Portal:Newport, Rhode Island
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, located approximately 33 miles (53 km) southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, 20 miles (32 km) south of Fall River, Massachusetts, 73 miles (117 km) south of Boston, and 180 miles (290 km) northeast of New York City. It is known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history. It is also the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport, which houses the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and an important Navy training center. It was a major 18th-century port city and also contains a high number of buildings from the Colonial era.
The city is the county seat of Newport County, which has no governmental functions other than court administrative and sheriff corrections boundaries. It was known for being the location of the "Summer White Houses" during the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The population was 24,027 as of 2013.
Selected general articles
- For the public library in the city of Newport, South Wales see Newport Central Library
The Newport Public Library, established in 1869 as “The People’s Library of Newport,” is dedicated to serving the people of Newport and the surrounding communities by “providing opportunities that support lifelong learning, encourage inspiration, imagination and enjoyment and connect people to each other and to the rest of the world.” Read more...
Newport Country Club, is a historic private golf club in the northeastern United States, located in Newport, Rhode Island. Founded 125 years ago in 1893, it hosted both the first U.S. Amateur Championship and the first U.S. Open in 1895. Read more...
The Old Colony House, also known as Old State House or Newport Colony House, is located at the east end of Washington Square in the city of Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It is a brick Georgian-style building completed in 1741, and was the meeting place for the colonial legislature. From independence in 1776 to the early 20th century the state legislature alternated its sessions between here and the Rhode Island State House in Providence.
It has not been altered much since its construction. As one of the best-kept surviving Georgian public buildings in the United States from the colonial era, it was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1960. It is also a contributing property to the Newport Historic District, later designated an NHL itself. It is still owned by the state, but managed as a museum by the Newport Historical Society. Read more...
Malbone is the oldest mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Located on Malbone Road, the estate has a history dating to the mid-18th century, but the present main house was built in 1848-49. The estate once served as the country residence of Colonel Godfrey Malbone (1695–1768) of Virginia and Connecticut. Colonel Malbone made his fortune as a shipping merchant and slave trader, becoming one of the wealthiest men in Newport during the 1740s through privateering and the triangle trade. Malbone's mansion was designed by Richard Munday, a noted colonial architect who also designed Newport landmarks Trinity Church and the Old Colony House. The mansion was so grand that it was widely considered the finest house in all of the American colonies.
Future President George Washington boarded and dined at Malbone in February 1756 when he visited Col. Malbone, who was Washington's friend dating back to Malbone's childhood in Virginia. In 1766, during the course of a gala dinner party, a kitchen fire reduced the house to a pile of sandstone rubble. By several accounts, Colonel Malbone, seeing no reason why the party should be interrupted, ordered dinner to be served outside, proclaiming, "By God, if I must lose my house, I shall not lose my dinner!" Read more...
Eisenhower House, formerly known as the Commandant's Residence or Quarters Number One of Fort Adams, is a historic house that is part of Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. Read more...
Brenton Point State Park is a public recreation area occupying 89 acres (36 ha) at the southwestern tip of Aquidneck Island in the town of Newport, Rhode Island. The state park offers wide vistas of the Atlantic Ocean where it meets Narragansett Bay. The park lies adjacent to the Newport Country Club, part of Newport's Ocean Drive Historic District. It is managed by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Division of Parks and Recreation, and is overseen by the staff at nearby Fort Adams State Park. Read more...
The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1994 and is a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District. It is owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is open for visitation on a year-round basis.
The mansion was built as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy United States Vanderbilt family, in an architectural style based on the Italian Renaissance. It was designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt with interior decoration by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman, Jr. The 70-room mansion has a gross area of 125,339 square feet (11,644.4 m2) and 62,482 square feet (5,804.8 m2) of living area on five floors, constructed between 1893 and 1895. The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates, and the 30-foot-high (9.1 m) walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high (3.7 m) limestone-and-iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The footprint of the house covers approximately 1 acre (4,000 m2) of the 14 acres (5.7 ha) estate on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Read more...
The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associated roles and missions, supports combat readiness, and strengthens global maritime partnerships.
The Naval War College is one of the senior service colleges including the Army War College and the Air War College. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defense operates the National War College. Read more...
Kingscote is a Gothic Revival mansion and house museum at Bowery Street and Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, designed by Richard Upjohn and built in 1839. It was one of the first summer "cottages" constructed in Newport, and is now a National Historic Landmark. It was remodeled and extended by George Champlin Mason and later by Stanford White. It was owned by the King family from 1863 until 1972, when it was given to the Preservation Society of Newport County. Read more...
Beaulieu, or Beaulieu House, is a historic mansion located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island built in 1859 by Federico Barreda. Subsequent owners of Beaulieu have included John Jacob Astor III, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, and his wife Grace Vanderbilt, née Grace Graham Wilson. Read more...
Marble House is a Gilded Age mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Designed as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt by the society architect Richard Morris Hunt, it was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico, which also serves as a porte-cochère, resembles that of the White House. Located at 596 Bellevue Avenue, it is now open to the public as a museum run by the Preservation Society of Newport County. Read more...
The Claiborne Pell Bridge, commonly known as the Newport Bridge, is a suspension bridge operated by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority that spans the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island (northeastern United States). The bridge, part of RI 138, connects the City of Newport on Aquidneck Island and the Town of Jamestown on Conanicut Island, and is named for longtime Rhode Island U.S. senator Claiborne Pell who lived in Newport. The Pell Bridge is in turn connected to the mainland by the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge. Read more...
The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associated roles and missions, supports combat readiness, and strengthens global maritime partnerships.
The Naval War College is one of the senior service colleges including the Army War College and the Air War College. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defense operates the National War College. Read more...
Bailey's Beach after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with "Reject's Beach" in the foreground
Bailey's Beach (officially named and owned by the Spouting Rock Beach Association) is an elite private beach and club in Newport, Rhode Island. Read more...
Chateau-sur-Mer is one of the first grand Bellevue Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport, Rhode Island, located at 424 Bellevue Avenue. It is now owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is open to the public as a museum. Chateau-sur-Mer's grand scale and lavish parties ushered in the Gilded Age of Newport, as it was the most palatial residence in Newport until the Vanderbilt houses in the 1890s. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Read more...
The largest of the Preservation Society's mansions, The Breakers
The Preservation Society of Newport County is a private, non-profit organization based in Newport, Rhode Island. It is Rhode Island's largest and most-visited cultural organization. The organization protects the architectural heritage of Newport County, especially the Bellevue Avenue Historic District. Seven of its 14 historic properties and landscapes are National Historic Landmarks, and most are open to the public. Read more...
The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hired George Wein to organize the first festival and bring jazz to Rhode Island.
Most of the early festivals were broadcast on Voice of America radio, and many performances were recorded and released as albums. In 1972, the Newport Jazz Festival was moved to New York City. In 1981, it became a two-site festival when it was returned to Newport while continuing in New York. From 1984 to 2008, the festival was known as the JVC Jazz Festival; however, during the economic downturn of 2009, JVC ceased its support of the festival and was replaced by CareFusion. As of 2012, the festival is sponsored by Natixis Global Asset Management . Read more...
Rough Point is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a museum. It is an English Manorial style home designed by architectural firm Peabody & Stearns for Frederick William Vanderbilt. Construction on the red sandstone and granite began in 1887 and was completed 1892. It is located on Bellevue Avenue and borders the Cliff Walk and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. The original gardens were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm. The home's last owner was Doris Duke and it is currently owned and operated by the Newport Restoration Foundation. Read more...- Salve Regina University is a Catholic, coeducational university founded by the Sisters of Mercy, located in the city of Newport, Rhode Island. Accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the university enrolls more than 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students from across the U.S. and around the world.
Salve Regina's 80-acre campus, bordering Newport Cliff Walk, is set on seven contiguous Gilded Age estates with 21 structures of historic significance. In 2002, Salve Regina became the first New England institution to receive a Getty Grant Program award to develop a campus heritage preservation plan. Read more...
Rosecliff, built 1898-1902, is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a historic house museum. The house has also been known as the Hermann Oelrichs House or the J. Edgar Monroe House.
It was built by Theresa Fair Oelrichs, a silver heiress from Nevada, whose father James Graham Fair was one of the four partners in the Comstock Lode. She was the wife of Hermann Oelrichs, American agent for Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship line. She and her husband, together with her sister, Virginia Fair, bought the land in 1891 from the estate of George Bancroft and commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White to design a summer home suitable for entertaining on a grand scale. With little opportunity to channel her considerable energy elsewhere, she "threw herself into the social scene with tremendous gusto, becoming, with Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish and Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont (of nearby Belcourt), one of the three great hostesses of Newport." Read more...
The Newport Historic District is a historic district that covers 250 acres (100 ha) in the center of Newport in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1968 due to its extensive and well-preserved assortment of intact colonial buildings dating from the early and mid-18th century. Six of those buildings are themselves NHLs in their own right, including the city's oldest house and the former meeting place of the colonial and state legislatures. Newer and modern buildings coexist with the historic structures.
It is a major tourist attraction due to its history, its setting on Newport's waterfront and the shops located within it along Thames Street. In 1997, it doubled for mid-19th-century New Haven, Connecticut during the production of Steven Spielberg's Amistad. "No comparable collection of colonial buildings exists today in the state or perhaps the nation", says Rhode Island historian William McLoughlin. Read more...
Fort Adams is a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island that was established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification, named for President John Adams who was in office at the time. Its first commander was Captain John Henry who was later instrumental in starting the War of 1812. The current Fort Adams was built 1824–57 under the Third System of coastal forts; it is part of Fort Adams State Park today. Read more...
The Newport Casino is an athletic complex and recreation center located at 186–202 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Built in 1880, it was designated a National Historic Landmark on February 27, 1987, in recognition for its architectural significance as one of the nation's finest Shingle style buildings, and for its importance in the history of tennis in the United States. The complex now houses the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and was the site of the earliest US Opens. Read more...
Vernon Court is an American Renaissance mansion designed by architects Carrère and Hastings. It is located at 492 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, on the Atlantic coast of the United States. The design is loosely based on that of an 18th-century French mansion, Château d'Haroué. Read more...
The Naval Station Newport (NAVSTA Newport) is a United States Navy base located in the city of Newport and the town of Middletown, Rhode Island. Naval Station Newport is home to the Naval War College and the Naval Justice School. It once was the homeport for Cruiser Destroyer Force Atlantic (COMCRUDESLANT), which relocated to Naval Station Norfolk in the early 1970s. Newport now maintains inactive ships at its pier facilities, along with the United States Coast Guard. In BRAC 2005 (Base Realignment and Closure), NAVSTA Newport gained over five hundred billets, in addition to receiving, again, the Officer Candidate School (OCS), the Naval Supply Corps School (in 2011), and several other activities, to include a few Army Reserve units. Read more...
Seaview Terrace, also known as the Carey Mansion, is a privately owned mansion. A sprawling mansion located in Newport, Rhode Island, it was designed in the French Renaissance Revival Châteauesque style, and completed in 1925.
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. Read more...
Fairholme is a Tudor style historic mansion in Newport, Rhode Island designed by Frank Furness and built by Furness & Hewitt in 1874-1875 for Fairman Rogers. One of the many "cottages" built during the Gilded Age on beachfront property in the Newport area, it is located on a parcel of 4.3 acres near the eastern end of Ruggles Avenue with an ocean frontage of 425 feet. It was remodeled in 1905 by John R. Drexel at a substantial cost but, after passing through the hands of Alphonso P. Villa, was sold before 1955, during the period when the rich were impacted by high tax rates, to Robert A. Young for $38,000.
It was owned by Palm Beach resident John Noffo Kahn, an heir to the Annenberg publishing fortune. Read more...
The Touro Synagogue or Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Hebrew: קהל קדוש ישועת ישראל) is a synagogue built in 1763 in Newport, Rhode Island, that is the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States,
the oldest surviving Jewish synagogue building in North America, and the only surviving synagogue building in the U.S. dating to the colonial era. In 1946, it was declared a National Historic Site. Read more...
The Redwood Library and Athenaeum is a subscription library located at 50 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island. Founded in 1747, it is the oldest community library still occupying its original building in the United States. The original building was designed by Peter Harrison and completed in 1750, and is a National Historic Landmark. Read more...
Newport Hospital is a private, not-for-profit hospital located in Newport, Rhode Island. Together with The Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital, Newport Hospital is a member of the Lifespan health system. Read more...
The White Horse Tavern was constructed before 1673 and is believed to be the oldest tavern building in the United States. It is located on the corner of Farewell and Marlborough streets in Newport, Rhode Island. Read more...
Miramar is a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) French neoclassical-style mansion on 7.8 acres (32,000 m2) bordering Bellevue Avenue on Aquidneck Island at Newport, Rhode Island. Overlooking Rhode Island Sound, it was intended as a summer home for the George D. Widener family of Philadelphia. Read more...
Fort Adams State Park is a public recreation and historic area preserving Fort Adams, a large coastal fortification located at the harbor mouth in Newport, Rhode Island, that was active from 1841 through the first half of the 20th century. The state park hosts the annual Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival and is the home of Sail Newport and Eisenhower House. Read more...
The Elms is a large mansion, facetiously a "summer cottage", located at 367 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, USA. The Elms was designed by architect Horace Trumbauer (1868–1938) for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind (1848–1936), and was completed in 1901. Its design was copied from the Château d'Asnières in Asnières-sur-Seine, France. The gardens and landscaping were created by C. H. Miller and E. W. Bowditch, working closely with Trumbauer. The Elms has been designated a National Historic Landmark and today is open to the public. Read more...
My Morning Jacket performing at the festival in 2015
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in July 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival. The festival is often considered one of the first modern music festivals in America and remains a focal point in the ever-expanding genre of "folk" music. Read more...
The front side of the Knight Campus in Warwick. The building designed in Brutalist style.
The Community College of Rhode Island, commonly abbreviated as "CCRI", is the only community college in Rhode Island and the largest community college in New England. The college's primary facility is located in Warwick, with additional college buildings throughout the state. Read more...
Belcourt is a former summer cottage designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Construction was begun in 1891 and completed in 1894, and it was intended to be used for only six to eight weeks of the year. Belcourt was designed in a multitude of European styles and periods; it features a heavy emphasis on French Renaissance and Gothic decor, with further borrowings from German, English, and Italian design. In the Gilded Age, the castle was noted for its extensive stables and carriage areas, which were incorporated into the main structure. Read more...- Washington Square is the geographical and historical heart of Newport Rhode Island. More trapezoid than square, it exists at the intersection of several major streets and what was the colonial long wharf, projecting into the harbor off Aquidneck Island and into Narragansett Bay. Although as a civic space it is colonial in origin, dating back to the first settlement of 1639, much of its present shape, form and name dates from the 19th century while a number of its most prominent buildings are of early 20th century design. Like most great civic spaces, it developed over time rather than being imposed by design.
Elm tree in front of the Florence K. Murray Judicial Complex in Washington Square
The first group of Anglo settlers – among them William Coddington, John Clarke, Henry Bull, and the Easton family each clustered their house lots of about 10 acres close to a fresh water spring and a short distance uphill from the shoreline. The spring still flows (although its course is now subterranean) but all the original houses are gone, the last, Henry Bull's, being destroyed by fire in 1912. Read more...
Hammersmith Farm is a Victorian mansion and estate located at 225 Harrison Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It was the childhood home of First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, and the site of the reception for her 1953 wedding to U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. During his presidency, it was referred to as the "Summer White House". Read more...
The Isaac Bell House is a historic house and National Historic Landmark at 70 Perry Street (at its corner with Bellevue Avenue) in Newport, Rhode Island. Also known as Edna Villa, it is one of the outstanding examples of Shingle Style architecture in the United States. It was designed by McKim, Mead, and White, and built during the Gilded Age, when Newport was the summer resort of choice for America's wealthiest families. Read more...
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Selected images
Touro Synagogue, America's oldest existing synagogue
Oliver Perry Monument in Eisenhower Park
Newport, R.I. in 1730, New York Public Library
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