A compelling account of the luxury and splendor of Newport's
nineteenth-century summer "cottages." In his latest contribution to
America's architectural record, Michael C. Kathrens gives house
enthusiasts a superbly visual and informative book on Newport's early
resort architecture. The nineteenth century was an incredibly vibrant
period in Newport, Rhode Island's, rich architectural history. Opulent
private houses--or summer "cottages" as they were known--populated the
seaside resort half a century before the rise of the European Revival
behemoths of the late 1880s and 1890s. The luxury and splendor of many
of these earlier homes often rivaled the sumptuousness of the later
"Gilded Age" mansions. In the decades since 1835, when the first private
house was built exclusively for seasonal use, scores of magnificent
homes were commissioned by a burgeoning summer colony whose members were
among America's wealthiest and most prominent families, including the
Schermerhorns, Lorillards, Goelets, and Joneses. They built their summer
residences in neighborhoods known today as Kay-Catherine-Old Beach Road,
Bellevue Avenue, Ochre Point, and Ocean Drive, commissioning local
talents such as George Champlin Mason Sr., Seth C. Bradford, and Dudley
Newton as well as nationally renowned architects such as Richard Morris
Hunt, McKim, Mead & White, and Peabody & Stearns. These exceptional
houses showcased new architectural expressions and displayed the mastery
of those who designed them. The scope of this volume--the prequel to
Newport Villas: The Revival Styles, 1885-1935, Kathrens's first book on
Newport residential architecture--extends beyond 1890, providing
ownership histories of each of the thirty-six houses profiled, including
Cannon Hill, Chateau-sur-Mer, Elm Court, Beaulieu, Land's End, the
original Breakers, Ochre Point, and Chastellux as well as visual
documentation of later renovations. Rare late-nineteenth- and
early-twentieth-century interior images reflect a shift in fashion from
the exuberant Victorian to a cleaner, more classical style that led to
the Edwardian elegance of many of the later renovations by architects
such as Horace Trumbauer, Ogden Codman Jr., and Francis L. V. Hoppin.
Stunning archival and newly commissioned photography, architectural
renderings, and floor plans aid in fully conveying the remarkable legacy
of Newport's majestic cottages built before 1890, presented
comprehensively for the first time.
