THE NEW RESIDENCE AND GARDENS 
OF MRS. RICHARD GAMBRILL AT NEWPORT 
Designed by CARRERE & HASTINGS 
P holographs by Courtesy of J. TV. Bishop Co., Providence , R. I. 
T HE beautiful residence illustrated in these 
pages is the most recent addition to that 
group of summer homes at Newport which 
exhibits, as a whole, the most elaborate and 
finished expression of domestic architecture 
in this country. Mrs. Richard Gambrill’s 
house exhibits the successful treatment of a 
site which possessed no unusual advantages 
upon which the mind of an architect natu¬ 
rally seizes, and the effect, therefore, was to 
be gained by the house alone, but few out¬ 
lying features being permitted to attract the 
eye from it. The style is that of the Louis 
XVI period, and, if chronology be important, 
it may be termed the “ French Colonial.” 
The property measures about 300x400 feet 
and is situated a quarter of a mile from the 
sea, on the principal street, Bellevue Avenue. 
It is nearly surrounded by high walls, and the 
forecourt leading from Victoria Avenue is 
entered through an ornamental iron railing 
and gateway which were put in place after 
the photograph given below was taken. 
Small garden houses, used for tools, stand 
upon either side of the entrance at the ends 
of rows of maple trees. Beyond the fore¬ 
court is the stable court where visiting car¬ 
riages disappear behind solid oaken gates. 
Entering the 
house upon the 
east the visitor 
stands in a large 
hall at the end of 
which the stairway 
is wisely with- 
drawn beyond one 
of the groups of 
columns which 
surround the 
room. Thesecol- 
umns are of Br'e- 
che-violette mar¬ 
ble and the walls 
back of them are 
faced with Caen 
stone. On the left of the hall is the library; 
and behind the stairway on the right are 
the service rooms, connecting with the court 
which is entered from Shepard Avenue. In 
front of the hall is the salon, occupying the 
center of the house between the dining and 
living-rooms, through each of which one may 
look across a loggia into the north or south 
flower gardens. And stepping out into one 
of these loggias the visitor finds himself in 
a delightful open-air apartment affording a 
transition between the house itself and the 
surroundings. Across the distant end of the 
flower garden runs a graceful wood trellis, 
painted a subtle shade of green; and this 
treillage is repeated as an applique to the 
outer walls of the loggia. By the sequence 
of house, loggia, the little enclosed garden 
and the vaulted trellis,—soon to be wreathed 
with vines,—the architecture goes out to 
meet nature, and nature, in a sense, enters 
the structure, for the use of vineal motifs is 
seen in the paintings executed by Mr. James 
Wall Finn which occupy the friezes and ceil¬ 
ings of the loggias. Eight bluish greens are 
the dominating colors in these scenes which 
reproduce garden vistas through bowers con¬ 
taining birds and blossoms among the foliage. 
The walls below 
these designs are 
of cream-colored 
stone, and classic 
ornaments fitting¬ 
ly decorate the 
half-open apart¬ 
ment. 
The walls of 
the salon are pan¬ 
elled from floor to 
ceiling with wood, 
painted a very 
light mauve, and 
the mantel is 
made of Carrara 
marble, studded 
THE ENTRANCE TO THE FORECOURT 
271 
