Newport, RI

Narragansett, RI - Events of Wednesday, September 4 to Thursday, September 5, 2013

The state park where we were staying in Narragansett is on the western side of Narragansett Bay. Newport, RI is on the eastern side. Newport is best known as a location for summer homes of the rich and famous back in the Gilded Age of the 1890s through the 1920s. The Vanderbilts, the Astors and the Wideners (Peter Widener was one of the founders of U.S. Steel and the American Tobacco Co.) all had summer homes here as did many other of the country's well-to-do. Some of the summer homes in Newport were very extravagant. The owners seemed to be trying to outdo one another. To call them mansions is almost an understatement - they are more like palaces.

Some of the mansions are still private residences, but some of largest of them have become museum houses that are open for tours. The price for tours for each mansion ranges from about $14 to $28, although the Preservation Society of Newport County that operates 10 or 11 of the mansion-museums has tickets available for 5 of their mansions for $34.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find any of the mansions that allow photography inside. Because of that and because of the relatively high prices, we decided not to tour any specific mansion, but to head to Newport on Wednesday morning to take a walking tour of the outside of several of them instead.

The Cliff Walk is a walkway that travels about 3.5 miles along the cliffs behind some of the mansions on the eastern side of Newport above Rhode Island Sound. The wealthy estate owners created the walkway back in the late 1800s a lot like they did with the Shore Walk in Bar Harbor.

On our way to the Cliff Walk, we went through the historic downtown area. Newport, which was founded in 1639, has the highest number of surviving colonial buildings of any city in the United States. Everywhere we looked, buildings had plaques marking them as historical landmarks.

One of the many surviving colonial buildings in Newport

Another colonial house in Newport

As is typical for a town as old as Newport, the streets are very narrow. All coastal towns have evacuation routes, and the one through Newport is up a narrow street with only one traffic lane.

Evacuation route up a narrow, one-lane street

After driving through town, we made our way to Memorial Blvd. and found a parking place at First Beach about half a mile from the northern end of Cliff Walk. Parking is also available on a couple of the side streets that dead end at the Cliff Walk, which we found out later would have been a lot closer.

Unfortunately, the southern portion of about 2.2 miles of Cliff Walk is closed due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. We would only be able to walk the northern part, but that was okay, especially since we had to walk almost half a mile from where we parked just to get to the Cliff Walk.

View of Cliff Walk from the end of the beach

View of First Beach from the start of Cliff Walk

View of the cliff toward the south

Most of the private residences have tall hedges and shrubs to maintain their privacy, but occasionally, you can see roofs and chimneys above the bushes.

Occasional view of roofs and chimneys above the bushes

We did get to enjoy an occasional wild flower along the way, however.

A couple of the flowers along the way

The coastline, while not as spectacular as Maine, it still picturesque.

Rugged, picturesque coastline looking south

Coastline looking north

Finally, we came to a mansion we could get a good look at. Ochre Court, which has 50 rooms, is the second largest mansion in Newport. Ochre Court was built at a cost of $4.5 million in 1892 by Ogden Goelet, who was a banker and real estate investor. In 1947, Goelet family heirs donated Ochre Court to Salve Regina University, which was founded by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy. Today it is the administration building for the university. Salve Regina owns 7 historic mansions.

Ochre Court, now owned by Salve Regina University

Next to Ochre Court is a mansion built by tocacco heiress Catherine Lorillard Wolfe that was originally called Vinland. Vinland was built in the Richardson Romanesque style and was completed in 1883.

The heirs of a subsequent owner of the Vinland, now called McCauley Hall, donated it to the university. The building once housed the university library, but it is now used for faculty offices, student meetings and limited classes.

McCauley Hall, originally called Vinland, also owned by Salve Regina University

The next mansion along millionaires' row is the Breakers. At 70 rooms, the Breakers is the largest mansion in Newport. It was completed in 1895 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the favorite grandson of railroad tycoon and industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt. There were also several other mansions in Newport built by other members of the Vanderbilt family.

The Breakers, completed in 1895

Cliff Walk is closed south of the Breakers, so we walked back to the car and then drove down Bellevue Ave., which is the street that runs past the front of the southern half of the mansions. We parked for a few minutes at the lot for Marble House, which is one of the mansions that is open for tours, and we walked a block or two up and down Bellevue Ave. This was the center of much social activity during the summers of the Glided Age so we got to see quite a few mansions in a short distance.

Marble House was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt, who was another grandson of railroad magnate and industrialist, Cornelius Vanderbilt. He was also the younger brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt II who built the Breakers. Built between 1888 and 1892, Marble House is a 50-room mansion that is built in the French Baroque style. It cost $11 million, $7 million of which was just for the 500,000 cubic feet of marble used in its construction. Even the privacy walls along Belleview Ave. are marble.

Marble House

At only 22 rooms, Champ Soleil (French for Sunny Fields) located across the street from Marble House is relatively modest. Being across the street also means it doesn't have an ocean view.

Champ Soleil

Beechwood is just up the street from Marble House. It used to be open to the public, but it was purchased by a new owner in 2010 for $10.5 million and is now being renovated, presumably to be made a private residence once again.

Beechwood was originally built in 1851 for New York merchant Daniel Parrish. The mansion was purchased in 1881 by William Backhouse Astor II, who was the grandson of John Jacob Astor. John Jacob Astor made his fortunes in fur trading. Caroline, the wife of William Backhouse Astor II, did many renovations to Beechwood including adding a ballroom for their many parties. Caroline was the undisputed queen of New York and Newport social life.

Beechwood undergoing renovation for the new owner

Caroline Astor, who was later widowed, left Beechwood to her son, John Jacob Astor IV. John Jacob Astor IV and his wife perished aboard the RMS Titanic in 1912.

A short distance down Bellevue Ave. is Rosecliff. It was built from 1898 to 1902 by Herman Oelrichs and his wife, Theresa, who was a Nevada silver heiress. The mansion is modeled after the Grand Trianon, a palace built in Versailles, France by Louis XIV.

Rosecliff

After our short walking tour of Belleview Ave., we continued driving south on Belleview Ave. Belleview turns into Ocean Drive and continues around the southern tip of Newport and then turns northward and goes up the western side. There are there are several places to pull off and enjoy the views of Rhode Island Sound. Lots of people brought their folding chairs and were enjoying the sun and watching the waves.

Views of Rhode Island Sound from Ocean Drive

When we completed our circuit of Bellevue Ave. and Ocean Drive, we headed to Middleton, RI, which is a little to the north of Newport, where Margery had scoped out a seafood restaurant. Anthony's Seafood Market and Restaurant was supposed to have good fried clams, so we stopped for lupper.

Anthony's Seafood

We both had fried clam strips, which included 6 oz. of clams, cole slaw and fries for $8. Margery substituted onion rings for her fries at a small additional cost.

Paul with his dinner of fried clam strips

The clams were pretty good. However, clam strips can sometimes be a little chewy, and Paul thought these were a little more so than what we have had in New England recently.  We have yet to find any clams that even come close to those we had in Ipswich.

After our lupper, we headed back to the motor home to rest our feet. Thursday was mostly cloudy, so we hit the local grocery store to restock the fridge and pantry and then puttered around the rig the rest of the day. We had more planned for Friday, and we'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Comments

[Marsha Weaver]

Oh my what a lovely walk. Did you two pretend you owned one of those mansions? I would have. I would then talk about how each of the other mansions wasn't near as good as mine. I would have a lot more rooms than a mere 50 also.

[Alice LaBarre]

Such beautiful photos and great history. Thank you s
sharing all your trips with us.

[Newport Coast Realtor]

Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you penning this write-up and also the rest of the site is very good.