Newport Through Its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to PostmodernA remarkable coincidence of unplanned historical events has preserved Newport, Rhode Island’s architectural heritage in a way that is rare among American cities. Newport has the largest number of pre-Revolutionary War buildings in North America, with some 800 in its old historic districts. In the nineteenth century, Newport was the summer home to America’s most prominent families and patrons of outstanding architecture. With a diverse range of styles, Newport exemplified the greatness of mid-nineteenth-century American architecture. As Newport gained social importance in the 1880s, the Bellevue Avenue and Ochre Point neighborhoods became the sites of lavish Beaux-Arts palatial residences. Newport’s twentieth-century architecture explored all modern currents, ranging from progressive Bauhaus functionalism as it evolved into the International Style of the 1950s to more conservative Art Deco and Scandinavian Modernism. After 1975, the postmodern era gave rise to a spirit of preservation and adaptive reuse, inspiring the Modern Traditionalism of architects such as Robert A. M. Stern. In a more vernacular vein, postmodern shopping centers, restaurants, and commercial establishments provided fertile ground for an especially well-informed postmodern kitsch. |
Contents
The Postmedieval Jacobean Style and Newports Founding I | 1 |
The Georgian Styles before the Revolutionary War | 9 |
Federal and Greek Revival Architecture 17801840 | 23 |
The Gothic Revival of the 1830s and 18405 | 37 |
The Italian Villa and Italianate Architecture of the 1850s | 48 |
The French Roof and the Civil War Era | 62 |
The Stick Style of the 1860s and 1870s | 73 |
Queen Anne Variants 18701890 | 85 |
The Shingle Style before 1885 | 98 |
The Colonial Revival after 1885 | 112 |
The Beginnings of BeauxArts Newport 18801890 | 121 |
Richard Morris Hunt and the BeauxArts 18881895 | 132 |
The BeauxArts and Academic Eclecticism in the | 153 |
Modernism from the Bauhaus to Postmodernism | 175 |
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American Aquidneck Island architect Architectural Heritage Baroque Beaux-Arts Bellevue Avenue brick Buildings of Rhode Buildings on Paper built called Charles Château-sur-Mer Church classical Cliff Walk Colonial Revival cottage Courtesy decorative Downing & Scully early Editorial English Estate facade French gables George Champlin Mason Georgian Gothic Revival Greek Revival HABS half-timbering Hall interior Italianate Jacobean John Jordy later Library McKim Mead & White Middletown modern Monkhouse Narragansett Avenue Newport County Newport Daily Newport Historical Society Newport Mansions Newport Mercury Notes Ocean Drive Ochre Court Ochre Point Avenue Onorato original palatial Palladian Peabody & Stearns Photograph Queen Anne Redwood renovation residence Rhode Island Avenue Richard Morris Hunt roof Salve Regina University Sept Shavian Shingle Style Society of Newport Stachiw Stick Style structure Thames Street Touro Vanderbilt Villa Vinland Wakehurst William Woodward Wrenian York