Fairlawn - The Young Building (ca. 1850s) (Newport, Rhode Island)

 house, school, cottage, estate (manor / mansion land)

The Young Building houses the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy and serves as a residence for sophomore students in the Pell Honors Program.
www.salve.edu/pellCenter/
www.salve.edu/virtualtour/young.aspx

Fairlawn was one of about a dozen cottages erected as part of the initial development of Bellevue Avenue during the 1850s. This three-story brick and wood frame structure built for Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Ritchie of Boston is as well known for its history as its design. Wrought iron gates and a mosaic-tiled floor at the front entrance lead to the Great Hall with its beautiful carved staircase. The dining room, paneled in dark carved wood under an ornamental ceiling, was used to seat up to 100 guests. Benjamin Harrison's Vice President, Levi P. Morton, bought the property in the late 1860s and commissioned Richard Morris Hunt, designer of Ochre Court, to build a ballroom on the south side. The room, with its mirrored panels and frescoes above the double doorway, was added in 1870 expressly for the visit of Ulysses S. Grant shortly after he became President.

In 1881, the firm of McKim, Mead and White designed second story family rooms over the ballroom. It was during this period of renovation that the stained glass Tiffany windows were added to the Great Hall. I. Townsend Burden bought the house nine years later and commissioned Peabody and Stearns to design a curved porch. Fairlawn remained a private residence until the 1920s. It has served as a preparatory school and a junior college and was returned to residential use after the 1960s. Acquired by the university in 1997 to house the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, it has recently been restored and renamed in memory of Newport residents and longtime benefactors Anita O'Keeffe Young and Robert R. Young. The university received the Newport Historical Society's Historic Preservation Award in 1999 for the restoration of this building.