Newport

Newport is a small city of about 24,000 residents on the southern tip of Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island — about 50 kilometers south of Providence and 110 kilometers south of Boston. The city was founded in 1639 as one of the original English colonial settlements in New England, with a uniquely religiously tolerant charter (Newport welcomed Jews, Quakers, Baptists, and other religious dissenters who were unwelcome in the more Puritan Boston colonies); the surviving Touro Synagogue (1763, the oldest surviving Jewish synagogue in North America, a National Historic Site) reflects this distinctive heritage. Through the 18th-and-early-19th centuries, Newport was one of the most important commercial ports in colonial North America, with a deep-water harbor and an unusual commercial mix of triangular trade (rum, slaves, and molasses between Newport, the Caribbean, and West Africa), whaling, and the early American Quaker mercantile network. The defining 'Gilded Age' transformation came in the 1880s-1910s when New York's wealthiest industrialist families (the Vanderbilts, Astors, Belmonts, Goelets, Berwinds, and many others) chose Newport as their summer escape from the heat and crowds of Manhattan.

The result is the defining Newport visitor attraction: the 11 surviving 'summer cottages' (the Gilded Age euphemism for the actual 50-to-70-room marble-and-limestone mansions built for the New York families' 8-12 weeks of summer use each year). The famous Bellevue Avenue mansion district stretches 4 kilometers south from central Newport along the western shore of Aquidneck Island; the 11 mansions are operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County (a non-profit founded 1945 specifically to preserve the mansions). The most-visited are The Breakers (the 1895 Cornelius Vanderbilt II 70-room Italian Renaissance Revival mansion, the largest of the Newport cottages, with its dramatic ocean-facing Great Hall and the famous 50-foot-high Great Hall ceiling — the most-photographed interior in American historic preservation), Marble House (the 1892 William K. and Alva Vanderbilt 65-room mansion modeled on the Trianon Palace at Versailles, with the famous Chinese Tea House on the cliff), The Elms (the 1901 Edward Berwind 65-room mansion modeled on the Château d'Asnières), Rosecliff (the 1902 Tessie Oelrichs 40-room mansion famous as a 'Great Gatsby' filming location), Chateau-sur-Mer (the original 1852 Newport cottage), and Kingscote (the 1839 Newport Gothic-Revival mansion). Combined entry tickets ($30-$90) allow visitors to tour 2-5 mansions over multiple days.

Beyond the Gilded Age mansions, Newport offers significant additional attractions. The Cliff Walk — the famous 5.6-kilometer National Recreation Trail along the dramatic eastern shoreline of Aquidneck Island, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the back gardens of the Bellevue Avenue mansions on the other — is the canonical Newport walking experience. International Tennis Hall of Fame and the Newport Casino (the original 1880 tennis-and-social club, with the famous 1899 grass-court tennis tournament that became the modern US Open; now the official International Tennis Hall of Fame museum). The Brick Market and the surviving 18th-century downtown (Thames Street, the historic waterfront) offer a different layer of historic preservation. The Newport sailing community is one of America's most important — the famous America's Cup yacht race was based in Newport from 1930 to 1983, and the surrounding harbor still hosts the Newport-Bermuda Race, the Newport International Boat Show (September), and the year-round yachting industry. The Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival (both July-August) are among America's most important music festivals. Most international visitors stay 2-4 nights in Newport, often combined with Boston, Providence, or Cape Cod on a longer New England route.