Finisterre (bef. 1876)/Rockhurst (1884)/Aspen Hall (Newport, Rhode Island)

 cottage, demolished, historical layer / disappeared object

H. Mortimer Brooks Estate
Architects: Peabody & Stearns
Located on Bellevue Avenue at Ledge Road
Demolished: 1955

The original house on the site was called "Finisterre" which had been built by Gardner Brewer before 1876. That house was either replaced or enlarged by Peabody & Stearns for H.L. Mortimer Brooks (b.1847) around 1884.
This stone and shingle summer residence was amongst the most Châteauesque of Peabody & Stearns’ Newport cottages. The street façade featured rounded towers with candlesnuffer roofs flanking a central block with an open arcaded gallery along the second story. Following Mrs. Brooks’ (Josephine Higgins) death in 1920, the estate was sold to the John Aspegrens who renamed the property Aspen Hall during their 1922–29 occupancy. Before 1929, the estate was purchased by Mrs. Walter B. James of New York and, in 1944, by Frederick H. Prince, who had purchased the nearby Marble House in 1932 for $1.00 (excluding furnishings). Mr. Prince sold Rockhurst in 1945 to Charles G. West who demolished the main house in September of 1955 for a residential subdivision. The gatehouse and gardener’s cottage survive and, recently restored by Mr. West’s descendants, give an excellent idea of the scale of the Brooks villa.

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