Chepstow (mansion)

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Chepstow
Chepstow mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.jpg
Chepstow, June 2017
Chepstow (mansion)
General information
Architectural style Italianate, Second Empire
Location120 Narragansett Avenue in Newport, RI
Completed1860
Client Edmund Schermerhorn
Owner Preservation Society of Newport County
Design and construction
Architect(s) George Champlin Mason Sr.
John K. Grosvenor (1979 addition)
Website
newportmansions.org/explore/chepstow

Chepstow is an Italianate house museum located at 120 Narragansett Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, built in 1860. It originally served as a summer "cottage", but the Preservation Society of Newport County now owns the property. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Ochre Point-Cliffs Historic District in 1975 and within the Historic District of the City of Newport. [1]

Contents

History

Chepstow, May 2017 Chepstow Mansion, Newport, Rhode Island.jpg
Chepstow, May 2017

Edmund Schermerhorn hired George Champlin Mason Sr. to build the house in 1860 as a summer home. [2] [3] Schermerhorn was a first cousin of Mrs. Astor (formerly Caroline Webster Schermerhorn), one of Newport's most active hostesses. [4] [5]

In 1911, [6] it was sold to Emily Lorillard (née Morris) Gallatin, [7] the wife of Rolaz Horace Gallatin, [8] [9] a cousin of Albert Eugene Gallatin and nephew of Commodore Elbridge Thomas Gerry. [10] The property, named for Chepstow, the town in Wales that the Morris family came from, overlooks Narragansett Avenue. Emily was first cousin of Lewis Gouverneur Morris who married Anita de Braganza and owned Malbone in Newport. [11] [lower-alpha 1]

The property remained in her family's possession until it was donated to the Preservation Society in 1986 upon Alletta Morris McBean's death. The house has been altered through additions, [13] the most recent in 1979 with the addition of the garden room (also called the sun room) by architect John K. Grosvenor. It opened to the public in 1998 following Peter McBean's death. [14] [15]

Present day

Beginning in June 1998. The property houses a dynamic collection of art and furniture, including some from other Morris family residences. Among the American paintings bequeathed to the Society that hung at Chepstow were works by George Harvey, Fitz Hugh Lane and Granville Perkins. Among the furnishings is a walnut Queen Anne side chair reportedly owned by William Penn. [4]

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References

Notes
  1. ↑ The Morris family also bequeathed Malbone to the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1978, who sold the estate to Patricia and Philip Archer Thomas in 1980. [12]
Sources
  1. ↑ Tax Assessor’s Plat 34; Chapter 17.40 and 17.80 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Newport.
  2. ↑ "DEATH OF A RICH RECLUSE.; EDMUND H. SCHERMERHORN, AN ECCENTRIC NEWPORT COTTAGER". The New York Times . 2 October 1891. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  3. ↑ "AN OLD LANDMARK TO GO.; THE SCHERMERHORN MANSION TO GIVE PLACE TO A BUSINESS BUILDING". The New York Times . 7 December 1892. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 Fulweiler, Megan (7 June 1998). "TRAVEL ADVISORY; Two Mansions Join the Newports Tour Loop". The New York Times . Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  5. ↑ Amory, Cleveland (2 September 1962). "The Crucial Battle of Modern Newport; The Battle of Newport". The New York Times . Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Times, Special to The New York (7 April 1912). "NEWPORT". The New York Times . Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  7. ↑ John Conrad Weiser Family Association (1960). The Weiser family: a genealogy of the family of John Conrad Weiser, the elder (d. 1746); prepared on the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in America, 1710-1760. John Conrad Weiser Family Assoc. p. 210. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  8. ↑ "R. HORACE GALLATIN". The New York Times . 2 November 1948. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  9. ↑ "ESTATE OF MRS. GALLATIN; It Exceeds $1,000,000 and Husband Gets $30,000 a Year for Life". The New York Times . 4 April 1917. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "A DAY'S WEDDINGS. | Gallatin--Morris". The New York Times . 29 April 1896. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  11. ↑ Times, Special to The New York (17 February 1904). "A NEWPORT SHOW PLACE SOLD.; "Malbone," the Residence of Henry Bedlow, Bought by L.G. Morris" (PDF). The New York Times . Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  12. ↑ Smith, Andy (November 2, 2013). "Neo-gothic castle in Newport is one of a kind, at $2.2 million". Providence Journal . Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  13. ↑ Hammel, Lisa (6 October 1968). "Newport preserved". The New York Times . Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  14. ↑ The Preservation Society of Newport County – Online Ticket Center (accessed January 7, 2009)
  15. ↑ "Visit RI website information". Archived from the original on 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2009-01-07.

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