The Draw of Newport

Working with buyers, not only from Newport, but from throughout the world is the most rewarding aspect of being a realtor. I am fortunate to work with a company that lists a wide variety of properties in a city that promotes art, history, sailing, and culture. From the spectrum of large estates such as my listing of Berry Hill, where one family has held the property as stewards since the day it was completed in 1887 to the smaller cottages near the waterfront and scattered throughout the city from the Broadway area to the Fifth Ward, there are Victorian and Colonial homes, condominiums and contemporary homes along the Ocean Drive.

The architecture varies. The areas do also. We have “The Point” where one sees old sea captains’ homes. We have “Historic Hill” encompassing large federal colonials, gambrel colonials, Victorian homes, Trinity Church where one can do the Historic Walking Tour proceeding from stanchion to stanchion reading and exploring the history of Newport. We have The Fifth Ward where homes vary in architecture and sit on neighborhood-friendly streets within walking distance to town and the waterfront. We have Bellevue Avenue with its Gilded Age grand homes, beautiful gardens, and Newport Mansions preserved by The Preservation Society, Newport Restoration Foundation, and private owners.

The buyers vary also. Newport draws the artists and artisans with its galleries and Newport Art Museum. It draws those interested in history and literature with the Redwood Library, The Historical Society and others. It particularly draws in the sailors who participate in racing and regattas with The New York Yacht Club, Ida Lewis Yacht Club, and Newport Yacht Club.

As a member of the Newport City Council I have traveled to visit our sister cities in Kinsale, Ireland; Shimoda, Japan; Imperia, Italy; and Skiathos, Greece. I go to promote my city. I have worked to sponsor programs to allow students to participate in a student exchange program to learn of other cultures and peoples in other areas of the world, many who will visit Newport in years to come.

There is satisfaction in knowing that the clients who buy here have chosen to come here, as I did. They will become part of what makes Newport special. In some ways it is a village where neighbor recognizes neighbor. In other ways it is an exciting sailing community recognized throughout the world as “the sailing capital.” The people are as diversified as the properties. It is joyous. It is never boring.

Laborare est orare

Newport preservation question du jour: Why has the Belmont Chapel at Island Cemetery been allowed to slip into such an appalling state of decay? Commissioned by famed 19th century financier August Belmont in memory of his daughter, and donated by him in 1886 to the trustees of Island Cemetery for use as a "public mortuary chapel", this red sandstone structure was built by George Champlin Mason, Sr., and later renovated by Richard Morris Hunt. It is surrounded by monuments created by important 19th century architects and artists such as Augustus Saint Gaudens, John LaFarge, Karl Bitter and Hunt. Elaborate memorials to Newport's social elite surround the building, clamouring for attention. In fact Hunt's own grave lies nearby, a flat granite slab inscribed "laborare est orare" (work is prayer).

If only it were so. In reality this work by Mason & Hunt is crumbling faster than a toddler's sandcastle on a rainy beach. Terra cotta relief tiles lie smashed on the floor. Polychrome flooring has been prised out of its setting. Furnishings & fixtures have long since been stripped away. The roof is partially collapsed and reveals wide blue patches of open sky, and birds fly in and out and leave droppings everywhere. A thick blanket of vines & weeds is seemingly all that holds the ediface together. The chapel is no longer a memorial to anything beyond the power of time to erase all things and to undermine our best efforts, even those of the very wealthy. Belmont's gift to us of a "public mortuary chapel" may well be beyond all saving. I suggest you hurry over there to check it out before it's totally gone.

Newport serendipities

There's a subtle kind of Newport serendipity, in which the past & present never seem to be quite finished with each other, but instead keep on combining with each other in new and unexpected ways...Or maybe it's nothing more than our own minds forging the links in this chain, I don't know.

One such link for me is that in 1860 Richard Morris Hunt, architect of Wrentham House, currently listed with us, met his wife-to-be Catherine Howland at a party at Oaklawn, also currently listed with us. Ever since learning of it, this factoid has seemed infused with an inexplicable metaphysical significance for me. But is it the facts themselves, or is it just me?

A famous 18th century Newport visitor, the philosopher Bishop George Berkeley (pronounced "Bark-lee" by the way), claimed that when we deal with the extraneous world we may THINK we're connecting with an outer reality, but we're really only connecting with our own ideas. Ever. Berkeley's position is that what we think of as "reality" doesn't even exist at all - his bottom line is that the world itself doesn't exist - and that only our perceptions & ideas have existence. He says: To be is to be perceived. In other words, the whole thing is just your basic hall of mirrors (which hardly comes as news to some of us - especially us realtors).

What Berkeley would make of this admittedly ephemeral thread connecting Wrentham House with Oaklawn by way of Lila Delman I have no idea, but astounding the thing is to me and astounding it will remain. Reality or no.

A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Every community has their leaders, people who step up to the plate, even when their own plate is very full. This is a tribute to coaches and a league of extraordinary gentlemen who come to Newport, this City-by-the-Sea, as part of their military career. They arrive here with their families, reunited, sometimes for the first time in years, for a tour of duty at the US Naval War College. Officers in the Marines, Army, Navy and every branch of the military.

Proudly wearing the military uniform of our country, they also wear a uniform to lead our cub scout pack and coach our little league. They patiently teach not only their own kids, but bunch of strangers kids how to run, hit, pitch and catch. Joining in with our community of year round residents with ease, they coach along side the dedicated dads that live here year- round who organize and manage the t-ball, minors and major leagues.


And when these families leave us, we pray for them, our list has gotten long over the years, and we will miss everyone who has served our Fort Adams Cub Scout Pack 2, and 5th Ward Little League. These men are calm, patient, prepared, dependable, they serve with humor and are great role models.


Living in the south end of Newport we are blessed with the natural beauty of a stunningly pictuesque shoreline, the Ocean Drive, beautiful sandy beaches, open farmland fields with grazing sheep, llamas and cows and goats, where every day the drive home is like driving to a favorite vacation spot. We are equally blessed with the military families that enhance our lives.

the relatively affordable price of happiness

Anybody who thinks that money can't buy happiness has obviously never shopped at Down Under Jewelry on Newport's Lower Thames Street. That little store has the most comprehensive selection of affordable happiness I've ever encountered - necklaces made up of chunks of yellow jade the color of marigolds, rings made out of brilliant fire-streaked antique glass buttons from Czechoslovakia, bracelets of watery aquamarines so clear and limpid that you can almost feel those hard knots in your soul start to dissolve...Everything in there is individually designed, hand made, unique, beautiful. Much of it is very affordably priced (under $200) and some of it is downright cheap (under $25).

My boyfriend calls me an shallow materialist & a shopaholic. You know what I tell him? SO WHAT. Why is it that everybody pretends to have so much contempt for THINGS? People forget that there's a power in beautiful, well-made things - be those objects jewels, paintings or houses - that verges on the supernatural. Beautiful things have the power to heal, to soothe, to bring joy and ease. These strike me as being no small achievements in this difficult world. But I suggest you go over to Down Under Jewelry and decide for yourself. Bring your wallet. Open it. And get happy!

Flower Envy

How would you know that the grass is greener if you can’t see over the fence?

One of the nicest, not-to-be-missed events in Newport in the spring/summer is the Secret Garden Tour. This June 20-22, the tour is in The Point section, one of our most beautifully preserved historic neighborhoods. Even if you live here and pass through The Point regularly, you’ll be surprised at what you see. Not only are the gardens delightful, but very varied and surprisingly large. You’ll see larger gardens than you ever thought would fit in such a dense neighborhood and you’ll see petite gardens that make the most of a tiny courtyard.

What a treat to be invited in to smell the roses, wander the paths and, of course, take home new ideas and a list to bring to the nursery!

This spring I’m a guest in a house on the Historic Hill and am enjoying my host’s garden as it springs to life. My question is…why have I never planted poppies? Even the buds are wondrous works of art.

Have you fallen in love with The Point? While you're there take a look at some homes that could be yours: waterfront with a dock at 100 Washington Street, a gracious Victorian B&B at 49 Washington Street, or a stylish contemporary loft condo in a converted schoolhouse at 11 Willow Street.

More time-travel in Newport

Another one of my favorite totally free things to do in Newport is to wander through the Common Burying Ground, which is located on a soft grassy hillside along Farewell Street just as you drive into town. I COULD claim that I love it there for the historical interest - with over 8000 internments in total, it contains more intact colonial-era gravestones than any other cemetery on the East Coast - but the truth is that I find a sense of peace and ease there that I seldom manage to achieve anyplace else.

The entire right hand side of the graveyard consists entirely of colonial stones, with the earliest of them dating to the 1680s. Name after name, date after date, stone after stone, march up the hill. Some of the stones have weathered into unreadability, but many are as as crisp & clear as if they'd been cut yesterday. Every stone there stands for a life lived, felt, breathed. The air always smells like cut grass and dirt. Bees and butterflies abound all summer.

Over towards the back fence, under a stand of magnificent & ancient cherry trees, lie numerous menbers of Newport's 18th century African-American slave population. It is about as far away experientially as you can get from the bars and the t-shirt shops, the wharves with their Black Pearls and Candy Stores, the whole frantic reality we depend upon to distract us from the slow unrelenting truths to be found on quiet New England hillsides such as these, where nothing ever lies to you.

Tree Weather

When the weather is perfectly heavenly, we walk in clouds and listen to the long deep bellow of the fog horns.

No ocean in sight, no coastal vistas to behold, just the sound of the ocean coming ashore, this is the Newport that I adore.

So many things to do on a gray rainy day, when the sun goes under cover, that's the time to explore!


"I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree", the poet Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) maintained a summer residence here in Newport. He may have walked under a canopy of magnificent trees similar to these at The Elms and was inspired to write this beautiful poem. Newport is an arborists paradise, a playground for the tree enthusiast, the mature elm, copper beech, weeping beech, tulip trees take on even more romantic form, when silhouetted against a background of white.



Walk, and walk and walk, take any side street in Newport, and see a doorway, a gate, a gable, a stable! Perhaps you will even find a home you did not know you knew, but something has moved you to take a closer look and once inside you'll feel like settling in and reading a book. A gray day has the power to make a house a home.





And when you are ready for a rest from your adventures afoot, take a stroll to the Aquidneck Lobster Company for lobster or the day's catch, unloaded right here at the dock, and take it home, perhaps even, to enjoy in the warmth of your new home.

Who will get in The White House?

Who will get in White House? Indeed, Obama or Hillary? Or maybe McCain?

In this political turmoil we can not give a straight answer.

No matter who will be there next January, we still need the change and relief from "powerful stupidity". I prefer Hillary for her outstanding intellectual and mental qualities. Hopefully, she will get there. If not, look what I have for her or Obama, or McCain. Or for you.

If you don't want to run for President but would still like to live like one then Newport is the place for you. A beautiful house in beautiful Newport, it is almost white too! Look at it! For $3,900,000 you can have a custom built home on an acre of secluded gorgeous grounds in the heart of Newport. Walk to beach, Cliff Walk and downtown.