| Vernon Court | |
|---|---|
| Vernon_Court,_West_Facade,_Newport_RI.jpg Front elevation from Bellevue Avenue in 2008 |
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | French classical |
| Town or city | Newport, Rhode Island |
| Country | United States |
| Construction started | 1898 |
| Completed | 1898 |
| Design and construction | |
| Client | Anna Van Nest Gambrill |
| Architect | Carrère and Hastings |
Vernon Court is a Gilded Age mansion, located at 492 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Its design is an adaptation of an 18th century French château, Château d'Haroué.[1]
Vernon Court was constructed in 1898 by Carrère and Hastings to be used as a summer cottage for the young widow of Richard A. Gambrill of Peapack, NJ and New York (1848–1890), Anna Van Nest Gambrill (1865–1927). Mrs Gambrill hired her florists, the firm of Wadley & Smythe, as landscape architects for the property.[2]
The property remained in the Gambrill family until 1956, when it was auctioned. From 1963 until its closing in 1972, it served as the administration building for Vernon Court Junior College, an all girls school. Over the next two and a half decades it passed through several different owners. In 1998, Vernon Court was acquired by Laurence and Judy Cutler, founders of the National Museum of American Illustration.[3]
The mansion currently houses the museum's collections of American illustration; as the Gilded Age architecture is contemporaneous with the "Golden Age of American Illustration" theme on which the collection focuses.
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