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.
Tour Doris Duke’s art-filled mansion and enjoy panoramic ocean views from the extensive grounds, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Open April to November.
Experience the only museum in the world specializing in 18th-century Newport furniture and related decorative arts.
Explore 40 acres of open space, a tribute to the agrarian heritage of Aquidneck Island. The site is open daily from dawn to dusk for public enjoyment.
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.
Help us to continue a lived-in legacy by becoming a Restoration Partner today.
A tour of Rough Point is as much about architecture, interiors, art, and fine furnishings as it is about its most well known and most recent owner, the heiress and philanthropist Doris Duke (1912-1993). Duke wanted this favorite private retreat, which her family had owned since 1922, to be enjoyed by the public and left instructions in her will for it to be opened as a museum after her death. What you see as you travel from room to room, with the exception of the second floor galleries, is the house essentially as Doris Duke decorated it and lived in it.
Duke spent her teens summering in Newport, but for most of her early adulthood preferred to live in New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii. Newport and Rough Point became attractive to her again in 1957, when she was in her mid forties and deciding to give her Manhattan house to New York University. She needed somewhere to put its contents, which included a considerable amount of art and antique furnishings inherited from her father, the industrialist James Buchanan Duke (1856-1925). Once the collection was relocated to Rough Point, Duke began to add to it almost immediately in surprisingly complementary ways, rearranging rooms frequently to accommodate new purchases. This mixing of what she bought with what she inherited is what gives the house its unique appearance.