"The appropriation for a house should be divided into two equal parts, one-half for the house, the other for the gardens, pathways, court, approach, terrace and the rest of it, or, as it might be termed, one-half for the pudding, the other for the sauce." Architect Thomas Hastings
MRS. RICHARD GAMBRILL'S chateau on Bellevue Avenue is one of the rarely beautiful homes of Newport. Set in the midst of superb gardens whose hedge-bordered lawns slope toward the avenue, the house composes perfectly with its surroundings. The windows of every room afford enchanting glimpses of gardens, of pergolas where tea is served on those afternoons when the chatelaine is not "teaing" somewhere else; of terraces where coffee is served under the rays of the moon, or of soft-toned electric lights. The interior of the house is well worthy of its surroundings. Although marble is used very extensively, there is no atmosphere of coldness nor of a too great formality. The entrance hall is almost austere in its treatment, but its charm of outline and the color note given by the tapestries counteract the effect of the marble walls and pillars.
The dining-room is a ceremonious apartment overlooking the red garden. The tones of the geraniums, the salvias and the rambler roses are repeated in the hangings and the rug of this gracious room. Of unusual interest are the two side tables of marble which take the place of the more conventional sideboard. The lighting fixtures are exquisitely beautiful. Mrs. Gambrill, in fact, has a penchant for beautiful fixtures; and those in every room are an artistic joy. Over one of the marble side tables hangs a portrait by Sir Peter Lely.
The drawing-room is truly regal in coloring and treatment, but with all its splendor it is thoroughly livable. The walls of French walnut are a delightful background for the paintings which incidentally are used but sparingly, for this is truly a summer home, not a "winter palace". This room is delightful and as a "period room" it is practically perfect. The long windows open toward the terrace, which overlooks the sunken garden and fountain.
The flower room or little salon is a study in the softest tones of gray, du Barry rose and green, just the colors that predominate in the gardens without. The gray tone is given to the garden by the profuse use, in its borders, of dusty miller, which blends with the various shades of pink and rose from which these gardens take their name. Click THIS LINK for more on the Newport residence of Mrs. Richard Gambrill. THIS LINK to view a post from the man with the golden key.
Mr. R. V. N. Gambrill, M.B., on the box of the road coach Defiance in the stableyard at "Vernon Manor", in a painting by F. B. Voss.
Richard V. N. Gambrill was a foxhunting man, pursuing sport on both sides of the Atlantic, and was Master of a Beagle pack (eventually the Vernon and Somerset Beagles) for forty years. He drove the famous Vanderbilt grays to his road coach Defiance, and was not above putting one of his hunters to trap or sleigh. The grays were succeeded by a team of Hackneys, and these in turn by four smart cobs; Defiance was a well-known sight at shows and hunt meetings.
Richard V.N. Gambrill, Vernon Manor, residence at Peapack, New Jersey. Stable group, spider phaeton and coach.
The family shared his interest, so that the "Vernon Manor" stable was a center of activity. It is highly improbable that anyone would build a domestic stable on such a scale nowadays, but then a modern installation is unlikely to require a carriage room and a sleigh room, together with harness room and vehicle washroom, in addition to stabling for twelve hunters, their appurtenances, and four coach horses. A pleasant center-hall Colonial stud groom's "cottage" is connected to the rear of the building by a covered way under the eaves of the farrier's shop; "strappers," or undergrooms, lived above the heated tack and washrack area. The arrangements show an astute blend of practical and aesthetic value. The building turns its back on the north wind, catching the sun in the yard. Each stall, floored in cork brick, has a half door, a sizable window opening under the arched arcade, and a small service door, supplemented by a barred window frame, which gives access from the corridor behind it. The stall partitions are solid to within two feet of the ten-foot ceiling; each stall has its own hay drop, which rises into the loft and may be closed with a hatch. Running water was supplied to every stall. The feed room is at one angle of the service passage and the drop to the manure cart at the other; the stall area is confined to the inner half of the yard. The tack cleaning room, washrack, tack room, harness room, and sleigh room occupy the outer half of the east wing; opposite them are the carriage house, vehicle wash, and closet room.
Venture, Viking, Vogue, and Vanity in their stalls at "Vernon Manor".
The carriage house measures thirty-six by sixty-three feet (Mr. Gambrill, in addition to the red and black Defiance, had a remarkable collection of other vehicles, many of them inherited, from his father in-law, C. Ledyard Blair) and extends outside the west wall for more than half its length, thus preserving the architectural balance within the courtyard.
Detail of the facade of the "Vernon Manor" carriage house.
In style, the stable is an understated reflection of the formal Georgian manor house, and in spite of an undoubted elegance, has a warm and welcoming air behind its low brick wall.
Click HERE to see the home of Mr. R. V. N. Gambrill, M.B - "Vernon Manor"(updated photos 1/31/2013). The stable location at wikimapia. BING.
"Vernon Court", Newport, R. I., Residence of Richard Gambrill
"Vernon Court", Newport, R. I., Residence of Richard Gambrill - note the "e" in Gambrell's
Residence of Mrs. Richard Gambrill at Newport - plot plan
THE 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 naturally seizes, and the effect, therefore, was to be gained by the house alone, but few outlying 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 forecourt is the stable court where visiting carriages 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 withdrawn beyond one of the groups of columns which surround the room. These columns are of Breche-violette marble 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 ceilings of the loggias. Light bluish greens are the dominating colors in these scenes which reproduce garden vistas through bowers containing birds and blossoms among the foliage. The walls below these designs are of cream-colored stone, and classic ornaments fittingly decorate the half-open apartment. The walls of the salon are panelled from floor to ceiling with wood, painted a very light mauve, and the mantel is made of Carrara marble, studded with gilt ornaments. The living-room is likewise painted its entire height; but the color of this room is that of the almost naturally finished French walnut here used. The carved ornaments are of a subdued gold, and the mantel is cut from Breche-dor'ee marble which gives a delicate gradation of color to that of the walnut. The woodwork of the library is of an extremely light green color with ornaments tinted slightly darker, beginning a range of shades the other end of which is supplied by a mantel of Connemara marble. All the interior fittings of the house were made from special designs in the workshops of Paris. These include the metal ornaments applied to the wood and stone work, all the hardware and the lighting fixtures. Even the paint, which gives the peculiar green to the trellises and other outside woodwork was bought in Paris after all attempts to get it in this country had failed. The furniture also, now in place in the house, has with few exceptions been selected by the owner abroad. The material of the house and stable and the masonry in connection with them is brick covered with a roughcast of shell lime and marble dust. This composition has been proved enduring and has the tendency to become a fine white ivory tone with the action of weather and time. The roof of the house provides a sharp contrast to this in being covered with blue black Pennsylvania slates, and the walls surrounding the property are capped with red tiles. In the center of the second floor of the house is a large hall lighted from the roof and surrounded by the owner's suite of rooms and also by three guest rooms. From all the windows, except those on the north, superb views of the sea can be had through wide ares of vision. The stretch of land between the house and Bellevue Avenue has been designed as an integral part of the scheme, which ties together every portion of the property. Axes of rooms and vistas of the house become the center-lines of the outdoor spaces, all of which are arranged with a clear sense of what the French term l'oeil du plan, a proportion and balance of parts which should be apparent in every good architectural scheme. Two terraces lead from the salon to the level of the ground, and beyond a beech and an oak tree lies a fountain basin, forty feet in diameter, marking the center of a sunken space whose four parterres correspond to the width of the building. These parterres are bordered with flowers, and four large box bushes grow in their corners. The hedges are of Californian privet and the walks are of turf. High masses of shrubs are to be reared on each side of the sunken garden and in the corners of the grounds nearest to Bellevue Avenue are clumps of such tall trees as the pine, spruce, taxodium, liquidambar and the plane. Between these groves is a dense plantation of Japanese and American pyramidal conifers, providing a background to the garden when seen from the house, and in front of which it is likely that statuary will be placed. Outside this thicket, the surrounding wall of the grounds is replaced for a distance by an iron fence, more hospitable to the eye, and giving to the public highway a view of the ornamental growths within.
A GARDEN HOUSE AND VAULTED TRELLIS
GARDEN HOUSE AND THE "MISSING" WROUGHT IRON FENCE
LOOKING TOWARDS THE EAST LOGGIA - VAULTED TRELLIS LONG GONE
ENTRANCE GATES OFF VICTORIA AVENUE
THE ENTRANCE TO THE FORECOURT - NOTE THE MISSING GATES AND FENCE
THE ENTRANCE TO THE FORECOURT
THE ENTRANCE TO THE FORECOURT
THE APPROACH TO THE HOUSE
FORECOURT ENTRANCE - Lions have replaced the lady sphinxes
STAIRWAY TODAY - The "Romance Staircase" was modeled after a staircase at the Petit Trianon, Versailles
THE PETIT SALON
THE PETIT SALON
The Petit Salon, originally the Marie-Antoinette Reception Room, sits opposite the main entrance in the Marble Hall. With walls of the pale lavender and white plaster traceries from Louis XIV's France, it was where guests were first received. French doors open to the white marble terrace overlooking the formal sunken garden
EARLY VIEW OF THE GRAND SALON
GRAND SALON
Interior designer Jules Allard expropriated Italian black walnut paneling from a European stately home for the Grand Salon. This salon is considered most significant amongst Allard's legendary interior design accomplishments
DINING ROOM
The dining room was used as a Ballroom for special occasions
THE LIBRARY
The Library was inspired by the Queen's Library at the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Mrs. Gambrill had her books rebound in bright colored bindings to contrast with the muted pastel green tones of the walls to enhance their visual impact. The shelves were then lined with English (red), French (orange), and German (yellow) language books
The sole Newport cottage designed by Carrere & Hastings in 1898. "Vernon Court", is an adaptation of an early 18th century French chateau topped by eight 85-foot-high chimneys. It was designed so that the first floor could posthumously be converted into an art museum. Widowed in 1890, Mrs. Richard Gambrill was the daughter of Alexander T. Van Nest, a railroad investor. Gambrill commissioned florists, Wadley & Smythe of New York, to enlarge the plan of the Pond Garden design at Hampton Court, which Henry VIII built for Anne Boleyn, to fit Vernon Court's three-acre site.
Barr Ferreecalled it "one of the truly greatest houses in America."
The estate remained in the Gambrill family until 1956, when it was sold. After severval owners "Vernon Court" was restored and adapted by Judy and Lawrence Cutler in 2000 to function as their National Museum of American Illustration.
ANNA GAMBRILL ca. 1895
Click HERE to see "Vernon Court" at wikimapia. BING.
