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.
27-29 Green Street
The Cahoone -Yates House is a two-story building with three interior chimneys and a gable roof. It was originally built c.1763 as a double house, and is one of several eighteenth-century buildings of this style that still exist in Newport. Located on its original site, the house was purchased by the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1968 and restored in 1974-75.
There is a middle chimney shared by both houses, and two other additional chimneys, one for each house individually. There are also fireplaces in the basements of each house, an element not always found in eighteenth-century Newport homes. This feature allowed for summer kitchens that kept heat away from the main living areas. Both units were originally built on the three-bay plan, with an addition of one bay being made to the eastern unit in the late eighteenth century.
The house has two identical doorways that enter into halls with staircases located back-to-back along the shared wall. There is some question as to whether the doorways were originally recessed. No conclusive evidence presented itself during the restoration, however, so NRF chose not to restore them.
In 1763, James Cahoone and Samuel Yates purchased two separate and adjoining parcels of land. It seems this may have been done with the intent of building a double house. Cahoone and Yates were both house painters. Cahoone also operated a store that sold painting supplies. Numerous advertisements in the Newport Mercury during the last half of the eighteenth century ran under Cahoone's name and, later, his son's name.
Each house changed ownership several times during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1874, the two houses came under the single ownership of Thomas Lynch and have remained as one property throughout the current NRF stewardship.
Photo of the house before restoration.