NRF promotes and invests in the architectural heritage of the Newport community, the traditional building trades, and Doris Duke’s fine and decorative arts collections, for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of all.
As a leader in the preservation of early American architecture, NRF supports research and education in areas directly related to its collections and issues of critical concern to the field of historic preservation.
Visit Doris Duke’s art-filled mansion and enjoy panoramic ocean views from the extensive grounds. Open late March to November.
The Vernon House is a site for expansive story-telling, contemporary dialogue, and preservation trades skill-building. Opening July 1, 2023: NRF and Art&Newport are excited to present a group artists exhibition on cards and card playing: Games, Gamblers & Cartomancers: The New Cardsharps
Newport Restoration Foundation holds one of the largest collections of period architecture owned by a single organization anywhere in the United States.
Celebrate excellence in historic preservation efforts within the City of Newport, Rhode Island.
Live amidst history by renting one of our many historic properties.
NRF President Frankie Vagnone sat down with Newport This Week to discuss the opening of “GAMES, GAMBLERS & CARTOMANCERS: The New Cardsharps” at the Vernon House, the founding of NRF, and the future of the organization’s work in Newport.
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Newport, RI— The annual Doris Duke Preservation Awards, a joint program of the Newport Restoration Foundation and the City of Newport, encourages excellence in historic preservation by recognizing exemplary preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation projects as well as education and advocacy initiatives that have taken place throughout Newport County. This year’s awards also seek to highlight innovative approaches to preservation, including new technologies, materials/products, excellence in practice, creative adaptive reuse, climate change adaptations, and similar progressive concepts.
Newport Restoration Foundation and the City are calling upon the local community to nominate innovative and best practice preservation projects completed within the last three years that have added value to the character of the community. The winners will be acknowledged at an awards event on Friday, September 8, 2023 (details of the event pending). Please see below for award criteria and how to submit a nomination. The deadline for nominations is July 17, 2023.
Award Criteria
Further information about how to nominate a project or individual can be found at newportrestoration.org/DDPA or by emailing Margaret Back, NRF’s Preservation Associate, at margaret@newportrestoration.org.
My internship project to catalog NRF’s property paint colors and formulas was born out of necessity. Over the years, the NRF crew had amassed an astounding depth of knowledge about the organization’s paints, but this knowledge had never been formally documented. The focus of my internship stemmed from the desire to capture this information before it was lost to time. I was given the task of documenting 20 different exterior paints for more than 70 properties.
This large undertaking began with the very important question, “Where do we begin?” Our answer was to start small by finding the colors at NRF’s two major paint suppliers, Humphrey’s Paint Center in Middletown and Adler’s Hardware in Providence. I was greeted at Humphrey’s Paint with a metal box of nearly 400 index cards, all of which held a piece of NRF’s paint color history. Our process began with photographing each index card, whether the information was for an exterior or interior color, and thus the archival and research process began. These index cards became the basis of the project and have answered many of the questions I set out to answer. The goal of accessing these index cards was to document the information on paint formulas and names and make them available for the paint crew to answer questions on a property’s exterior paint color through NRF’s in-house property management tool.
When documenting the paints, I added categories to differentiate the three exterior paint colors for each property and the date the paint was last updated. I repeated this process with the paint information from NRF’s other paint supplier, Adler’s. Throughout this part of the project, I conducted several interviews with the paint crew to learn more about the history of the paint colors, their experiences working with Doris Duke, and the importance of their roles in the preservation of NRF’s historic properties. This project would have no foundation without the experiences of NRF’s paint crew. I learned so much about how the colors came to be, what colors were used throughout NRF’s existence, and the events and decisions that led to the colors we see at NRF properties today.
In the next phase of the project, I am repeating the process to document the interior colors of the properties. I am also interviewing retired members of the paint crew to learn more about their experiences with NRF’s paint colors. The paint collection can now be viewed on NRF’s website, as well as additional information on the colors used at each property. If you see the crew working around town, ask them about the paint colors and explore the information we’ve uncovered so far.
By Elizabeth Baza, Salve Regina University Intern
Overview
The Newport Restoration Foundation and the City of Newport are seeking qualified consultants or architectural firms to develop graphics for the City’s Design Guidelines for Elevating Historic Buildings. Specifically, the consultant will produce Appendix A, a set of graphics to include photos, drawings, and/or architectural renderings of appropriate design concepts. The graphics may include, but are not limited to, delineating new and original details in building adaptations, foundation design within a historic context, and streetscape scale and building patterns. The ideal consultant is a preservation or planning professional with a background in architecture, or an architectural firm with a preservation focus.
Please review the RFP here to learn more about the project, consultant selection, and timeline.
Background
The Newport community has historically been affected by significant flooding in low-lying areas in part due to its proximity to Narragansett Bay and some neighborhoods’ development upon filled-in marsh lands. However, flooding, hurricanes, and high tides in these coastal neighborhoods are only intensifying as a result of climate change. Many of these neighborhoods are included within the Newport Historic District and represent a significant collection of 18th- and 19th-century buildings, including National Historic Landmarks.
In 2016, NRF hosted the first Keeping History Above Water™ Conference to specifically discuss climate change and building adaptation in Newport’s historic coastal neighborhoods. Case studies from the conference informed strategies for building adaptation and resiliency in historic communities threatened by sea level rise. Since then, Newport’s Historic District Commission has concluded that the best policy for long-term preservation in these neighborhoods is to support voluntarily elevating structures.
In January 2020, the Newport Historic District Commission adopted the Design Guidelines for Elevating Historic Buildings. The guidelines apply towards all contributing and non-contributing buildings within the Newport Historic District—a collection of nearly 400 properties. The guidelines include four considerations to guide commission and applicant thinking in reviewing elevation projects for historic buildings:
Streetscapes and Context Consideration Site Design Consideration Foundation Design Consideration Architecture and Preservation
The guidelines also include a definition section and three appendices:
Appendix A: Graphical Support to Building Elevation Design Concepts Appendix B: Additional Flood Mitigation Options for the Homeowner Appendix C: Landscape Best-Practices and Recommendations Related to Flood Mitigation and Building Elevation
When the guidelines were adopted, the Commission intended for the creation of appendices at a later date. Both NRF and the City felt graphic support for Appendix A was critical for applicants and commissioners to visualize proposed adaptations alongside the written guidelines. Visualizations will be an important tool for historic homeowners in Newport as well as serve as a model for other historic communities looking to articulate adaptation strategies.
Submission
The deadline for submission of proposals is August 19 by 5 p.m. A mandatory pre-proposal conference will be held for all interested applicants on August 5 at 10 a.m. via Zoom. Proposals must be submitted electronically as a single PDF document.
All questions may be directed to margaret@newportrestoration.org.
Thank you for following along throughout Preservation Month as we shared updates on our preservation projects and the people who make them possible. One of our largest undertakings is the preservation of the William Vernon House. In this final video in our Behind the Walls series, we take a look back at all we have learned from the Historic Structure Report, and what remains ahead for this important part of Newport’s history.
With the support of the community and friends like you, we are able to continue our mission to preserve and protect Newport’s architectural heritage. Thank you again for caring about historic preservation.
There’s still time left to give to NRF this Preservation Month! Please consider making a gift today to support our preservation efforts. Make a one-time gift, or have greater impact by joining Restoration Partners, our monthly giving program. Thank you for protecting historic resources in our community!
Historic homes require regular maintenance, and Rough Point Museum is no exception. Recent visitors will have seen exterior scaffolding and preservation contractors working diligently. The museum’s roof system is currently undergoing restoration to address water infiltration. With increases in storms and precipitation due to climate change, it’s more important than ever to protect this historic structure and plan for its future. NRF’s Director of Preservation, Alyssa Lozupone, describes the meticulous restoration process in our latest video.
You can help us maintain Rough Point Museum and the other historic homes in our collection by becoming a Restoration Partner. To learn more about our monthly giving program, click here.
Over the past year, NRF has explored ways in which we can have an impact in promoting the historic trades as a career path. Our talented Preservation Crew, several who have worked for NRF over 30 years, are an integral part of our organization and care for over 70 historic properties in and around Newport. Tradespeople (carpenters, masons, metal workers, etc.) play a critical role in ensuring historic properties are carefully and properly preserved. Unfortunately, the current generation of skilled craftspeople are aging out of the field. Fifty-five percent of all properties in Newport are considered historic, and are always in need of repair. Without trained tradespeople, historic properties owned by NRF and other organizations cannot be maintained.
The mission of the Historic Trades Initiative is to perpetuate and diversify the historic trades by creating strong connections with our community and sharing our expertise. The Initiative was developed through conversations with other preservation organizations, workforce training companies, and the local contractor community. Its focus is to raise awareness and offer training opportunities to create a robust workforce of people who specialize in the preservation trades. Working with national organizations including the National Park Service and Campaign for Historic Trades, as well as local contractors, NRF will launch several programs in 2022.
We look forward to sharing updates as these programs get underway. For people with basic carpentry skills who are interested in learning more about historic trades, we invite you to consider applying for our 12-week paid summer internship. More details and application information are available here.
By Kris Turgeon, Trades Initiative Manager, Newport Restoration Foundation
Keeping programming at Prescott Farm free. Providing in-person and virtual learning opportunities. Preserving important historic buildings along the streetscapes of Newport.
These are just a few of the activities that our dedicated Restoration Partners support with their ongoing, monthly gifts. By joining Restoration Partners, your monthly contribution is immediately directed toward NRF’s ongoing work to preserve Newport’s architectural and cultural heritage.
Will you help us meet our goal of welcoming 20 new monthly donors?
In honor of Preservation Month this May, we invite you to become part of this community of individuals who care deeply about protecting historic resources in Newport.
There are many advantages to joining the program. Your monthly gift is fully tax-deductible and automatically charged to your credit card or bank account. Partners receive periodic benefits and invitations to private events. We send a year-end tax statement outlining your cumulative giving.
Please visit our website at www.newportrestoration.org/donate to learn more about the program and to make your gift. Thank you for supporting NRF and for caring about preservation in Newport.
LEARN MORE
The annual Doris Duke Historic Preservation Awards, a joint program of the Newport Restoration Foundation and the City of Newport, encourages excellence in historic preservation by recognizing exemplary preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation projects as well as education and advocacy initiatives that have taken place throughout Aquidneck Island. This year’s deadline for nominations is June 1, 2022.
Newport Restoration Foundation is calling upon the local community to nominate projects completed within the last three years that have truly enriched and added value to the character of the community through preservation. The winners will be acknowledged at an awards event on Friday, September 9, 2022 (event details to be announced). Please see below for award criteria and links to the nomination guidelines.
Further information about the nomination process, including a listing of the information that must be provided in conjunction with a nomination, can be found at newportrestoration.org/DDPA or by emailing Alyssa Lozupone, NRF’s Director of Preservation, at alyssa@newportrestoration.org.
May is Preservation Month. This year’s theme of “People Saving Places” gives us the opportunity to recognize the team who maintain one of the largest collections of period architecture owned by any single organization in the United States. The painting, carpentry, and systems teams have more than 180 years combined of experience and keep the 18th and early 19th century buildings intact for our tenant stewards. With such an extensive collection of historic properties, it’s no easy task. Some of our crew have been a part of NRF for decades, and some members have recently joined the organization to continue the legacy of preservation. This month, we look forward to introducing you to members of our team and giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the maintenance of these historic structures. If you see them working around town, be sure to say hello!
You can help us maintain these historic places by becoming a Restoration Partner. As a Restoration Partner, your monthly contribution is immediately directed toward NRF’s ongoing work. Your monthly gift is fully tax-deductible and automatically charged to your credit card or bank account.
Please visit newportrestoration.org/donate to learn more about the program and to make your gift. Thank you for supporting NRF and preservation in Newport!
