USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 48
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
of ivy, of which it has been since stripped for better preserva- tion. The Scandinavians, who are nothing if not mythical, and whose descendants hardly consider it a wonderful feat to cross the Atlantic in a row boat, sturdily maintain that it is one of the "Round Towers" of their Norse ancestors, who sailed across the sea in the days when the Vikings ruled the waves. Others, as well informed, as stoutly insist that the quaint structure was set up on the hill as a "coign of vantage," stronghold of defense, place of refnge if needed, by the early settlers of the island.
The controversy was finally settled in 1878 by the able and conclusive paper of Mr. George C. Mason, Jr., a Newport gen- tleman, well known not only as a practical architect but for his historical research. Analyzing its construction and material he shows it to be an almost exact copy of an old mill of the sev- enteenth century still standing in Leamington, Warwickshire, England, where Governor Benedict Arnold of Rhode Island had a farm. This effectually disposes of the idea that the Newport structure was a Ronnd Tower or Norman Baptistery. To this we add that the story of the settlement of the island as shown in the colonial records as clearly shows that it was not set up as a work of defense against the peaceful, friendly Narragansetts. And to add one more stone to Mr. Mason's cairn of evidence, we add the suggestion that the astronomic intention in the exact distribution of the eight piers on the true cardinal points of the compass is not an unnatural expression of the astrologic superstition of the seventeenth and even the eighteenth centuries.
It is not a matter of tradition only, but of history, that many, if not all Newport vessels, had their horoscopes cast, by which their days and hours of sailing were determined. Of this in- numerable evidences remain in the log books of the vessels, many a one of which has its horoscope on the initial page. How common the practice of casting horoscopes was appears from the manner in which the " Wizard of the North " makes his famous story of manners of the eighteenth century to hinge upon the horoscope cast by Guy Mannering at the birth of the son of the Laird of Ellangowan. It is reasonable to snp- pose that from the top of the Round Tower Benedict Arnold and some familiar, learned in the ocult science, questioned the stars as Catherine de Medicis and her astrologer Ruggiera, a cen-
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ROUGH POINI RESIDENCE OF FREDERIK W VANDERBILI Newport
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tury before, from the top of the Paris tower, constructed by her order for the study of similar mysteries. Amid all this fog of conjecture the simple fact remains that the first mention of the structure is found in the will of Governor Arnold of 1677, where he calls it " my stone built wind-mill." The stone mill lot was a part of the governor's farm. The mill stands near the center of the rear half of the lot.
Mr. August Belmont, who married a daughter of Commo- dore Matthew Calbraith Perry (a younger brother of the hero of Lake Erie), offered to the city of Newport on behalf of his wife and himself a fine bronze statue of the celebrated officer whose peaceful victory opened the ports of Japan to the outer world. The city accepted the gift and assigned for it the center of the upper half of Touro Park, where it is a conspicuous object from Bellevue avenue; a most suitable selection, when it is remembered that the Bel- mont family have long occupied one of the most elegant of the villas on this celebrated highway.
The statue is in bronze, of heroic size, and stands upon a circular ped- estal in which is set an emblematic bronze on which are displayed in separate compartments scenes from the chief events of the gallant sailor's life in Japan, Mexico and Africa. STATUE OF COM. MATTHEW PERRY. The artist, John Q. A. Ward, stands at the head of American sculptors, and this admirable work, in its dignity and repose of treatment, is worthy of his great fame. The cost of the entire monument was not less than twenty-live thousand dollars. The statue was presented with appropriate ceremonies in October, 1868, and accepted by Mayor Atkinson. Mrs. Belmont unveiled the statue. The procession which formed on Washington square opposite the old Perry residence was marshaled by Colonel John Hare Powel. The navy was represented by Commodore John Rogers and several officers. The address was delivered by the Rever- end Francis Vinton of New York.
Washington Square, as the triangular plot of land or park
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in front of the state house is termed, was originally an open space and known as the Mall or Parade. In 1800 Messrs. George Gibbs, Caleb Gardner and Samnel Vernon, Jr., were appointed a committee to superintend a Parade lottery voted to raise money to lay ont and beautify the Mall and the ap- proach to the state house. The Mall, as appears by a sketch of the ground at this period, was laid out in a series of circu- lar walks, the largest being at the east end of a diameter covering nearly the whole width of the ground, followed by smaller circles down to the taper- ing point where now stands the fountain. There was a row of trees on the outer edge of the Mall on each side, another row on the onter edge of the sidewalk, a line on the north end of Washington square, and a line on the north side of the Parade. The lottery scheme was only partially success- fnl, but subscriptions were made sufficient to carry out the original plan. Two of the guns taken from the colony's sloop "Tartar," on her return from the capture of Louisburg in 1745, are set at the foot of the triangle, partly sunken in the ground, and a Parrott gun, presented to the city in 1861 by the late Samnel Powell, stands in the upper plot.
In 1885 the square was appro- priately ornamented by the erec- tion at its lower angle of a stat- STATUE OF COM. O. H. PERRY. ne of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of Lake Erie, an adopted son of Newport. The expense of the statue was defrayed by sums voted by the state and city governments and the voluntary contributions of indi- viduals, and the erection was inaugurated with appropriate cere- monies by the citizens' committee; participated in by Gov- ernor Wetmore and members of the assembly, Mayor Franklin and the city council, Mr. Bancroft the historian, numerous dis-
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tingnished guests and members of the Perry family. The Hon. William P. Sheffield made the historical address. Mr. William G. Turner, a native of Newport, made the statue. The attitude is that of inspiring command at the crisis of the final attack. The statue stands directly in front of the building once the residence of the commodore.
Morton Park .- In September, 1885, the lion. Levi P. Morton, for many years a summer resident of Newport, presented to the city "a plot of land" of twelve and one-half acres on Coggeshall and Brenton avenues for a public park. The land is well adapted for the purpose, and when laid ont by the city in accordance with the provisions of the gift, will be an attrac- tion to this section of Newport.
Liberty Park, on Broadway, and Equality Park, on Farewell street, are both very small but desirable in their respective localities.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS, -The old colony house or court house, as it is indifferently called in the records, was a wooden build- ing. In 1739 the general assembly appointed a committee "to erect a new colony house built of brick in Newport where the old one now stands consisting of eighty feet in length and forty in breadth and thirty feet stnd, the length whereof to stand near or quite north and south." The work was placed in the hands of Richard Munday.
The structure is a monument to the good taste and true architectural sentiment of the time. Its style is thoroughly appropriate. Massive and imposing, it is the fit seat of authority, and in all its details is one of the finest examples of colonial structure. The body of the building is of brick, the trimmings of stone. There is a balcony over the west front from which proclamations were made after ancient custom. In the senate chamber there is a fine full length portrait of Washington, painted by Stuart for the state of Rhode Island. A clock, the work of Benjamin Dudley, a Newport artisan, was set up on the gable in front of the building in 1783. After seventy years' service it was replaced by the present illumin- ated face.
The City Hall, or Town Hall, as it was called in the older days, was built in 1763, the architect Peter Harrison. Its con- struction was in the Ionic order. Its history is curious. In 1760 the proprietors of the Long Wharf in Newport granted a
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lot of land to the town for erecting a market house and sun- dry kindred purposes. A building was erected, the upper part of which was let for stores for dry goods, the rents from which to be lodged in the town treasury toward a stock for purchasing grain for supplying a public granary forever; the cost of the building on the plan of the proprietors to be twenty- four thousand pounds old tenor, to be raised by lottery. The lower part of the building to be for a market house and no other purpose unless as a watch house. The building to be of brick thirty-three feet in front or in width and about sixty-six feet in length. The upper story of this building was for many years used as a theatre. It was first let for this purpose to Har- per and Placide of the Boston theatre. They opened with the tragedy of "Jane Shore" in 1793. Monsieur Adincourt, the keeper of the box book of the Newport theatre, " teacher of the French language at his coffee house near the theatre at the entrance of the Long Wharf" advertised the opera of "Love in a Village" in October of that year.
Later the upper story was altered into a town hall. The lower is now occupied for the city offices. The structure is not dissimilar from the old merchants' exchange which stood at the foot of Broad street in New York, the ground floor of which was for a long time a market, or rather mart in the more general sense of the word. The English colonial style pre- vailed from Faneuil Hall to the James river, and had a quiet repose and unpretending dignity which modern public build- ings usually lack.
The Redwood Library Building .- This beautiful building stands at the head of Bellevne avenne on a broad open plot of ground separated by roadways from neighboring structures. The lot of land, then called the Bowling Green, was presented to the library company in 1748 by Mr. Henry Collins, a New- port merchant of education and artistic taste. The building, which is in the Doric order, was begun in 1748 and completed in 1750. The plans were made and the erection superintended by Mr. Peter Harrison, assistant architect of Blenheim house, the seat of the Marlboroughs. The subscription was five thousand pounds. To complete the work the company taxed themselves equally to the sum of twelve hundred pounds additional. The original building was enlarged by an exten- sion of the north and south wings and a new structure added
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ANGLESEA. RESIDENCE OF WALTER H. LEWIS. Newport
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at the east end in 1839. In 1844 a bequest was made to the library of one thousand dollars by Mr. Indah Touro for the repair of the portico and the laying of a sidewalk to East Touro street at the corner of Kay street, where the cemetery fronts. Bellevue avenne in front of the library is shaded by beautiful trees, one of which, a fine beech, is famed as the most perfect specimen of its kind in America. It was planted by Mr. John- ston about half a century ago.
The Jewish Synagogue .- This building, as well as the street on which it fronts, which, thanks to the generous bequests of Abraham and Judah Touro, is kept in perfect repair, was of contemporaneous structure with the Redwood Library and the town hall, and was the work of the same classic architect, Peter Harrison. It is a small brick building, the entrance to which, according to the rules of temple architecture, is at the western end. As the street does not run in cardinal lines this gives to the little structure a curious air of individuality which arrests attention, built as it is at an angle not only with the surrounding buildings but even with the stone walls of its own enclosure. The interior is of the utmost simplicity but in scrupulous neatness and repair.
Newport Artillery Armory .- This ancient organization, though chartered in 1741, can hardly be said to have had a home of its own until 1836 when its members had their first drill under their own roof in the armory building constructed for them in Clarke street. The building is a solid low structure of rough stone and looks as though it might be cotemporary with the charter of the corps, granted in the days of " George the Vic- torions."
The Boat House .- The original boat house stood at the head of what is now called boat house galley, at the end of Bellevue avenue. It was a wooden building and destroyed by a gale before the present century. It is of tradition that the land and ledge adjoining, on which the house stood, was given to the gunners and fishermen of Newport in perpetuity. It was fol- lowed by a stone structure which stood a little west of the site of the first wooden building. It was badly damaged. the sea breaking completely over it in the September gale of 1815, that memorable blow when the waters of the sea and harbor nearly met across the neck. It was rebuilt by the gunners and fisher- men, and was for many years kept in repair by the sportsmen craft. It was taken down a few years since.
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The Casino .- The need of a place of rendezvous for the enter- tainment of the throng of summer visitors led to the building of a charming and commodious Casino on Bellevue avenue in 1880. Here, encircling a large court laid out for tennis courts, is an extensive and extremely picturesque structure with nu- merous piazzas, verandahs, reading and restaurant rooms, and at- tached to it a fine ball room and a pretty theatre. It is occa- sionally open in the winter season. In the summer season it is the daily resort of a gay and brilliant assemblage of pleasure
THE CASINO, BELLEVUE AVENUE.
seekers. The Casino is governed by a board of trustees and is only open to subscribers and by card of entrance. The rates are reasonable and graduated to the time of use.
Easton's Beach Pavilion .- From the earliest days of the set- tlement, the charms of the lovely beach, with its smooth, hard surface and gradual slope, has been recognized, and during the first half of this century it was the favorite bathing resort of the northern states; but of late years rivals have sprung up, Narragansett Pier drawing even Newport visitors to its bathing
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establishment. In 1886 some enterprising Newport gentlemen, with the promise of city assistance, erected a large pavilion, to which over five hundred bath honses are attached. The pa- vilion is 648 feet long, has a broad verandah, drawing rooms, a café, two stands for bands, and the baths are provided with hot, cold and sea water. The sea wall has been extended to the west end of the bathing rooms, and the roadway has been widened and improved. His honor, the mayor, in his recent message, notices the throngs which flocked to the beach last summer, the nnexceptional good order which prevailed without police interference, and pronounces the improvement a great success. In a word, it was only necessary for Newport to make one effort to regain her place at the head of the bathing stations, as she is, and must always remain, peerless among the watering places of America.
These improvements in the beach will be naturally followed by a growth of settlement on Easton's point, which lies contig- nons to it to the eastward, and is bordered by a cliff line as fine as that which faces it from the Newport side.
Newport Reading Room .- This is essentially a club with- ont a restaurant. It is managed like the Casino by a board of trustees, and is open on easy terms to the army and navy and acceptable visitors on payment of weekly or monthly dnes. It stands on the corner of Bellevue avenue and Church street and is open winter and summer.
THE LIBERTY TREE .- The lot on which this tree stands was deeded (1765) by Captain William Read, and is at the junction of Thames and Farewell streets. The tree was cut down by the British during the time of their occupation of the city during the revolution. On the 25th of April, 1783, thirteen citizens (John Williams, Walter Johnson, Thomas Mumford, Thomas Stevens, John Stevens, Samuel Simpson, Job Townsend, Ben- jamin Lawton, John Henshaw, George Perry, Noah Barker, Robert Taylor, William Doderich) brought a tree on their shoulders from Portsmouth and planted it on the old site. In 1823 an oval plate of copper nearly two feet long was engraved by William S. Nichols and nailed on the tree. This plate was renovated for the re-union of 1859.
LIBRARIES .- It has already been noticed in the sketch of Trinity church that the first library in Newport consisted of the seventy volumes, mostly in folio, sent over from England
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by the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" to that, the first Episcopal parish in Rhode Island.
In the year 1730, under the inspiration of the celebrated Bishop Berkeley, who was then residing on the island, a liter- ary and philosophic society was established in Newport. The intellectual tone of Rhode Island was at that period high, and literature and the arts found many and generous patrons among the commercial magnates of the trading colony, while the pro- fessions were amply recruited from the English, and especially the Scotch, universities. This institution, of which Berkeley was no doubt a familiar, though from his temporary residence not a member, was the forerunner and cause of the library. To promote the objects of the society Mr. Abraham Redwood, a wealthy resident of Newport, to which he had removed from Antigna, in 1747 placed at its disposal a sum of five hundred pounds sterling for the purchase of standard books in London, on the condition that a suitable edifice were erected to receive the gift and any others that might follow it.
The society at once obtained a charter and incorporated themselves under the name of the Redwood Library Company. Mr. Henry Collins, a Newport merchant, supplemented the gift of Mr. Redwood by that of a suitable lot of land, and a build- ing was erected in 1748.
At the first meeting of the company, held in the council chamber at Newport in September, 1747, officers were chosen : Directors, Abraham Redwood, Esq., Rev. James Honeyman, Rev. John Callender, Henry Collins, Edward Scott, Samuel Wickham, John Tillinghast, Peter Bours; treasurer, Joseph Jacobs; librarian, Edward Scott: secretary, Thomas Ward. Books were imported, of which many were classics. The library escaped the disaster of army occupation without serions damage.
The company was reorganized in 1785, when officers were chosen : Directors, Hon. Abraham Redwood, Stephen Ayrault. William Vernon, John Malbone, Jonathan Easton, Nicholas P. Tillinghast, Jacob Richardson, Robert Stevens ; secretary, Wil- liam Channing ; librarian, Christopher Ellery : treasurer, Stephen Ayrault. Mr. Redwood died in March, 1788. With him the interest in the library is said to have ceased. Indeed, it is said that from 1750 to 1810 no books were added to the library by purchase, and but few by gift. The institution was
THE MLADINGS RESIDENCE OF SCHUYLER HAMILTON J
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in 1810 revived by the addition of sixty-five new members. In 1855 a radical change was made in the rules of the library, and its usefulness was extended, and it has since gradually, if slowly progressed. The library has greatly increased both by purchase and gift, and while the selection of standard and even rare volumes has been admirable, the lighter current literature is in sufficient supply to attract the reader for amusement only.
By the last report of the librarian there were in the library August 17th, 1887, a total of 32,488 volumes, and under the liberal policy of the directors, a circulation of 9,534 against 6,833 the previous year. The present librarian, Mr. Richard Bliss, is admirably fitted for his position, both by training and inclination. There is a fine collection of paintings, statuary, antique furniture and rare curiosities, which it will be soon policy to remove to a more suitable place and relieve the build- ing and the gentlemen in charge from the numberless annoy- ances which their care and exhibition demand. A fireproof museum building, under proper securities is what Newport now most needs in the way of a public building.
The People's Library .- This admirable institution, equally dear to the rich people on the hill and the poor classes be- low, and alike used by both, was founded by Mr. Christopher Townsend, a native of Newport. About the time of its incep- tion, some other citizens, moved by the same desire, procured about three thousand volumes, and obtained a charter of incor- poration for a free library.
Meanwhile Mr. Townsend, determined to exercise a direct supervision over his own benefaction, purchased with admir- able judgment a choice collection of standard works of about seven thousand volumes. Selected abroad, chiefly in England, this first beginning contains many volumes, early guide books, connty histories, which are rarely, if ever, met with in our great American libraries. On the other hand, the standard literature is almost without exception of the best editions and bound in a manner worthy of a private collection. When Mr. Townsend's library had reached the number above named, the managers of the Free Library generously turned over to him their collection. This was the beginning of the People's Library. It was dedi- cated in 1870. Mr. Townsend having, by endowment, secured the payment of salaries and running expenses.
Mr. Townsend lived to see the practical working of his noble
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gift. At the time of his death, in 1881, under his advice and guidance, the collection had increased to 25,000 volumes of good books. Their free circulation among the people of Newport and its vicinity aggregated 40,000 volumes, and it was stated at that time that he had expended upon it the sum of $80, 000. It was the choice of this modest gentleman that his name should not be given to the collection, but that it should stand as an example which others might follow in the same spirit of self- sacrifice, without fear that their modest additions should innre to his personal credit. But his name shall be remembered so long as Newport remains an intellectual center in this practical, bnsy country.
The library building is in Thames street between Pelham and Mill streets. The present librarian, Mr. David Stevens, is just the man for an institution of this mixed character. Courteons to all, patient with the less intelligent class for whom the library was created, he is at the same time thoronglily ac- quainted with the merits and the wants of the collection.
FINE ARTS .- It is impossible in the limits of a chapter to give a reasonably full account of the abundant works of art in modern Newport. The fine arts have always had full repre- sentation here-both in the persons of sculptors and painters and in the work of their hands. Greenough's studio on Corne street is now worthily occupied by a rising young artist, Wil- liam Clarke Noble, whose heroic bust of the actor Mccullough as Virginius has already placed him in the foremost ranks of American sculptors. Mr. Noble was born in Gardiner, Maine, in February, 1858. He studied in Boston, commencing at the age of fourteen, and worked for a number of years in architect- ural sculpture in wood and clay. He came to Newport in 1882, being engaged to decorate the interior and exterior of the Casino. Since 1884 he has devoted himself wholly to portrai- ture in sculpture. Among his works may be mentioned Rev. Charles T. Brooks, John Hare Powel and the late Thomas Doyle, ex-mayor of Providence. This brief notice of art in Newport must of necessity be confined to the colonial period and of the works which are of Newport proper.
Mr. Henry Collins, a merchant of wealth and a man of taste, formed a gallery of pictures about the middle of the last century, many of which were painted to his order. There were in this collection portraits of eminent divines-Berkeley,
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Callender, Hitchcock and Clapp. According to tradition most of these pictures were painted by Smibert, who came to Amer- ica with Dean Berkeley. The only collection of any moment is that of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum. Here may be found quite a number of portraits of old Newport governors and worthies-Coddington, Wanton, and some of the Collins collection. These are of varions merit and of uncertain anthen- ticity. Some are good copies. Of undoubted originals by master hands there are few. These are a portrait of William Redwood, a son of the founder, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; of Gilbert Stuart, by himself; and of Mr. and Mrs. Bannister, by the same artist when only fourteen years of age, which reveal the touch and color of the later master; and one of Polly Law- ton, the Newport belle of the revolutionary period, by an nn- known hand. In the state house is a grand full length of Pres- ident Washington, by Stuart.
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