In 1833, Scottish stonemason Alexander McGregor constructed a grand Italianate manor house on Newport’s Bellevue Avenue. The three-story structure, clad in fieldstone and granite, featured a dramatic columned entrance that stood proudly above the street. This edifice, known as the Stone Villa, later came into the possession of James Gordon Bennett Jr., publisher of the New York Herald, during Newport’s rise as a wealthy summer enclave. This era predated the even grander Gilded Age estates that would emerge at the turn of the 20th century.
In the late 1870s, when Mr. Bennett found himself at odds with Newport’s social elite, he entertained the idea of adding a club to the Stone Villa. However, his attention shifted to a lot across the street, where the esteemed architectural firm McKim, Mead & White would eventually design the Newport Casino. Built in the Victorian Shingle Style, the Casino offered a social club, reading rooms, lodging, and shops along Bellevue Avenue. Today, it stands as a National Register historic site and the home of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The Stone Villa and the Casino shared a symbiotic architectural relationship, with the Villa’s front door aligned with the Casino’s porticoed main entrance. However, in 1957, the Villa was demolished, giving way to the Bellevue Gardens retail plaza.
Now, Centerbrook Architects and Planners and Procaccianti Companies are set to bring Mr. Bennett’s original vision to life with The Bellevue, a boutique hotel poised to rise on the site where the Stone Villa once stood. Drawing inspiration from the villa’s architecture and the later Gilded Age mansions, The Bellevue will feature 91 guest rooms, a restaurant, spa, pub, gym, and other public amenities. The addition of underground parking will nearly double the current capacity, allowing retail shops to remain. Ground-level provisions for bicycle and scooter parking will enhance the site as a gateway to Newport’s attractions along Bellevue Avenue. True to tradition, the entrances of The Bellevue and the Casino will align, with The Bellevue standing slightly shorter than its shingled neighbor.
The Bellevue, like the Stone Villa, will rise three stories high. Its interior public spaces will be commodious, opening onto two interior open-air gardens. Second and third-floor guest rooms will be bathed in natural light and fresh air from Juliet balconies, with interior rooms overlooking the gardens. The complex will be set back from Bellevue Avenue, encouraging pedestrian activity with widened sidewalks, plantings, seating areas, and new street trees.
Entering the Casino’s main entrance transports visitors to a bygone era of grace and simplicity. In recalling Newport’s magnificent architectural heritage, the designers hope that the public’s experience of The Bellevue will be similarly transformative.
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