Your Virtual Vacation:

Clingstone, an unusual, 103-year-old mansion in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, survives through the love and hard work of family and friends.


Clingstone, a cedar-shingled house built in 1905 and currently owned by retired Boston architect Henry Wood, stands on a rock in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay.


Retired architect Henry Wood, 80, bought the 10,000 square foot home with his ex-wife Joan in 1961 for $3,600. It had been empty for two It had been unoccupied for 20 years and was in poor condition. Mr. Wood runs the house like a camp: all skilled workers welcome. The Jamestown Boatyard hauls the family's boats and floating dock and stores them each winter in return for a week's use of the house in the summer.
Clingstone had been built by a distant cousin, J.S. Lovering Wharton. Mr. Wharton worked with an artist, William Trost Richards, to create a house of picture windows with 23 rooms on three stories radiating off a vast central hall.



View from one of Clingstone's 10 bedrooms.


The Newport Bridge is visible from the windows of the Ping-Pong room, to the left of the fireplace.


Clingstone had been built by a distant cousin, J.S. Lovering Wharton. Mr. Wharton worked with an artist, William Trost Richards, to create a house of picture windows with 23 rooms on three stories radiating off a vast central hall. The total cost of the construction, which was completed in 1905, was $36,982.99


The dining room table seats 14. Refinishing the chairs is a task on the list
for a future work weekend.


Clingstone is "green," or sustainable, from the windmill on the roof to the composting toilets. The windmill provides electricity. Solar panels heat water for household use.


The house is maintained by an ingenious method: the Clingstone work weekend. Held every year around Memorial Day, it brings 70 or so friends and Clingstone lovers together to tackle jobs like washing all 65 of the windows. Anne Tait, who is married to Mr. Wood's son Dan, refinished the kitchen floor on one of her first work weekends


The dock where visitors to Clingstone arrive and depart.


Queen Mary 2 dwarfed Clingstone as it sailed by years ago. The photo hangs above a doorway inside the house.


Clingstone is perched on a rock amid the larger islands of Narragansett Bay.


In wintertime, the House on a Rock stands out in the icy gray seascape.

Inside Clingstone, the house on a rock - Boston.com