Founded | 1945 |
---|---|
Founder | Katherine Warren |
Type | non-profit |
Purpose | Preserve a collection of historic house museums in Newport County |
Headquarters | Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island |
Region served | Newport County, Rhode Island |
CEO & Executive Director | Trudy Coxe |
Website | newportmansions |
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.
The organization has filed lawsuits to block offshore wind farms in Rhode Island, arguing that wind farms harm scenic views and threaten "historic resources". [1] [2]
The Preservation Society of Newport County was founded in 1945 by a group of Newport residents led by Katherine and George Warren to save Hunter House from demolition. They were known as the Georgian Society until they changed their name to the Preservation Society of Newport County.
Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt's widow, bequeathed $1.25 million to the society upon her death in 1978. [3]
Image | Name | Year built (*circa) | Style | Architect | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arnold Burying Ground | Founded 1675 | Cemetery | |||
The Breakers | 1895 | Neo Italian Renaissance | Richard Morris Hunt | [4] | |
Chateau-sur-Mer | 1852 (remodeled 1870s) | Seth C. Bradford (construction) Richard Morris Hunt (renovations) Ogden Codman, Jr. (design) | [5] | ||
Chepstow | 1860 | Italianate | George Champlin Mason Sr. John Grovesnor (1978 addition) | ||
The Elms | 1901 | Classical Revival | Horace Trumbauer | [6] [7] | |
Green Animals Topiary Garden | c. 1860 | Victorian | Joseph Carreiro, George Mendonca (Gardeners) | [8] | |
Hunter House | 1748–1754 | Georgian | |||
Isaac Bell House | 1883 | Shingle style | McKim, Mead and White | ||
Kingscote | 1839 (remodeled 1870s, remodeled 1880s) | Gothic Revival | Richard Upjohn George C. Mason (1870s renovation) McKim, Mead and White (1880s renovation) | [9] | |
Marble House | 1892 | Beaux-Arts | Richard Morris Hunt | [10] [11] | |
Rosecliff | 1902 | French Baroque Revival | McKim, Mead & White | [12] |
Image | Name | Year built (*circa) | Style | Architect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Malbone Castle | 1849 (remodeled 1875) | Gothic Revival | Alexander Jackson Davis Dudley Newton (renovations} | Bequeathed to the PSNC in 1978, later sold as a private residence; not open to the public [13] [14] | |
White Horse Tavern | 1652–1673 | Francis Brinley, William Mayes | Restored by the PSNC in 1952, but now privately owned and operated as a working tavern |
The Breakers is a Gilded Age mansion located at 44 Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, US. It was built between 1893 and 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family.
Block Island Southeast Light is a lighthouse located on Mohegan Bluffs at the southeastern corner of Block Island, Rhode Island. It was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1997 as one of the most architecturally sophisticated lighthouses built in the United States in the 19th century.
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico resembles that of the White House.
Chateau-sur-Mer is one of the first grand Bellevue Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport, Rhode Island. Located at 474 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.
Hunter House (1748) is a historic house in Newport, Rhode Island. It is located at 54 Washington Street in the Easton's Point neighborhood, near the northern end of the Newport Historic District.
The Isaac Bell House is a historic house and National Historic Landmark at 70 Perry Street 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 some of America's wealthiest families.
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. As one of the first summer "cottages" constructed in Newport, it 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 1864 until 1972, when it was given to the Preservation Society of Newport County.
The Edward King House, is a monumentally scaled residence at 35 King street in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It was designed for Edward King in the "Italian Villa" style by Richard Upjohn and was built between 1845 and 1847, making it one of the earliest representations of the style. It was the largest and grandest house in Newport when it was built. Edward King was the largest landowner in town by 1860, having made his fortune through the China Trade.
The Bellevue Avenue Historic District is located along and around Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Its property is almost exclusively residential, including many of the Gilded Age mansions built as summer retreats around the turn of the 20th century by the extremely wealthy, including the Vanderbilt and Astor families. Many of the homes represent pioneering work in the architectural styles of the time by major American architects.
Trinity Church, on Queen Anne Square in Newport, Rhode Island, is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. Founded in 1698, it is the oldest Episcopal parish in the state. In the mid 18th century, the church was home to the largest Anglican congregation in New England.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Ochre Point–Cliffs Historic District is a historic district in Newport, Rhode Island. The district includes a significant subset of the Bellevue Avenue Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District, including all of the major Gilded Age mansions on the waterfront facing Easton Bay between Memorial Boulevard and Marine Avenue. The district is home to famous mansions such as the William Watts Sherman House and The Breakers, one of the largest houses in the area built by the Vanderbilt Family. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Gertrude M. "Trudy" Coxe is an American environmental activist and historic preservationist who is the current CEO of the Preservation Society of Newport County and the former Secretary of Environmental Affairs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has advocated against the construction of offshore wind farms in Rhode Island, arguing that they cause "unnecessary loss to our community’s irreplaceable character and sense of place."
This is a list of Registered Historic Places in Jamestown, Rhode Island, which has been transferred from and is an integral part of National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island.
This is a list of Registered Historic Places in Little Compton, Rhode Island, which has been transferred from and is an integral part of National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island.
This is a list of Registered Historic Places in Middletown, Rhode Island, which has been transferred from and is an integral part of National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island.
This is a list of Registered Historic Places in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, which has been transferred from and is an integral part of National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island.
This is a list of Registered Historic Places in Tiverton, Rhode Island, which has been transferred from and is an integral part of National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island.