str_engineer = | ren_serv_engineer = | ren_civ_engineer = | ren_oth_designers = | ren_qty_surveyor = | ren_contractor = | ren_awards = | seating_type = | seating_capacity = | number_of_rooms = | parking = | url = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> | embed = | embedded = | references = | footnotes = }} The '''William G. Low House''' was a shingle style seaside cottage in Bristol, Rhode Island, United States. It was designed and built in 1886–1887 by architect Charles McKim of the New York City firm, McKim, Mead & White. With its distinctive single {{Convert|140|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} gable it embodied many of the tenets of shingle style architecture—horizontality, simplified massing and geometry, minimal ornamentation, the blending of interior and exterior spaces.
The architectural historian Vincent Scully saw it as "at once a climax and a kind of conclusion" for McKim, since its "prototypal form ... was almost immediately to be abandoned for the more conventionally conceived columns and pediments of McKim, Mead, and White's later buildings."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scully |first=Vincent |orig-year=1955|year=1971 |title=The Shingle Style and the Stick Style |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |page=153 |isbn=9780300015195}}</ref>
Just before it was demolished in 1962, the house was documented with measured drawings and photographs by the Historic American Buildings Survey.<ref name=habs>{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ri/ri0000/ri0006/supp/ri0006supp.pdf |title=Low, William G., House (supplemental materials) |date=May 1975 |website=Historic American Buildings Survey |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref>
Wrote architectural historian Leland Roth, "Although little known in its own time, the Low House has come to represent the high mark of the Shingle Style."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roth |first=Leland M. |date=2001 |title=American Architecture: A History |url=https://archive.org/details/americanarchitec0000roth/page/246 |location=Boulder, Colo. |publisher=Westview Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanarchitec0000roth/page/246 246] |isbn=9780813336626}}</ref>
The house was built for William Gilman Low (1844–1936), a lawyer and stepson of Abiel Abbot Low, and Lois Robbins Low (1850–1923), his wife and a daughter of Benjamin Robbins Curtis. Low died in the house at the age of 92.<ref>"W. G. Low, 92, dies; Brooklyn lawyer," ''New York Times'', June 29, 1936, 15.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Coord|41|38|53|N|71|15|48|W|type:landmark_region:US|display=title}}
==External links== *{{HABS |survey=RI-346 |id=ri0006 |title=William G. Low House, 3 Low Lane, Bristol, Bristol County, RI |photos=8 |supp=yes}} *[http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/W._G._Low_House.html Low House floor plans] from Great Buildings Online {{commonscat|William G. Low House}}
{{McKim, Mead & White}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Low, William G., House}} Category:McKim, Mead & White buildings Category:Houses completed in 1886 Category:Houses in Bristol County, Rhode Island Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Rhode Island Category:Shingle style houses Category:Queen Anne architecture in Rhode Island Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Rhode Island Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1962 Category:Shingle style architecture in Rhode Island Category:Gilded Age mansions