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Vernon
Court from the 'Sunken Garden'
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Vernon
Court, an adaptation of an early 18th century French Chateau, was designed
and built in 1898 for Mrs. Richard van Nest Gambrill of Peapack, New Jersey. Occupying one full
block on historic Bellevue Avenue, Vernon Court was widely heralded
as the most spectacular mansion of its kind in America. Author Barr
Ferree wrote in American Estates and Gardens (1904) that Vernon
Court was "one of the truly greatest estates in America... it has startling
beauty and daring originality giving it high rank among the notable
houses of America". It was compared with the White House, the Biltmore,
The Breakers, and several other mansions as one of the ten greatest mansions
in America. Vernon Court stands today as an incredible architectural
monument and clearly remains one of the most significant structures
in the country.
'The Romance Staircase', modeled after
Le Petit Trianon at Versailles
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Vernon Court was designed
by the noted architects John Merven Carrére and Thomas Hastings of Carrére & Hastings, who designed the New York Public Library, the US Senate Office
Building in Washington, DC and other nationally recognized architectural
monuments. Perhaps the most significant of the Carrére & Hastings'
architectural designs is The Frick Collection, residence
of industrialist and art collector, Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919). It was designed so that the first floor
could be converted into an art museum. Carrére & Hastings used
Vernon Court as the antecedent design model for the remarkable Frick
Collection.
The Marble Hall (1899)
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Jules Allard et ses
fils of Paris, the world's most noted interior designers at the turn
of the Twentieth Century, were responsible for the interiors of Vernon Court. The Marble
Hall, Petit Salon and Ballroom were all modeled after the Marie Antoinette
suites at the Palace of Versailles. Allard completed many other mansion interiors
in Newport such as The Elms, Rosecliff, The Breakers, and Marble
House. The two loggias at the opposite ends of the building are decorated with murals undertaken by Tiffany
Studios muralist, James Wall Finn. They were inspired by the Villa Giulia
in Rome, home to Pope Julius III. The formal sunken gardens at Vernon
Court were designed by the New York landscape architects, Wadley & Smythe,
and were inspired by the Pond Garden at Hampton Court Palace created
by King Henry VIII for his ill-fated Queen, Anne Boleyn.
The West Garden House and Vaulted Trellis at Vernon
Court
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At the adjacent estate, Stoneacre (the mansion was demolished in the 1960s), the grounds were designed by the first American landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, in 1884.
Vernon Court sits on three acres, with its Frederick Law Olmsted Park (Stoneacre) comprising another three
acres. The Frederick Law Olmsted Park is the last open space on Bellevue Avenue, a grand promenade
of the 'Gilded Age' known as the "most elegant street in America," in the Capital of architectural elegance."
All of these design treasures and feats are symbiotic and now, when combined with the most
important paintings from the 'Golden Age', they make Vernon Court arguably
one of our greatest national cultural sites. Set in Newport within the
timeless ambience of magnificent arks of a by-gone grandeur, Vernon
Court is just two blocks from Cornelius Vanderbilt's The Breakers (1895), adjacent to Chateau-Sur-Mer (1852), and the Watts Sherman house (1874) by H.H. Richardson, the first example of 'Shingle Style' - America's own indigenous style of architecture.
The Interior of the Treillage Loggia with murals
by Tiffany Studios' artist James Wall Finn
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Newport has an unparalleled
architectural heritage. These illustrious venues of the greatest of the
'Gilded Age' mansions, striking architectural monuments and national
historic sites abound, are preserved forever. Vernon Court lies
little more than an hour south from Boston, and is three
hours from New York City.
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