Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Velella (talk | contribs) at 19:32, 13 August 2011 (rvt - please note 3RR warning on talk page). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Carey Mansion
View from the northeast.
Former names	Seaview Terrace
General information
Architectural style	Châteauesque
Location	Newport, Rhode Island, USA
Address	Ruggles & Westmore Avenues
Construction started	1923
Completed	exterior 1925 interior 1928
Client	Edson Bradley
Owner	Privately owned
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Howard Greenley

Carey Mansion, originally called SeaView Terrace, is a sprawling French Renaissance château located in Newport, Rhode Island. It was the last of the great "Summer Cottages” constructed, and is the fifth-largest of Newport's mansions — after The Breakers, Ochre Court, Belcourt Castle, and Rough Point.

The television show Dark Shadows used its exterior as the fictional Collinwood Mansion. Until recently, part of the main house and some of the outbuildings were leased to Salve Regina University.

History

From the 1850s to the early 20th century, fashionable wealthy families built elaborate mansions in Newport to be used for entertaining during the summer season.

SeaView Terrace

In 1907, liquor millionaire Edson Bradley built a French-Gothic mansion on the south side of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. It covered more than half a city block, and included a Gothic chapel with seating for 150, a large ballroom, an art gallery, and a 500-seat theatre — 90 feet by 120 feet, and several stories tall, completed in 1911 — known as Aladdin's Palace.

In 1923, the 71-year-old Bradley began disassembling his Washington, D.C. mansion and relocating it to a Newport property at Ruggles and Wetmore Avenues. Seaview, the 1885 Elizabethan-Revival mansion already on the site, was incorporated into the design, and lent its name to the new chateau. Work on the exterior continued for two years, and required the use of many railroad cars and trucks. Rooms that had been imported intact from France and installed in Washington, D.C. 20 years earlier, were moved again and reassembled in Newport, and the new building was constructed around them. When the interiors were completed in 1928, there were 17 rooms on the first floor, 25 on the second, and 12 on the third. It is believed to have been one of the largest buildings to be moved in this manner.

SeaView Terrace cost over $2,000,000 to build. The main house featured turrets, stained-glass windows, high arching doorways and, in keeping with its seaside location, shell motifs. The American League of Architects awarded Bradley's architect, Howard Greenley, a 1928 medal for the chateau.

Mrs. Bradley died in August 1929, and her funeral was held in the house's chapel. Edson Bradley spent five more summers at the mansion before his death in 1935.

The Bradleys' daughter, Julia Bradley Shipman, took over the estate and lived there until the late 1930s with her husband, the Right Reverend Herbert Shipman, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York. She vacated the house after the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 caused severe damage. During World War II, the house was used by the U. S. Army as officers' quarters. In 1949 the property was sold for only $8,000.

Burnham-by-the-Sea

In 1950, it became an exclusive all-girl summer boarding school, and was renamed "Burnham-by-the-Sea". The house was owned and the summer school run by Mr. and Mrs. George Waldo Emerson. During the academic year, Mrs. Emerson was a headmistress for the Mary Burnham School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1968, the Mary Burnham School merged with the Stoneleigh Prospect Hill School to become the Stoneleigh-Burnham School, which took over operation of the summer school. Even with revived use, the mansion's dilapidated condition was a cause of concern.

From 1966 to 1971, the Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows used Burnham-by-the-Sea as the exterior set for the fictional Collinwood Mansion.

Carey Mansion

In 1974, Martin and Millicent Carey of New York purchased the mansion. Restoration commenced soon after, with particular attention focused on the crumbling facade. The ivy and vines, which had been permitted to grow untamed since Mrs. Shipman left the house in 1938, had caused severe damage to the facades, which required thousands of dollars worth of repairs. The Careys began several remodeling projects on the western half of the building and commissioned the Tinneys, glass artisan owners of the Belmont estate, Belcourt Castle, to restore the windows in the Solarium.

As it is one of the largest of Newport's mansions, the Careys are faced with large costs for upkeep. Because of this, the main house and gatehouse were leased to Salve Regina University, which renamed it the Carey Mansion. The former stables were also leased as a dormitory for Salve Regina, which renamed it Seaview. The mansion's Music Room, used by the university for performances and practice, was renamed Cecilia Hall, for the patron saint of music (Saint Cecilia). The Ballroom is one of the best-preserved rooms in the mansion because it never housed students and was seldom used by the Bradleys.

Salve Regina's lease expired on August 31, 2009. Since then the Careys have begun extensive renovations including repairs to the roof, chimneys, facades and interiors such as the Solarium, Great Hall and Ballroom. Their daughter, Denise Carey, an architect from New York, currently resides there with her fiance Christopher Bettencourt, a builder from Massachusetts. Together, they oversee the restoration of the mansion.

Features

Whispering gallery

Cecilia Hall features a whispering gallery, an elliptical room reminiscent of Saint Paul's Cathedral, in which a person standing at one of the foci can hear the slightest whisper uttered at the other.

Stained glass

"The Flagellation" (circa 1544-47) was an early-Renaissance stained-glass window designed for Milan Cathedral. It was part of a series portraying the Passion of Christ, and believed to have been made in the workshop of Currado Mochis da Colonia. The window was bought by Edson Bradley for the house when it was located on DuPont Circle, and may have once been owned by Stanford White.

Estey organ

Carey Mansion's pipe organ, Opus 2140, was made by Jacob Estey of Estey Organ Company, Brattleboro, Vermont. It has a Tremolo Electric Detached Console Automatic Player which includes Great pipes, Swell, and multiple pedals. It is no longer operational, and the console is missing.

No fences

Carey Mansion has never throughout its history had any sort of fencing or wall surrounding the property. There are two main gateposts, but around the rest of the property a decorative hedge is used, rather unsuccessfully, to keep people away, making it the largest of its kind in Newport with such a characteristic.

Notes

1. "Here's A Brand New Use For Wealth—Build A Theatre Right In Your Home!" The Sunday Morning Star (Wilmington, Delaware), 12 November 1911, p. 9.
2. Vertiges of Seaview, the 1885 mansion originally on the site can be seen in the chateau's north wing.
3. During the summer of 1973 the movie The Great Gatsby was filmed next door. All the children at the school, who had a 9 pm curfew, spent the evenings listening to the filming of the cars driving up and down the old Oelrichs property, Rosecliff.
4. The Flagellation
5. The Flagellation
6. Estey Pipe Organs Opus List

External links

• Official Website

• Photos of "Carey Mansion"

• Castles in the United States
• Châteaux
• Dark Shadows
• Salve Regina University
• Houses in Newport County, Rhode Island
• Buildings and structures in Newport, Rhode Island