Friday June 24, 2011 at 11am
Mark the start of summer with the limited engagement tour “The Other Summer Colony: Newport’s Forgotten 19th Century Intellectuals.”
In July 1877 The Newport Mercury reported, “there exists in Newport another social strata, quite distinct from the fashionable one” on Bellevue Avenue, one “which may be called intellectual.… The very best people here…were the few in whom social and intellectual culture were united.… Everybody knows them,” the journalist concluded “but it would be impertinent to name them.”
Walk through the Kay, Catherine and Old Beach Road neighborhoods and hear about these “fortunate few.” This group of artists, scientists, authors and architects includes such illustrious characters as Julia Ward Howe and Clement C. Moore, author of The Night Before Christmas. Many of these individuals joined together to form the Newport Town and Country Club, an endeavor which combined social pleasures with intellectual pursuits. Congregating in Newport as early as the 1850s, their residences include some of the earlier, smaller-scale works of Richard Morris Hunt, McKim, Meade and White and other prominent architects.
The tour costs $12 per person, $10 for Newport Historical Society members. Advance registration and prepayment is required. Details about the tour meeting point will be offered when reservations are made.
For reservations or additional tour information call 401-841-8770.