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Sunset Ridge (1877)
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- Low-Ledyard Estate
- Architect: George Champlin Mason
- Located on Ridge Road
- Demolished: 1955
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Built by the very social cottage architect George Champlin Mason, Sunset Ridge was the summer residence of prominent retired China Trade merchant Abiel Abbot Low of New York. Set at the top of a ridge overlooking the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, the house’s broad verandah provided romantic views. Inherited by Seth Low, President of Columbia University and former Mayor of Brooklyn, the estate remained in the family until its purchase by Lewis Cass Ledyard of New York in 1905. The property was eventually joined with that of Broadlawns to the south. To reduce tax valuations, Sunset Ridge was demolished in 1955.
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Stoneacre (1882)
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- Ellis-Loew Estate
- Architect: William A. Potter
- Located on Bellevue Avenue between Victoria Avenue and Ruggles Avenue
- Demolished: 1962
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This vast Shingle Style cottage, with a broad front piazza overlooking grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was built for John W. Ellis, founder of the First National Bank in Cincinnati and a director of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Sold to E. R. Thomas, the estate was subsequently acquired by William Goadby and Florence Baker Loew of New York. The Loew family sold Stoneacre in 1965 for $24,500 and it became, with a half dozen estates along central Bellevue Avenue, a dormitory first for the Hatch School and then for Vernon Court Junior College. Demolished in 1962 for a planned academic building and recreational campus, these construction plans were cancelled by the 1973 bankruptcy of the school. While the other former estate dormitories were developed into condominiums, the site of Stoneacre remained empty and is now being restored as the Frederick Law Olmsted Park. The surviving stable building was saved by conversion into condominiums in 1986, and is now a student residence for Salve Regina University.
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Greystone
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- Bosworth-Wysong-Jelke Estate
- Architect: George Champlin Mason
- Located on Ochre Point Avenue between Victoria Avenue and Ruggles Avenue
- Demolished: 1938
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The aptly named Greystone was a rough-hewn granite Romanesque Revival villa built for Fitch Bosworth in 1883 by local architects George Champlin Mason & Son and sold in 1887 to John Jelke Wysong. The interiors were noted for a stained glass program designed by Donald MacDonald for William McPherson & Co. of Boston. The estate was last owned by Mr. John F. Jelke Jr. when destroyed by arson during the evening of May 31, 1938. The gateposts and boundary wall survive but the site is now the visitor parking lot of The Breakers, directly opposite.
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The Cloister (c. 1885)
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- Kernochen - Woodward Estate
- Architect: J.D. Johnston, alterations by Delano & Aldrich
- Located at the corner of Ruggles Avenue and Wetmore Avenue
- Demolished: 1950
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The Cloister was built as a timber-framed guest cottage with a large round-arched granite front porch that gave the house its name. Originally the property of Catherine Lorillard Kernochan, whose villa stood next door, the house was acquired by New York financier William Woodward and his wife Elsie Cryder Woodward around 1910. The Woodwards embarked on a major renovation campaign with the architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich that was completed by 1914. The house was demolished in 1950 and the site is now subdivided for contemporary homes.
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The Reef (1885)
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- T.M. Davis-Budlong Estate
- Architects: Sturgis & Brigham
- Located on Ocean Avenue at Brenton's Poing
- Demolished: 1963
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The Reef was built at the southernmost tip of Aquidneck Island by Theodore M. Davis, copper magnate, author, collector, and renowned Egyptologist. The Boston architectural firm of Sturgis & Brigham created an elegant shingle and stone clad Queen Anne villa destined to house Davis’ collection of Old Master paintings, largely bought through the art consultant Bernard Berenson, and later bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Between 1903 and 1912, T. M. Davis wintered on the Nile and was granted a license to dig from the Egyptian government. He discovered the tombs of Queen Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis IV, Siptah, Horemheb, Yuaa, and Thuiu, now in the collections of the Cairo Museum. Following Mr. Davis’ death in 1915, the eighteen-acre estate was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Milton J. Budlong of Providence. The Budlongs divorced in 1928 and the property was placed in contention. The house, never again lived in by the family, passed to Miss Frances Budlong. During World War II, anti-aircraft gun emplacements were set up around the house, which housed gunnery personnel. Vandalized throughout the 1950s, the villa was set on fire in 1961 and demolished on May 25, 1963. The site is now a state park with a restored Davis-era service bungalow and a now-derelict carriage house/stable built by the architect Theodore Davis Boal of Washington.
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