Vernon Court
| Vernon Court | |
|---|---|
 Front elevation from Bellevue Avenue in 2008 | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | French classical |
| Town or city | Newport, Rhode Island |
| Country | United States |
| Construction started | 1900 |
| Completed | 1901 |
| Client | Anna Van Nest Gambrill |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Carrère and Hastings |
Vernon Court is a Gilded Age mansion designed by architects Carrère and Hastings, 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]
History
Vernon Court was constructed in 1900 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). In addition to her husband's fortune, Mrs Gambrill had inherited a substantial sum from her father, a railroad baron. Mrs. Gambrill's sister, Jane (Mrs. Giraud Foster) had just hired Carrère and Hastings a year earlier to design their estate near Lenox, Massachusetts, Bellefontaine (one of the Berkshire Cottages).[2]
Although Carrère and Hastings typically considered the grounds and the architecture together as an ensemble, Mrs. Gambrill hired her florists, the firm of Wadley & Smythe, as landscape architects for the property. They based their design for the primary garden loosely on the Pond Garden at Hampton Court Palace[3]
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.[4]
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.
References
- ↑ The Château d'Haroué by Germain Boffrand is often cited as an inspiration for Carrère & Hastings' plans for Vernon Court. Resemblances are limited to the prominent slate roof à la française with small dormers, prominent chimneys and the segmental arch-headed fenestration.
- ↑ Ossman, Laurie; Ewing, Heather (2011). Carrère and Hastings, The Masterworks. Rizzoli USA. ISBN 9780847835645.
- ↑ Gardens at Vernon Court
- ↑ National Museum of American Illustration official site
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