Newport Travel Guide
Seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history
Places to See in Newport
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Astor's Beechwood Mansion
Gilded Age mansion in Newport best known for having been owned by the Astor family
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Belcourt of Newport
Former summer cottage featuring a heavy emphasis on French Renaissance and Gothic decor
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Bellevue Avenue Historic District
District including many of the Gilded Age mansions built by affluent summer vacationers in the city around the turn of the 20th century
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The Breakers
Gilded Age mansion built as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family
Brenton Point State Park
Recreation area at the southwestern tip of Aquidneck Island offering wide vistas of the Atlantic Ocean where it meets Narragansett Bay
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Chateau Sur Mer
One of the first grand Bellevue Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport is now pen to the public as a museum
Easton's Beach
The largest public beach in Newport, with a view of the Newport Cliff Walk
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The Elms
Large mansion designed for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind, taking inspiration from the 18th century Château d'Asnières in Asnières-sur-Seine, France
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Fort Adams State Park
Recreation and historic area preserving Fort Adams, a large coastal fortification located at the harbor mouth in Newport
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Kingscote
Gothic Revival mansion and house museum in Newport
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Marble House
Gilded Age mansion built as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed in the Beaux Arts style
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Newport Casino
Athletic complex and recreation center built in 1881, it became a center of Newport's social life during the Gilded Age through the 1920s
Newport Cliff Walk
Considered one of the top attractions in Newport, it is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) public access walkway that borders the shore line
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Newport Historic District
District in the center of Newport known for its extensive and well-preserved assortment of intact colonial buildings dating from the early and mid-18th century
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Ocean Drive Historic District
Historic district that covers street along the southern shore of Newport that consists of houses that overlook the beaches and ocean
Ochre Court
Large châteauesque mansion is the second largest mansion in Newport
Rosecliff
Gilded Age mansions of Newport now open to the public as a historic house museum
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Rough Point
Gilded Age mansions of Newport and English Manorial style home designed for Frederick William Vanderbilt
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Seaview Terrace
Mansion located in Newport designed in the French Renaissance Revival Châteauesque style was the last of the great "Summer Cottages" constructed and is the fifth-largest of Newport's mansions
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Vernon Court
American Renaissance mansion with design loosely based on 18th-century French mansion, Château d'Haroué
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William Watts Sherman House
Notable house generally acknowledged as the prototype for what became known as the Shingle Style in American architecture
Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately 33 miles (53 km) southeast of Providence, 20 miles (32 km) south of Fall River, Massachusetts, 74 miles (119 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 was the location of the first U.S. Open tournaments in both tennis and golf, as well as every challenge to the America's Cup between 1930 and 1983. 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.
Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, wealthy southern planters seeking to escape the heat began to build summer cottages on Bellevue Avenue, such as Kingscote (1839). Around the middle of the century, wealthy Yankees, such as the Wetmore family, also began constructing larger mansions, such as Chateau-sur-Mer (1852) nearby. Most of these early families made a substantial part of their fortunes in the Old China Trade.
By the turn of the 20th century, many of the nation's wealthiest families were summering in Newport, including the Vanderbilts, Astors, and the Widener family, who constructed the largest "cottages," such as The Breakers (1895) and Miramar. They resided for a brief summer social season in grand, gilded mansions with elaborate receiving rooms, dining rooms, music rooms, and ballrooms—but with few bedrooms, since the guests were expected to have "cottages" of their own. Many of the homes were designed by New York architect Richard Morris Hunt, who kept a house in Newport himself.
The social scene at Newport is described in Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence. Wharton's own Newport "cottage" was called Land's End. Today, many mansions continue in private use. Hammersmith Farm is the mansion where John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy held their wedding reception; it was open to tourists as a "house museum", but has since been purchased and reconverted into a private residence. Many other mansions are open to tourists; still others were converted into academic buildings for Salve Regina College in the 1930s.
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had many ties to Newport. She spent her childhood summers at Newport's Hammersmith Farm. She and John Fitzgerald Kennedy attended nearby St. Mary's Church and were married there on September 12, 1953. The Kennedys sailed their yacht Honey Fitz in Narragansett Bay, golfed at Newport Country Club, dined at The White Horse Tavern, and attended social events at The Breakers.
Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower both made Newport the sites of their "Summer White Houses" during their years in office. Eisenhower stayed at Quarters A at the Naval War College and at what became known as the Eisenhower House, while Kennedy used Hammersmith Farm.
The Newport Historic District-one of the city's three National Historic Landmark Districts—boasts one of the highest concentrations of colonial homes in the nation. Doris Duke, heir to the tobacco fortune of her father, James B. Duke, founded the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) in 1968, and for the next 25 years, until her death in 1993, saved much of Newport's colonial architectural heritage. Under Duke's leadership, the NRF restored more than 80 18th- and early 19th-century buildings in Newport and neighboring Middletown, Rhode Island, most of which are still owned by the Foundation. In addition to colonial architecture, the city is known for its Gilded Age mansions, summer "cottages" built in varying styles copied from the royal palaces of Europe.
The White Horse Tavern was built prior to 1673 and is one of the oldest taverns in the US. Newport is also home to the Touro Synagogue, one of the oldest Jewish houses of worship in the Western hemisphere, and to the Newport Public Library and Redwood Library and Athenaeum, one of the nation's oldest lending libraries.
Newport is sometimes referred to as the "Sailing Capital of the World". The city was chosen as the new home of the National Sailing Hall of Fame which moved here from Annapolis, Maryland in 2019. Several sailing clubs are based in the city, including the New York Yacht Club and the Ida Lewis Yacht Club. Newport was the site of the America's Cup races from 1930 to 1983, and it remains the starting point of the biannual 635 nautical-mile Newport Bermuda Race.
Aquidneck Island has many beaches, both public and private. The largest public beach is Easton's beach or First Beach, which has a view of the Newport Cliff Walk. Sachuest Beach or Second Beach in Middletown is the second-largest beach in the area. Gooseberry Beach is private but is open to the public on certain days of the year; it is located on Ocean Drive, along with the private Bailey's Beach and Hazard's Beach. The Cliff Walk is one of the most popular attractions in the city. It is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) public access walkway bordering the shoreline and has been designated a National Recreation Trail. In 2014 Maya Lin, the architect who designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., completed a $3.5 million renovation of Queen Anne Square Park, titled “The Meeting Room.”
Brenton Point State Park is the site of the annual Brenton Point Kite Festival. Newport is also home to the Newport Country Club, which hosted the 2007 Women's US Open and the 1995 Men's US Amateurs. Fort Adams dates back to the War of 1812; it houses the Museum of Yachting and hosts both the Newport Folk Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Newport, Rhode Island", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
