1856 - 1865

 

Cliffs (1859)

• Daniel B.Fearing House
• Architect: George Champlin Mason
• Located on Annandale Road
• Demolished following WWII

Daniel B. Fearing, a noted art collector and Mayor of Newport, built this large Italianate house. The house passed to Mr. Fearing's son, H. S. Fearing of New York, and thence to the latter's nephew, H. A. C. Taylor, whose descendants demolished the house following World War II to reduce tax valuations.

By-the-Sea (1860)

• Belmont Estate
• Architect: George Champlin Mason
• Located on Bellevue Avenue at Marine Avenue
• Demolished:1946

Due to family ties that united the Perry and Champlin families in Newport, George Champlin Mason's fledgling architectural practice was assured when launched in 1860 with the commission for the August Belmont Villa By-the-Sea. The project was received through Mrs. Belmont, nee Caroline Perry, a daughter of Commodore Matthew Perry. Mr. Belmont began his career in New York as the Rothschild family's American representative. Summering in her native Newport, Mrs. Belmont introduced the Rothschilds' penchant for things French, from liveried footmen to a celebrated demi d'Aumont carriage, to the summer colony. The house was classic early Mason: an Italianate cottage with mansard roof, a three-bay entrance front pavilion, and conventional bracketed trim. By-the-Sea was softened considerably during the classicizing alterations undertaken by the Mr.Belmont's son Perry Belmont of Washington. Sold out of the family by his estate, By-the-Sea then became a rental property and the legendary summer home of Washington-based socialite Evalyn Walsh MacLean.

The property was subsequently sold for delinquent taxes, from the 44 East 34th Street Corporation to J. C. O'Donnell, who promptly resold to Ray Alan Van Clief, the then-owner of Rosecliff, the abutting former Oelrichs estate. Mr. Van Clief demolished By-the-Sea in 1946 to join its lands with those of Rosecliff. Following Van Clief's sudden death, the Belmont and Oelrichs estates were jointly sold in 1947 to J. Edgar Monroe of New Orleans, who in 1971 donated the combined properties to the Preservation Society. Twelve acres, comprising the bulk oft he fourteen acres of the former By-the-Sea property, were promptly sold to a land investment company and proceeds placed in an endowment for Rosecliff. The estate was subdivided and modern homes built on the site beginning in 1986. 

 

Hawthorne Villa (1860)

• Stevenson Estate
• Architect: Unknown
• Located at corner of Carroll Avenue and Bateman Avenue
• Demolished: 1967

A large Gothic Revival field stone cottage long occupied by the Stevenson family of Philadelphia, Hawthorne Villa was set far back on its lot in an English Romantic landscape. The villa was demolished in 1967 for a Naval Housing Complex that has recently been privatized as condominiums.

F. Sheldon House (c. 1860)

• Frederick Sheldon House
• Architect: George Champlin Mason
• Located at the corner of Narragansett Avenue and Annandale Avenue
• Demolished after WWII

 
With its broad verandah, low hipped mansard roof, and projecting rear service ell, this Italianate cottage for Frederick Sheldon of New York was typical of local architect George Champlin Mason's 1859-61 development of summer cottages along Narragansett Avenue. Mrs. Sheldon was the sister-in-law of H. A. C. Taylor and the house passed to the Taylor and George R. Fearing estates until its eventual demolition following World War II.

Harbourview (1865)

• Merrill-French Estate
• Architect: George Champlin Mason
• Located at Wellington Avenue at Ida Lewis Yacht Club
• Demolished: 1950

 
Built for Ayres P. Merrill of Natchez by the active Newport architect George Champlin Mason, Harbourview was one of the most ambitious of Mason?s Italianate cottages, renovated by him for two subsequent owners. In 1870, the New York collector Stephen Whitney Phoenix acquired the house. Following Mr. Phoenix's death in 1881, the property was sold to New York lawyer and banker Francis Ormond French. His daughter Ellen Tuck French married Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt in Newport in 1901 and their son, William H. Vanderbilt III, was later to become Governor of Rhode Island. Following her divorce from A. G. Vanderbilt,Ellen Tuck French married Paul Fitzsimmons and resided at Harbourview until her death there in 1948. Governor W. H. Vanderbilt sold the estate in 1950 and the house was demolished for residential subdivision.

Paran Stevens Villa (1865)

• Stevens Villa
• Architect: George Platt
• Located at corner of Bellevue Avenue and Jones Street
• Demolished: 1925

The lavish'steamboat gothic' villa of Mrs. Paran Stevens of New York, an energetic hostess whose daughter became Lady Paget, sat to the rear of Stone Villa's block, hidden from view by luxuriant evergreens and deciduous trees. The house was demolished to extend the grounds of Stone Villa around 1925. 

Pen Craig (1865)