Wyndham (1890-91 et seq.) (Newport, Rhode Island)

 house, place with historical importance, cottage, estate (manor / mansion land)

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Wyndham, the Rosa Anne Grosvenor House (1890-91 et seq.; William Ralph Emerson, architect):

A large and imposing 2½-story house of random-course ashlar with a splayed-U plan embellished with low circular- and octagonal-plan crenellated towers that project from several corners, asymmetrically but regularly placed single, paired, and triple windows with late 20th-century 1-over-1 sash, high-hip roof with cross gables, and several prominent multiple-flue chimneys, the most distinctive of which, with a round arch opening near its top, extends from the circular tower on the south corner; the principal entrance, reached by a long, curving drive, is on the northwest elevation while principal public rooms are located within the southeast elevation to exploit the fine view toward the ocean.

Resembling more the kind of untutored baronial piles constructed in provincial settings by parvenu English industrialists, Wyndham nevertheless impresses because of its setting. Sited near the crest of the Ocean Drive area’s highest elevation, 100 feet above sea level, the house culminates a dramatic landscape, featured in Country Life in 1923: a sweeping greensward extends up the steep hill around specimen trees and
shrubs and numerous rock outcroppings to reach a climax at the rambling stone house.

Miss Grosvenor (1855-1942), a philanthropist, built this as a country house soon after the death of her father, William Grosvenor (1810-1888), at the same time that her brother built his house, also by Emerson, next door at number 26; she summered here until her death.

The estate was foreclosed upon and sold at auction in 2010; now styled 'Wyndham Estate, ' it was renovated and is currently (2012) for sale as a private residence.

Robert Yarnall Richie aerial photo ca. 1932-1934 - digitalcollections.smu.edu/u?/ryr,400