August, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



299 



Notable American Homes 



By Barr Ferree 



" Castlewood," the Villa of Louis Bruguiere, Esq., Newport, Rhode Island 



T IS no new thing to build a palace on a 

 vacant piece of ground — vacant in the sense 

 of possessing no beauties of its own, vacant 

 in its desolation, vacant in the sense of giv- 

 ing, as its most distinguished quality, a pro- 

 found impression of unsuitableness for deco- 

 rative treatment and for habitual use. There 

 are many, and, now that they have been carried out, quite jus- 

 tifiable precedents for such procedure. Even in America ex- 

 amples of the complete transformation of site to meet the 

 exigencies of new conditions are by no means rare; but it is 

 not often that a site so unpromising at the outset as that 

 chosen by Mr. Bruguiere for his villa "Castlewood," at 

 Newport, has been selected for the erection of a vast house 

 and all the appurtenances of a large country estate. The 

 word large is, of course, used in a relative sense; for the 

 Bruguiere property includes but fourteen or fifteen acres — 

 not large literally, it is true, but quite spacious measured by 

 the Newport standard. For Newport, while a city of great 

 houses, gives but small space to many of the most sumptuous 

 of them, and a property of fourteen or fifteen acres is, there- 

 fore, quite exceptional in point of size. 



This, however, is far from being the chief merit of 

 "Castlewood." That originally the site possessed few 

 natural advantages, save the outlook it afforded over the 



sea, has already been hinted. The knowledge of its previous 

 condition is now immaterial. Where once were neglected 

 and vacant fields are now spacious lawns, full-grown trees, 

 and smiling gardens, while as the crown of the whole is the 

 spacious and palatial dwelling that, in accordance with the 

 local nomenclature, is designated a "villa." To the his- 

 torian it may be a matter of some interest to know that the 

 whole of this property is new — very new indeed — though 

 the superb lawns and even the stately trees — brought here 

 expressly for the beautification of the grounds — give no hint 

 of recent origin. Very elaborate, and, it must be admitted, 

 most costly, have been the works carried out here, although 

 the result, even now at the beginning of its new growth, has 

 fully justified every expenditure made. 



The house is, of course, the chief object of interest on the 

 estate, which was created to give it an appropriate setting, 

 and for no other purpose. It is a vast and stately building 

 designed in the Georgian style by Mr. E. P. Whitman, archi- 

 tect, of Boston, and being placed on an eminence, and being 

 quite isolated, having — for Newport — an individuality al- 

 most wholly its own. It is a rectangular structure, twice as 

 long as it is wide, and with the longer front overlooking the 

 sea. The dimensions are quite regal — one hundred and ten 

 by fifty-four feet — and the opportunity thus presented to the 

 architect to design a house at once stately and ornate has been 



The Palatial Hall Has Paneled Walls and Columns of Polished Marble 



