Kingscote: Genteel Southern Style Above the Mason-Dixon Line
Kingscote: Genteel Southern Style Above the Mason-Dixon Line
True, Bellevue Avenue --teetering above the beaches of Newport-- would become the playground of New York high society. But, when Southern plantation owner George Noble Jones built this mansion in 1839, he had no idea the extravagant destination his quiet non-neighborhood would turn out to be.
Back in the 1830s, Bellevue Avenue didn't even exist, except for a narrow dirt pathway that curved along the cliff tops high above the beaches of Newport. Perhaps is was happy serendipity that led Mr. Jones to include styles from Romantic to Gothic into his dream cottage --this seemed to segue into the fanciful styles that would dominate 'Cottage Row' for the first forty years of the twentieth century. By the time the Astors rolled around, Bellevue Avenue was an eclectic mix of Victorian and Revival styles, incorporating whatever designs the fully-funded Lady of the manor desired. And, since this is, after all, the beach-- informal gaiety was then, as it is now, the flavor of the day.
Talk about your eclectic styles --from Gothic and Renaissance architecture to medieval-style tents, architect Richard Upjohn utilized a grand assortment of styles that mixed Eastern and Western sensibilities into a truly Newport-flavored fashion that in later days became known as Cottage Orne.
Kingscote has since become known as the home that begat Newport's Gilded Age. If Kingscote reminds you of a church, that's no accident. Architect Richard Upjohn utilized the same Gothic Revival the he used to build the Trinity Church in New York City. And there may be as much stained-glass. Actually, when Mr. Jones decided that he desired stained-glass in the dining room he commissioned one Louis Comfort Tiffany to produce the glass block used throughout the home. Don't miss it. This is some historical stuff to be sure, and Mr. Tiddany would be proud.
