Malbone is one of the oldest mansions in Newport, Rhode Island. The original mid-18th century estate was the country residence of Col. Godfrey Malbone of Virginia and Connecticut. The main house burned down during a dinner party in 1766 and the remaining structure sat dormant for many years until New York lawyer Jonathan Prescott Hall built a new roughly castellated residence directly on top of the old ivy-covered ruins.

History

Located on Malbone Road, the estate has a history dating to the mid-18th century, but the present main house was built in 1848–49. The estate once served as the country residence of Colonel Godfrey Malbone (1695–1768) of Virginia and Connecticut. Colonel Malbone made his fortune as a shipping merchant and slave trader, becoming one of the wealthiest men in Newport during the 1740s through privateering and the triangle trade. Malbone's 1741 mansion was designed by

Richard Munday Richard Munday (c.1685-1739) was a prominent colonial American architect and builder in Newport, Rhode Island. Munday built several notable public buildings in Newport between 1720 and 1739 helping to modernize the city. Christopher Wren's ch ...

, a noted colonial architect who also designed Newport landmarks Trinity Church and the Old Colony House. The mansion was so grand that it was widely considered the finest house in all of the American colonies. Future President

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

boarded and dined at Malbone in February 1756 when he visited Col. Malbone, who was Washington's friend dating back to Malbone's childhood in Virginia. In 1766, during the course of a gala dinner party, a kitchen fire reduced the house to a pile of sandstone rubble. By several accounts, Colonel Malbone, seeing no reason why the party should be interrupted, ordered dinner to be served outside, proclaiming, "By God, if I must lose my house, I shall not lose my dinner!" From 1766, the year of the fire, until the 1840s, the ruins of Malbone's estate was a popular attraction among Newporters.

1840s mansion

In 1848 a new mansion was built directly on top of the old ivy-covered ruins by Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan Prescott Hall. Hall was an eminent

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

lawyer and direct descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence.Lockwood, Alice G. B.
Gardens of Colony and State: Gardens and Gardeners of the American Colonies and of the Republic Before 1840
' Published by Charles Scribner's Sons for the Garden Club of America New York 1934. The Halls commissioned Alexander Jackson Davis, a notable 19th-century New York architect, to design a house of pink Connecticut sandstone in the popular

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style of the time, incorporating some original elements such as the porte-cochere from the previous home. Hall, the

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties: New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess and Sullivan. Establishe ...

, died in September 1862. In 1875, the house's interiors were remodeled under the supervision of noted local architect

Dudley Newton Dudley Newton (1845-1907) was an American architect from Newport, Rhode Island. Newton was born in Newport in 1845. After an education in the Newport public schools until the age of 15, Newton began to study with George C. Mason, Newport' ...

who added a "massive carved oak staircase."''Malbone NRHP Nomination''. 1976. The mansion remained in the same family for over 130 years, serving as the summer "cottage" of the Morris-Bedlow family (including

Lewis Gouverneur Morris Lewis Gouverneur Morris II (June 4, 1882 – August 14, 1967) was a banker and prominent social figure in New York and Newport Society. Early life Morris was born on June 4, 1882 in Newport, Rhode Island. He was the son of Francis Morris (1845– ...

), a prominent family from New York who held positions of social and political prominence in America and Newport in the 18th and 19th centuries. Malbone Estate had some of the most prominent formal gardens in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. The gardens were originally established by Col. Malbone to the south of the house because it was from this direction that visitors and merchants from Newport town would approach the estate. Prescott Hall renovated these gardens from 1848 to 1850, expanding them to 17 acres and enlisting Andrew Jackson Downing, the leading landscape designer of the mid-18th century and an advocate of architectural philosophy. Downing partnered with Calvert Vaux to design the White House grounds and

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...

, collaborated with Frederick Law Olmsted to design Central Park, and is widely regarded as the "Father of American Landscape Architecture." The Malbone Gardens have been recently restored with an emphasis on the brick pathways lined by

boxwoods ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

, the central stone waterway, four prominent

weeping willows Weeping Willows is a Swedish indie rock group that started in 1995. History The band's first two albums are primarily influenced by the popular music of the late 1950s to early 1960s. With their third album ''Into the Light'', Weeping Willows ...

, and the carriage path lined by

beech trees Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

, all remnants of Downing's original 1848 design.

Current ownership

The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The grounds of the estate "contain the largest collection of European beech trees in North America." The Morris family bequeathed Malbone to the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1978, who sold the estate to Patricia and Philip Archer Thomas in 1980. Around 1994, the Malbone estate was acquired by James Leach, who hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg there in 2004. In 2013, Leach listed the estate for sale for $2.2 million, and it was purchased by the Brede Family of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The house remains a private residence to this day.

Gallery

;Exterior photographs from 1933 (Library of Congress) EAST FRONT, LOOKING WEST - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-2.tif, East front, looking West DINING ROOM WING FROM THE NORTHEAST - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-4.tif, Dining room wing from the Northeast SOUTH FLANK FROM THE SOUTHWEST - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-3.tif, South flank from the Southwest WEST FLANK FROM THE NORTHWEST, CLOSER VIEW - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-6.tif, West flank from the Northwest WEST FLANK FROM THE NORTHWEST, DISTANT VIEW - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-5.tif, West flank from the Northwest ;Interior photographs from 1933 (Library of Congress) DINING ROOM, LOOKING NORTH - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-14.tif, Dining room PARLOR, LOOKING SOUTH - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-11.tif, North parlor File:NORTH PARLOR, LOOKING NORTHEAST - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-12.tif, North parlor fireplace FRONT HALL FIREPLACE, LOOKING SOUTHWEST - Malbone, Malbone Road, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,62-10.tif, Front hall

References

External links