Newport, RI—The Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) is pleased to announce that Rough Point has achieved Level 1 Arboretum accreditation through ArbNet—which unites arboreta, botanic gardens with woody plant collections, and tree advocates around the world in a collaborative community dedicated to advancing the planting, study, and conservation of trees.
This marks an important step in NRF’s stewardship of Rough Point and will support the ongoing care and accessibility of the site.
The Rough Point Arboretum is approximately 11 acres situated on the rugged Atlantic Coast and preserves the legacies of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) and philanthropist, preservationist, and conservationist Doris Duke (1912-1993). Highlights of the arboretum include a variety of evergreen shrubs such as large specimen Yew (Taxus cuspidata) planted by Doris Duke and a large Turkish Oak (Quercus cerris) dating to ca.1850. This Turkish Oak is a Rhode Island Champion Tree registered with the Rhode Island Tree Council and has also been propagated by the Newport Tree Conservancy.
Doris Duke gifted Rough Point into the care of NRF to be opened to the public as a museum. Today, NRF provides programs, special tours, and educational workshops in support of the mission of stewardship of this historic and resilient landscape.
“The Rough Point Arboretum accreditation honors the legacies of Frederick Law Olmsted and our founder Doris Duke while advancing the Newport Restoration Foundation’s commitment to cultural landscape preservation and resiliency,” Hilary Fagan, Executive Director of the Newport Restoration Foundation said. “We look forward to increasing our impact through future collaborations with our community partners.”
Joe Verstandig, Living Collections Manager at the Newport Tree Conservancy, said “the Newport Tree Conservancy is very excited to work with the Newport Restoration Foundation and the staff at Rough Point to assist with curating their woody plant collection and to help plant new trees and shrubs in this historic landscape.”
Rough Point Museum and grounds and gardens are open seasonally and are free for Newport County residents. Learn more at newportrestoration.org.
About Newport Restoration Foundation
Founded in 1968 by philanthropist, collector, and preservationist Doris Duke (1912-1933), the nonprofit organization preserves, restores, and shares the architectural and cultural heritage of Newport. Today, NRF stewards more than 80 historic buildings and landscapes. 70 of these historic houses are lived in by tenants in a unique Tenant Stewardship program. Two of the historic sites are public-facing: Rough Point Museum and the Vernon House. In addition to the architectural and landscape portfolio, the organization maintains a collection of over 10,000 fine and decorative art objects—including a collection of 18th-century Newport furniture, over 2,000 objects of fashion, and more than 150 linear feet of institutional and architectural archives. Over the past decade, and following the legacy of founder Doris Duke’s life’s work, NRF has expanded its programmatic output and community engagement through core initiatives including Keeping History Above Water,™ which advocates for resiliency and the protection of cultural resources in the wake of climate change, the Historic Trades Initiative, which trains the next generation of preservation tradespeople in vital skills, and Telling Stories, which shares the stories of people connected to the places NRF cares for and helps ensure their preservation. For more information, please visit www.NewportRestoration.org.
NRF is on Facebook /NPTRestoration and Instagram @NPTRestoration
About ArbNet:
ArbNet supports a greener, healthier, and more beautiful world. Since its inception, ArbNet has accredited over 800 arboreta across 40 countries. In 2022, ArbNet was honored with the American Public Gardens Association Program Excellence Award. Into the next decade, ArbNet will engage its large and growing audience by continuing to support gardens in reaching their professional goals and milestones, sharing best practices and resources, improving urban forestry by supporting municipal tree collections, building capacity for smaller arboreta through grants and professional opportunities, establishing arboreta in biodiversity hotspots to facilitate conservation, supporting tree conservation efforts through partnership and networks, and finally, supporting scientific and horticultural research in arboretum collections of all sizes.
ArbNet’s founding organization, The Morton Arboretum, is an internationally recognized tree-focused botanical garden and research center. Its 1,700 acres of beautiful tree-filled landscapes are a place of enjoyment, a vibrant hub for nature education, and a world-renowned center for scientific research that studies trees and how to sustain them. As a nonprofit organization, The Morton Arboretum’s mission is to collect, study, display, and conserve trees and other plants from around the world to inspire learning, foster enjoyment, benefit communities, encourage action, and enhance the environment.
Learn more at https://arbnet.org
