Harborview (Newport, Rhode Island)

 house, place with historical importance, cottage, demolished, Italianate style (architecture)

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 house was acquired by the New York collector Stephen Whitney Phoenix. 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.

www.newportmansions.org/learn/history-highlights/lost-n...