Beaulieu (1856-1859) (Newport, Rhode Island)

 place with historical importance, cottage, mansion / manor house / villa

One of Newport's oldest homes, Beaulieu was built between 1856-1859 under the direction of architects Calvert Vaux and A.J. Downing for Peruvian merchant, Federico Barreda who made his money in the 1850s guano trade.

The name Beaulieu was given the mansion by the Astors, who were friends of the Barredas and purchased it after the Peruvian suffered financial reverses. Beaulieu neighbored Beechwood, the estate of "The Mrs. Astor," Caroline (or Mrs. William Backhouse Astor, Jr.,) who considered her niece Mrs. William Waldorf Astor, next door at Beaulieu, her only serious social rival. Fortunately for Caroline Astor, William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor took his family to England. In 1892, the new-moneyed Vanderbilts spent $11 million to construct Marble House between Beaulieu and Beechwood, and Caroline was then forced to compete with the formidable Alva Vanderbilt for social prominence. Sometime later the Vanderbilts, who reputedly made much of their money manipulating railroad stock, also moved into Beaulieu after William Waldorf Astor agreed to rent his home to Cornelius Vanderbilt III, great-grandson of Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt family would eventually buy the house outright, in 1911.

more - www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=48616

Bought by Wiley T. Buchanan Jr. and Ruth Buchanan Wheeler, (heiress to the Dow Chemical Company fortune) in the early 1960's.

"By the time Ruth and her first husband, the late Wiley T. Buchanan Jr.,(President Eisenhower’s chief of protocol) laid eyes on Beaulieu, it was a decaying masterpiece. Yet, unbeknownst to his wife, Wiley Buchanan decided to purchase the rundown shell of a home. He wanted “to save it,” he said, and so they did.

"My husband never told me what it cost," Ruth says, "but in those days, in the early '60's, you could buy whatever you wanted for $100,000 or less. Nobody cared. Newport was dead." In fact, her initial impression of the old red Victorian with its peaked dormer windows, was that it looked like a "hauntedhouse," and she anticipated its renovation would be a major headache.

Within a year however, the Buchanans had splendidly restored the home, if not exactly to its original state, then at least to their own taste. They hired legendary designer Valerian Rybar to decorate the interior, and lived in the estate's gatehouse while supervising the renovation. Very hands-on throughout the process,they even traveled to France to purchase light fixtures and mantlepieces. They softened the look of the home's exterior. ("We painted it a cream color to add alight and airy feel," Ruth explains,) and they installed a new kitchen and a lovely porch with elegant columns. The porch, with its sweeping views of the ocean, is still Mrs. Buchanan's favorite part of the house and the stage for much of her present-day entertaining. Her "latest thing"is to host Sunday lunches on the porch, a much less formal way of entertaining than her 1962 event, celebrating the home’s revival with an elegant evening gala for then-exiled Crown Prince Juan Carlos of Spain. From then on, Beaulieu was once again a social focal point, and its parties are annual highlights of the summer season." (article from 2005, see link)

www.washingtonlife.com/backissues/archives/02sept/newpo...