SAVING BELLEVUE AVENUE: Preserve Our Historic Gates, Fences and Walls

The gates, fences and walls of Bellevue Avenue, dating from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, represent the work of a number of prominent American architects. These enclosures made of brick, stone, wood and iron reflect a variety of construction methods, materials and historic revival styles. When taken as a whole, all of these gates, walls and fences serve as a character-defining framework for Bellevue Avenue; they are the first elements an individual sees and encounters.

While much has been preserved, there have been significant areas of loss with the destruction of estates such as Stone Villa, Chetwode and Villa Rosa and their accompanying walls and gates. As a result, the historic character of sections of the avenue has been radically altered. Despite some demolition and neglect, Bellevue Avenue remains today as a relatively intact historic thoroughfare and gives its name to the Bellevue Avenue National Historic Landmark District.

However, the very gates, walls and fences that define this legendary street are not appropriately protected under the present Historic District Ordinance. Newport’s residents must remain vigilant in order to preserve the beauty and historic significance of one of the city’s most important streets.

The following images illustrate the historic importance of Bellevue Avenue’s gates, walls and fences and their critical role in defining the character of this famed street.

Adapted from a presentation given by John R. Tschirch, Director of Museum Affairs and Architectural Historian, The Preservation Society of Newport County on August 12, 2010

© 2010 The Preservation Society of Newport County, 424 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island 02840 www.newportmansions.org Saving Bellevue Avenue: Preserve Our Historic Gates, Fences and Walls 2 Touro Cemetery Bellevue Avenue at Kay Street

Marking the beginning of Bellevue Avenue, the granite Egyptian Revival style gate and fence at Touro Cemetery was designed by Isaiah Rogers, ca. 1843.

Isaiah Rogers designed a similar Egyptian Revival entrance to the Granary Burying Ground in Boston, ca. 1840.

This 19th century cast iron fence provides an appropriate sense of scale to the street.

Stone Villa (1833) was a Greek Revival-style house built for the Middleton family of Charleston, South Carolina. It stood on Bellevue Avenue between Jones Avenue and William Street.

The destruction of the house and its wall in 1957 for the development of the Bellevue Gardens Shopping Center radically altered the appearance of Bellevue Avenue.

ca. 1955

ca. 1957

Kingscote 253 Bellevue Avenue, between Jones Avenue and Bowery Street

The double board fence, dating to the second half of the 19th century, is an essential framing element of the street.

The form and materials represent the variety of fencing treatments that were available during the 19th century.

The Colonial Revival style Bellevue House (1910) by Ogden Codman displays the use of classical design principles, symmetry and order.

Brick gate posts and Chippendale-style wooden gates are inspired by 18th- century sources.

Codman worked at The Breakers and several other Newport projects. He promoted his classical design principles in The Decoration of Houses (1897), co-authored with Edith Wharton.

Designed by Horace Trumbauer and based on 18th-century French gates, the entrance to The Elms (1901) reflects the level of opulence gates and fences on Bellevue Avenue reached by the early 1900s.

Threatened with destruction in 1962, the house, gardens, gates and fences of The Elms were saved by the Preservation Society from probable demolition.

The Neoclassical style Villa Rosa (1901) was a masterpiece of planning and ornament by Ogden Codman.

Its entrance was unique, utilizing two sets of gateposts that led first into a forecourt and then a walled inner courtyard.

The main house and gardens were destroyed in 1962 for residential development; the gateposts survived until their demolition in 2004.

The elaborate scrollwork of this cast iron fence is typical of High Victorian taste.

Richard Morris Hunt, known as the “Dean of American Architecture,” introduced the Neo-Grec style – a combination of abstract forms derived from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman sources – to America.

The gateposts are based on Egyptian obelisks with the upper parts inscribed with an ibis, the sacred bird associated with the Egyptian god Thoth.

The cast iron gates have abstracted floral ornament.

Beyond the gates are the original plantings designed by the Olmsted Brothers.

Dudley Newton designed the main house; the Olmsted Brothers designed the gardens for Harold Brown.

The low granite wall was a common feature of many Bellevue Avenue estates, marking the edge of private properties, while allowing views of the house and grounds.

The main house is in the French Revival style, and was designed and built by Carrère and Hastings between 1898 and 1901.

The walls are composed of elaborate wrought iron work and brick posts topped by classical urns.

Designed by Horace Trumbauer, the cast and wrought iron of Chetwode’s (1903) opulent fence was composed of c-scrolls, derived form 18th-century French precedents.

As at The Elms, this Gilded Age estate was an important character-defining feature of Bellevue Avenue. Its destruction in 1973 drastically altered the appearance of the avenue.

ca. 1903

Calvert Vaux designed the Beechwood (1852-1853) estate with Andrew Jackson Downing, the most prominent theorist in architecture and landscape design in mid-19th-century America.

This simple Renaissance-style wall is important to the definition of the streetscape.

The size, scale and splendor of fences increased in the 1890s, keeping pace with the extravagance of Newport’s great houses.

The Marble House (1888-1892) fence is a lavish display of cast iron ornament

and light fixtures.

The architects Polhemus & Coffin designed Champs Soleil in 1929. By the late 1920s, a more restrained version of the French classical style was in fashion.

Calvert Vaux, a partner in the design of New York’s Central Park with Frederick Law Olmsted, designed Beaulieu (1856- 1859).

The wall has sophisticated Renaissance Revival-style ornament and was one of the most elaborate in mid-19th-century Newport.

The wall is capped by oval-shaped vermiculated stonework, an Italian Renaissance treatment to make stone look aged and worn.

Clarendon Court (1903-04) has Georgian style pillars, walls of limestone and an intricate cast and wrought iron gate.

Architect Horace Trumbauer built several grand houses on Bellevue Avenue, including The Elms, the adjacent Miramar, and the now- demolished Chetwode. Trumbauer’s classically-inspired designs were among the most monumental gates and fences on the avenue.

Miramar (1914) has one of the most extensive wrought and cast iron enclosures of any Newport estate.

The grillwork displays images of Apollo set in sunbursts and cast iron tassels hanging from the fence points, all inspired by 17th-century examples from Versailles and other châteaux.

Recently, the gates have undergone meticulous restoration by the owner.

The Belcourt Castle (1891-1894) gate and balustrade are comprised of architectural fragments recovered from other estates.

Gate lodge, ca. 1898

A low granite wall surrounded the original Rockhurst (ca. 1895), designed by the firm of Peabody & Stearns.

Today, the gatehouse and wall survive; the main house was demolished in 1955.