2020 Featured Properties

Daniel Swinburne House

This 1862 Gothic Revival’s charming façade includes such iconic elements as a steeply pitched roof, cross gables with decorative trim, Gothic upper-story windows, and a full width front porch. Original architectural elements throughout the interior include marble fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, crown molding, and wood floors, with newly added furnishings and wallcoverings adding vivid color and pattern to every room.

James B. Finch House

Designed in 1865 by Newport’s noted house architect, George Champlin Mason, Sr., this stunning Italianate house features octagonal bay windows and numerous original architectural elements including etched-glass interior doors, deep crown molding, and a stairway embellished with ornamental fretwork.

Ayrault House

This handsome brick Neo-Georgian house built in 1916 is the only Newport house designed by the New York City architectural firm Cross & Cross, known for numerous Manhattan buildings including Tiffany’s flagship headquarters on Fifth Avenue. The house includes such original architectural elements as a soaring double-height entry foyer highlighted by a winding stairway and glorious skylight. The front half of the house includes the original library, parlor, living room, and dining room while the back of the house—which once consisted of a warren of servants’ rooms—was transformed by the current owners into a light-filled open-plan kitchen and family room.

Mid-Century Modern Residence

One of Newport’s only Modernist houses, this 1949 structure was designed by Providence architect Ira Rakatansky as a two-level open-plan house with walls of glass providing stunning ocean views. A recent renovation added a third level while keeping the Modernist theme intact via such elements as the butterfly roofline and the interior’s floating oak stairways and custom railings. Period furnishings, fabrics, and lighting fixtures throughout the house, collected by the current owners, celebrate the Mid-Century Modern era.

Bellevue House-Gardens

The 3.5-acre property surrounding the 1910 Bellevue House is one of the most delightfully eccentric gardens in Newport, with numerous fountains, sculptures, follies, pools, and classical elements including a 1920s two-story teahouse; a recently added folly replica of an 18th century cupola; and a Japanese rock garden, pool, and moss garden. Bellevue House is one of the private arboreta that make up the Newport Arboretum, New England’s first citywide arboretum.

Chepstow

This 1860-61 Italianate villa was designed by architect George Champlin Mason Sr., and it is currently preserved precisely as it was when last used by a member of one of America’s most historically important families. The former home of Alletta Morris McBean, the house features significant furniture, paintings, and decorative arts collected by generations of the Morris family, whose roots in America go back to the mid-1600s. Chepstow is a property of the Preservation Society of Newport County, and is being opened exclusively in April for the one day of the Neighborhoods of Newport House Tour.