Dave Butler: Smithfield, Rhode Island, 1980s

Smithfield, Rhode Island, 1980s

The Smithfield house sat atop a wooded hillside, 3 acres or so, in a quiet neighborhood, whose tranquility was disturbed once a week by gunfire from the shooting range at the Smithfield Sportsmen Club adjacent to the property — and almost every day by the heavy equipment operated by the stone quarry on the far side of Mountaindale Reservoir.

The house was a single-story, ranch-style house built on a slab, in a design reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright, with exposed redwood beams, and floor-to-ceiling windows in the living and dining area, overlooking a rocky outcropping leading down into the woods. A huge stone fireplace joined the living and dining areas. On the overlook they built a wooden deck. They added a small, concrete-lined pond that was home to frogs and fish, and installed a pump to circulate the water from the pond to the top of a 15-foot trough feeding back into the pond.