Windswept (1930) (Newport, Rhode Island)

USA / Rhode Island / Newport / Newport, Rhode Island / Ocean Avenue, 208
 house, place with historical importance, cottage, mansion / manor house / villa
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Windswept, Little Clifton Berley, the Elsie Quimby McVitty Cameron House (1930; Charles Barton Keene [Philadelphia and Winston-Salem, NC], architect):

A brick, 1½-story, symmetrically-massed, Uplan, cross-gable-roof Tudor Revival house with principal entrance in a projecting diaperwork-endgable- roof pavilion centered on the façade and flanked by circular-plan conical-roof stair towers at the re-entrant angles of the projecting wings that frame the east end of the forecourt that extends west of the house and is enclosed by a brick wall; casement windows are arranged symmetrically on the west, south, and east elevations; a 1-story pent-roof solarium extends east from the center of the east elevation, overlooking the water; and the high, striated-pattern roof has 2 dormers extending the wall plane of the façade, 3 dormers extending the wall plane of the east elevation, and tall chimneys with prominent pots at the ends of the main block. Twin end-gable roof gatehouses flank the principal vehicular entrance at the property’s northwest corner. The property is simply yet picturesquely landscaped.

Mrs Cameron (1878-1954), whose principal residence was in Washington, D.C., began to summer in Newport the same year, 1927, her husband, Duncan E. Cameron, died. She rented for 3 years before building this house and continued to summer here until her death.

Very much influenced by late 16th-century manor houses, especially those built of brick in East Anglia, this design reflects the versatility of architect Keene (1868-1931) at the end of his career; accomplished in a number of revivalist styles popular in the early 20th century, Keene is best known as the architect for Reynolda, the Winston-Salem country seat of the tobacco-elite R.J. Reynolds family.
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Coordinates:   41°27'29"N   71°19'40"W

Comments

  • An original house had been built prior to 1907 on land originally owned by John Alfred Hazard and later, the Newport Hospital. That house was demolished to build "Windswept."
This article was last modified 13 years ago