Carey Mansion
| Carey Mansion | |
|---|---|
 View from the northeast. |
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| Former names | Seaview Terrace |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Châteauesque |
| Location | Newport, Rhode Island, USA |
| Address | Ruggles & Westmore Avenues |
| Coordinates | 41°28′03″N 71°18′13″W / 41.467603°N 71.30363°W |
| Construction started | 1923 |
| Completed | exterior 1925 interior 1925 |
| Design and construction | |
| Client | Edson Bradley |
| Owner | Privately owned |
| Architect | Howard Greenley |
Carey Mansion, originally called Seaview Terrace, is a sprawling French Renaissance château located in Newport, Rhode Island. It was the last of the great "Summer Cottages” constructed, and is the fifth-largest of Newport's mansions — after The Breakers, Ochre Court, Belcourt Castle, and Rough Point.
The television show Dark Shadows used its exterior as the fictional Collinwood Mansion. Until recently, part of the main house and some of the outbuildings were leased to Salve Regina University.
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[edit] History
From the 1850s to the early 20th century, fashionable wealthy families built elaborate mansions in Newport to be used for entertaining during the summer season.
[edit] Seaview Terrace
In 1907, Whiskey millionaire Edson Bradley built a French-Renassiance mansion on the south side of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. It covered more than half a city block, and included a Gothic chapel with seating for 150, a large ballroom, an art gallery, and a 500-seat theatre — 90 feet by 120 feet, and several stories tall, completed in 1911 — known as Aladdin's Palace.[1]
In 1923, Mr. Edson Bradley began disassembling his Washington, D.C. mansion and relocating it to a Newport property at Ruggles and Wetmore Avenues. Seaview, the 1885 Elizabethan-Revival mansion already on the site, was incorporated into the design, and lent its name to the new chateau.[2] Work on the house continued for two years, and required the use of many railroad cars and trucks. Rooms that had been imported intact from France and installed in Washington, D.C. 20 years earlier, were moved again and reassembled in Newport, and the new building was constructed around them. When the interiors were completed in 1925, there were 17 rooms on the first floor, 25 on the second, and 12 on the third. It is believed to have been one of the largest buildings to be moved in this manner.
SeaView Terrace cost $2,000,000 to build. The main house featured turrets, stained-glass windows, high arching doorways and, in keeping with its seaside location, shell motifs. The American League of Architects awarded Bradley's architect, Howard Greenley, a 1928 medal for the chateau.
Mrs. Bradley died in August 1929, and her funeral was held in the house's chapel. Edson Bradley spent five more summers at the mansion before his death in 1935.
The Bradleys' daughter, Julie Bradley Shipman, took over the estate and lived there until 1941. Her husband, Bishop Herbert Shipman, of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, died in 1930. During World War II, the house was used by the U. S. Army as officers' quarters. In 1949 the property was sold for only $8,000.
[edit] Burnham-by-the-Sea
In 1950, it became an exclusive all-girl summer boarding school, and was renamed "Burnham-by-the-Sea". The house was owned and the summer school run by Mr. and Mrs. George Waldo Emerson. During the academic year, Mrs. Emerson was a headmistress for the Mary Burnham School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1968, the Mary Burnham School merged with the Stoneleigh Prospect Hill School to become the Stoneleigh-Burnham School, which took over operation of the summer school.[3]
From 1966 to 1971, the Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows used Burnham-by-the-Sea as the exterior set for the fictional Collinwood Mansion.
[edit] Carey Mansion
In 1974, Martin and Millicent Carey of New York purchased the mansion. Carey said he was going to restore the mansion to "all the elegance of the 1920's when it was the private residence of Edson Bradley." He didn't. Restoration did not take place. The Carey's, within a few years of leaving the house vacant, leased it to Salve Regina College. In the mid 80's, Salve removed the ivy from the facade of the house. The ivy clung there since the house was completed in 1925, interior and exterior. Mrs. Shipman decided to leave the house in 1941, allowing the City of Newport to take ownership. Several photographs are in a private collection, showing the house after the Hurricane of 1938. The great tower was intact. There was only minor damage to the house. However, trees were destroyed.
Salve Regina's lease expired in 2009. They no longer wished to continue to lease the house, as it was, and is, falling apart. The Carey's have never put any of their own money into any restoration. Their daughter, Denise Ann Carey, resides there at present. She is an architect from New York. She isn't doing any restoration at this time.
[edit] Features
[edit] Whispering gallery
Cecilia Hall features a whispering gallery, an elliptical room reminiscent of Saint Paul's Cathedral, in which a person standing at one of the foci can hear the slightest whisper uttered at the other.
[edit] Stained glass
"The Flagellation" (circa 1544-47) was an early-Renaissance stained-glass window designed for Milan Cathedral. It was part of a series portraying the Passion of Christ, and believed to have been made in the workshop of Currado Mochis da Colonia.[4] The window was bought by Edson Bradley for the house when it was located on DuPont Circle, and may have once been owned by Stanford White.[5]
[edit] Estey organ
Carey Mansion's pipe organ, Opus 2140, was made by Jacob Estey of Estey Organ Company, Brattleboro, Vermont. It has a Tremolo Electric Detached Console Automatic Player which includes Great pipes, Swell, and multiple pedals. It is no longer operational, and the console is missing.[6]
[edit] No fences
Carey Mansion has never throughout its history had any sort of fencing or wall surrounding the property. There are two main gateposts, but around the rest of the property a decorative hedge is used, rather unsuccessfully, to keep people away, making it the largest of its kind in Newport with such a characteristic.[citation needed]
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Here's A Brand New Use For Wealth—Build A Theatre Right In Your Home!" The Sunday Morning Star (Wilmington, Delaware), 12 November 1911, p. 9.
- ^ Vertiges of Seaview, the 1885 mansion originally on the site can be seen in the chateau's north wing.
- ^ During the summer of 1973 the movie The Great Gatsby was filmed next door. All the children at the school, who had a 9 pm curfew, spent the evenings listening to the filming of the cars driving up and down the old Oelrichs property, Rosecliff.
- ^ The Flagellation
- ^ The Flagellation
- ^ Estey Pipe Organs Opus List
[edit] External links
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Coordinates: 41°28′03″N 71°18′13″W / 41.467603°N 71.30363°W
