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A century-old summer cottage on Narragansett Bay, published in architect Thomas A. Kligerman's new book, reveals how generations of one family have layered memory, ritual, and collected beauty into a deceptively modest retreat where antiques, mid-century finds, and maritime history coexist in effortless harmony. Read on for an exclusive chapter from Summer by the Sea, courtesy of Monacelli.
BY THOMAS A. KLIGERMAN | ROOMS & GARDENS | 5 MAY 2026
Wainwright Cottage, Summer by the Sea: Cottages from Watch Hill to Little Compton, written by Thomas A. Kligerman. Images by Read McKendree, courtesy Monacelli / Phaidon.
Compact and simple, Wainwright Cottage is low-slung, as unprepossessing as the gravel road that brings you to the front porch. Its location down the slope from the road exaggerates its diminutive form and scale. The exterior belies the world inside: tall visitors duck or stoop to enter through the painted shingle entrance, but inside it feels as though the building has suddenly grown. The main room runs front to back, from the windows on the inland side through a glazed porch to Narragansett Bay. The spaces in the house, including its five bedrooms, are warm and layered, honey-colored wood from floor to ceiling.
Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright built the cottage around 1915. Wainwright was second in command on the battleship Maine when it was blown up in Havana harbor during the Spanish-American War. He retired to Jamestown, selecting this grassy site across the water from the U.S. Naval War College. During the Great Depression, the current owners’ great-grandparents bought the cottage from Wainwright's widow. Its location on a sheltered part of the bay allowed them to moor their sailboat and watch the parade of other craft passing by against the backdrop of Aquidneck Island.
All images Wainwright Cottage, Summer by the Sea: Cottages from Watch Hill to Little Compton, written by Thomas A. Kligerman. Images by Read McKendree, courtesy Monacelli / Phaidon.
Generations, from grandparents to grandchildren, still share the cottage. Its physical layout creates life patterns and traditions. One of them is preparing lunch in the kitchen but enjoying it on the porch served on 1950s-vintage TV tables. The juxtaposition of the painted metal trays and wicker chairs from 100 years before television sums up the aesthetics of this family. It's not just the objects themselves, but their placement that gives this building its personality.
The living room furniture likely dates from Wainwright's ownership, but other furniture and seaside paraphernalia fill the house in the same way a fisherman's net may catch a variety of unintended prey. In other hands, this might have been clutter, but this is a family with an extraordinary eye for beauty and meaning in every object. Collecting antiques and furniture grew into a business, and items were cherry picked to display in rooms throughout the house in every nook and cranny.
Wainwright Cottage, Summer by the Sea: Cottages from Watch Hill to Little Compton, written by Thomas A. Kligerman. Images by Read McKendree, courtesy Monacelli / Phaidon.
A corner cupboard is filled with majolica, but the everyday china is Vernon Kilns' "Homespun" pottery made in California. There is a smattering of additional midcentury objects acquired by the grandparents after World War II. The dining table is Danish modern, the light fixture above it from the early 1960s. The white enameled St. Charles kitchen, though 70-years-old, is still called the new kitchen. Conveniently and artistically hung above the stove is a collection of vintage spatulas and utensils, arranged on a painted pegboard panel.
By contrast, the owner's bedroom hosts a minuet of cobalt plates, platters, and bottles above a bed covered in a pale blue coverlet and toile pillows. A painting of a clipper ship hangs above the brick fireplace, the building’s sole source of heat. Nautical touches like storage bins with hatches outfitted with flush ring pulls are vestiges of Admiral Wainwright’s world. A curved bronze plaque from the Wildwood, a ferry that plied the waters between Jamestown and Newport, hangs near a chart of the bay. Over the barn door, the entrance to the dining room, spans a board with Wildwood in capital letters. A vintage running light is now a lamp set behind the sofa. None of this feels cliché, it all feels right.
All images Wainwright Cottage, Summer by the Sea: Cottages from Watch Hill to Little Compton, written by Thomas A. Kligerman. Images by Read McKendree, courtesy Monacelli / Phaidon.
The cottage is one of a few remaining unwinterized houses on the island, and despite its small size, it has its own, even smaller outbuilding across the road. The one room cabin is known as the chauffeur’s cottage, once sparse quarters for the family’s driver. Until recently, his chair, a desk, and single bed were arranged in the modest room.
This arrangement is a vestige from a time when families living in houses, no matter how small, still retained staff. It also suggests that a house as good as this one, can change with the times and be home to new ways of life.
Wainwright Cottage, Summer by the Sea: Cottages from Watch Hill to Little Compton, written by Thomas A. Kligerman. Images by Read McKendree, courtesy Phaidon.
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