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.
« All Events
Writer and documentarian Sam Stephenson presents a program based his new book, Gene Smith’s Sink, which tells the story of his twenty years following the footsteps of legendary mid-century photographer Eugene Smith. The book documents Smith’s underground New York City “jazz loft,” which was an afterhours haunt for jazz musicians in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Frequent visitors to the loft included Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, and yes… even Doris Duke.
Located in Manhattan’s Flower District, Eugene Smith’s loft became a late night meeting place for some of the most creative musicians of the mid 20th century, all documented in captivating photographs and audiotapes. Smith recorded the electrifying jam sessions that took place, along with a background collage of cultural snippets off of radio and television – President John F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, the 1960 World Series, Cassius Clay, Dorothy Parker, Norman Mailer – that perfectly capture a culture in transition. Fifty years later, Stephenson has dissected and elaborated on Smith’s unique archive, interviewing more than five hundred people he discovered in Smith’s materials.