Newport Bellevue Avenue Historic District - Mobile GPS Self-Guided Audio Walk

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Audrain Automobile Museum, 222 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-3515

At the intersection, you’ll notice a beautiful red-brick, white-arched building on the left. That’s the historic Audrain building, which has been converted into a luxury car museum.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Edward King House, 35 King St, Newport, RI 02840, USA

Directly across as you turn is the red brick Edward King House.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Kingscote, 253 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-3571

George Noble Jones, a man made rich by southern plantations, commissioned the house in 1839. When the Civil War broke out, Jones suddenly found himself in hostile territory. He fled Newport and sold the property to William Henry King.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: The Bellevue House, 14 Catherine St, Newport, RI 02840, USA

Look for the white, pillared building on the left. That’s Bellevue House. It mixes classic American styles with European architecture

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Isaac Bell House, Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI 02840

Today, Bell House is also open to visitors, so feel free to come back later for a tour.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: The Elms, 367 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-6915

Built in 1901, The Elms cost $1.4 million. This was probably just a drop in the bucket for Edward, a coal magnate and one of the 58 most important men in America at the time.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Chepstow, 120 Narragansett Avenue, Ward Ave, Newport, RI 02840, USA

Try to spot a bit of the white Italianate-style mansion behind the trees. Built in 1860, Chepstow first belonged to Edmond Schermerhorn. Edmond was a reclusive cousin of the famous Mrs. Caroline Astor.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Ochre Court, Newport, RI

It’s the second largest of Newport’s mansions, and one of its most expensive. It was built in 1892 for banker and real estate mogul Ogden Goelet. The cost of construction was roughly $4.5 million. That’s almost $125 million in today’s money!


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: The Breakers, 44 Ochre Point Ave, Newport, RI 02840-6906

The Breakers is the largest, and most famous of Newport’s “summer cottages.” It measures at a staggering 125,339 square feet. The mansion’s name is taken from the waves breaking against the rocks at the base of the cliffs to your left.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Chateau-sur-Mer, Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI 02840

Let’s start with Chateau first. Built in 1852, the mansion’s name literally means “castle on the sea”. But it’s not on the sea, is it? The sea is actually several streets behind us!

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: National Museum of American Illustration, 492 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-4127

Today, Vernon Court is the National Museum of American Illustration. The museum features classic artworks by Norman Rockwell, JC Leyendecker, and more. Even if you don’t know those names, you’ve almost definitely seen some of their work.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Rosecliff, 584 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-4265

Continue looking to the left as we continue down Bellevue. Coming up soon, you’ll see a white mansion set far back from the road. That’s Rosecliff, the mansion built for Theresa and Hermann Oelrichs in 1902.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Rough Point, 680 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-4283

Coming up on your left is the sprawling mansion Rough Point, home to the Duke family. The English-style manor was originally commissioned by Frederick Vanderbilt in 1887.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Belcourt of Newport, 657 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-4280

Coming up on the right is Belcourt Castle, the white-and-grey summer cottage of Oliver Belmont. Oliver was a wealthy bachelor with a fondness for horses when he commissioned Belcourt in 1891.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Marble House, 596 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840-4265

Marble House, the immense, pillared estate to your left, was by far the most expensive of any of the Newport mansions. That was mainly thanks to the 500,000 cubic feet of marble used to build the structure. In 1892, it cost William Vanderbilt $11 million. Today that would be over $300 million!

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Gooseberry Beach, 130 Ocean Ave, Newport, RI 02840-6515

You might be able to make out Gooseberry Island far in the distance. The island used to be inhabited in the early 1900s. That changed when the Hurricane of 1938 hit. The hurricane’s damage was so extensive that the state decided not to try rebuilding the settlement. To this day, the island remains a nature reservation.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Brenton Point State Park, Ocean Drive, Newport, RI 02840

You wouldn’t know it now, but there used to be a mansion on this land. It was built for Theodore Davis, a lawyer, and businessman. He called it The Reefs and lived there until his death in 1915. In 1922, automotive mogul Milton Budlong purchased the property.

Duration: 6 minutes

Stop At: Castle Hill Lighthouse, 800-870 Ocean Ave, Newport, RI 02840-6514

Castle Hill Lighthouse was originally the summer home of Alexander Agassiz, a marine biologist, and explorer from Harvard University. He felt that there were few places better suited to observing marine life than the coast of Newport.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Newport Country Club, 280 Harrison Ave, Newport, RI 02840, USA

The club was founded in 1893, and hosted the first U.S. Open in 1895. It was spearheaded by Theodore Havemeyer, whose family owned the American Sugar Company. Together with John Jacob Astor IV and Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Havemeyer purchased 140 acres on which to establish his country club and golf course.


Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Hammersmith Farm, 225 Harrison Ave, Newport, RI 02840-3784

The wall marks the boundary of Hammersmith Farm, the Victorian estate of Jackie Kennedy. Jackie was the wife of US President John F. Kennedy and this estate was her childhood summer home.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Fort Adams State Park, 90 Fort Adams Dr Eisenhower Trust Building, Newport, RI 02840-4388

Constructed to defend against any potential naval attack on Narragansett Bay, Fort Adams never saw any real battles. It was outfitted with 17 guns in the early 1800s, but never had to use them.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Bonniecrest, 111 Harrison Ave, Newport, RI 02840, USA

Bonniecrest was built in 1914 for banker Stuart Duncan. Duncan’s family made their fortune by importing Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. Yep, you heard that right! Gilded Age society wasn’t just made up of coal barons and railroad tycoons… it included sauce merchants too!

Duration: 5 minutes