The Elms: Garden of Trees
The Elms: Garden of Trees
During your tour of Newport's magnificent Bellevue Avenue you'll surely see some impressive architecture and stately gardens. None, however, will impress the budding tree-lover more than the specimen grove standing at The Elms. As with other mansions on this seaside street, The Elms was built to be a summer home. As grand as these homes are, it's hard to imagine that they were merely summer get-always for New York society matrons and their dutiful husbands, but they were. And, like some other mansions on the block, it was modeled after a grand French palace --this time it was an eighteenth-century Paris extravaganza, Chateau d'Asnieres that inspired Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwin to such architectural opulence.
Much of Mrs. Berwin's astonishing collection of exotic ceramics, Venetian paintings and Chinese jade remain in The Elms for viewing. What really makes this mansion stand apart from the other are the magnificent gardens that Mr. Berwin so loved. He was especially fond of exotic trees and had dozens of them planted on the grounds of this estate. Gardens punctuated with incredible bronze sculptures, marble statuary and antique birdbaths are a delight to wander through. Even in winter, there's a special silence except for the occasional sea breeze whispering through the bare trees.
Still, winters in Rhode Island can get chilly, so you'll be wanting to tour inside The Elms, as well. Tours are self-guided. Pick up a small MP3 player at the entrance, hang it around your neck by a lanyard and begin. You'll find many places along the tour where you can input a special 'more info' code and hear additional narration about whatever it is you're investigating. Taking just the general-info tour takes about a half-hour; listening to every 'more info' extends the tour to about ninety minutes. And every minute is well worth it.
