Bid high and bid often! The Preservation Society of Newport County’s Spring 2025 online auction offers amazing opportunities for an experience you’ll treasure forever. One example is a Floral Fair dinner experience following the 2025 Newport Flower Show Opening Night Party, in the Ballroom at Rosecliff. All bids support the Preservation Society’s mission to protect, preserve, and present an exceptional collection of house museums and landscapes in one of the most historically intact cities in America.
The Newport Tree Conservancy’s first monthly tree walk of 2025 will tour the grounds of the Redwood Library and the Newport Art Museum, and venture down Old Beach Avenue before looping back to Bellevue. NTC Living Collections Manager Joe Verstandig will be discussing some early spring tree phenology, bask in the glory of some incredible specimen beech and oaks, and admire early flowering woody plants. Please dress appropriately for walking on the street and on grass. The March 27 program is free, but register at www.newporttreeconservancy.org
Join the Newport Tree Conservancy on March 12 at 2:30 at 152 Coggeshall Avenue in Newport to learn about and tour its winter propagation projects in the warmth of a beautiful greenhouse. The Conservancy will talk about grafting heritage trees, and you will see the progress of evergreen cuttings. Discuss the methods behind these winter propagation methods, and why they’re an important part of what they do at NTC. Sign up at www.newporttreeconservancy.org
Join Preservation Society Head Floral Designer Becky Bonnenfant and Linda Del Buono, Senior Buyer at R.J. Carbone Floral Distributors, to learn about designing holiday arrangements that go beyond poinsettias. Linda will discuss various creative options while Becky creates an arrangement right before your eyes. Attendees will also see some of the floral designs destined for display during Holidays at the Newport Mansions. The event takes place December 12 at 6 pm in the Stable and Carriage House, 53 Coggeshall Avenue in Newport, and is limited to 25 participants.
The Preservation Society of Newport County will hold its annual Holiday Dinner Dance event on Saturday, December 14 at 7:00 pm. This black-tie evening will begin with delicious hors d’oeuvre and cocktails amid the grandeur of The Breakers, which will be lavishly decorated for the holiday season. After drinks, guests will be seated for a holiday-inspired four-course dinner in the Great Hall and Dining Room, followed by dancing in the Music Room. To purchase tickets, call the Special Events Office at (401) 847-1000, ext. 150 or ext. 140.
Tickets will not be available through the Newport Mansions website. Questions? Email Events@NewportMansions.org. $1000 Patrons. $600 Preservation Society Members, $750 Non-Members
The Newport Symposium returns with a more intimate format, presenting a daylong program with lectures, tours and workshops. Italian Influence in Newport will address the ways in which Gilded Age Newport was inspired by centuries of Italian design, including architecture, interiors, landscapes and fine art. From Renaissance-revival woodwork by Luigi Frullini at Chateau-sur-Mer, to the Genoese-style palazzo design of The Breakers, to Venetian masterpieces at The Elms, speakers will reflect on the past while also addressing how those influences continue today through the lens of interior design. • Scholarships for students will be available by application. • Attendance at Rosecliff is both in-person and virtual via Zoom. Register at https://www.newportmansions.org/events/the-newport-symposium-2025/. In person $100, Zoom $25.
The Breakers, Marble House, and The Elms will be decorated in their traditional, lavish fashion for The Preservation Society of Newport County’s “Holidays at the Newport Mansions,” from November 22, 2024 to January 1, 2025. In addition, Chateau-sur-Mer will be open for the first two weeks of the holiday season. Its first floor will be fully decorated in the spirit of the holidays – the first time in 25 years! Nearly 30 Christmas trees are exquisitely decorated to complement the décor and theme of each room, like Mr. Vanderbilt’s tree in The Breakers, ornamented with trains and top hats! Hundreds of poinsettias, garlands, wreaths and fresh floral arrangements add color, warmth and life. As always, the 15-foot-tall poinsettia tree in the Great Hall of The Breakers – made up of 150 poinsettia plants – provides a perfect holiday photo opportunity. Admission for daytime house tours during the holiday period is by our regular tickets: The Breakers, One-House, Duo or Trio. These tickets are good for any date and time the mansions are open and can be purchased online or in person when you visit. All houses closed Thanksgiving Day, November 28, and Christmas Day, December 25. On December 24, all houses close at 2 pm.
Americans’ relationship with animals transformed during the Gilded Age (1870-1914). With a focus on Newport history, the Preservation Society of Newport County’s exhibition at Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, explores how this exciting, tumultuous period shaped the role of animals in our modern world. In the late 19th century, Americans moved in large numbers from farms to cities, losing touch with a rural way of life and with the closeness to nature and animals that defined it. Nostalgia for a lost kinship with animals pervaded urban, industrial America. At the same time, many were encountering new, “exotic” species through a boom in foreign travel, marine exploration and imperial expansion. More everyday Americans enjoyed natural history pursuits like birdwatching. Pet keeping surged. And while captive animals thrilled spectators at zoos and circuses, which both had their heyday in the Gilded Age, activists launched the nation’s first animal rights movement.
Newporters played a vital, though often contradictory, part in these developments. They fought at the vanguard of the animal rights movement yet set the era’s fashion for furs and feathers as residents of its most stylish summer resort. Newporters pampered their pets but expanded industries like the railroads that ravaged wildlife habitats.
Wild Imagination brings together a menagerie of animal-themed artworks and other objects, from paintings, sculptures, photographs and fashions to fancy dog collars and sea creatures blown in glass. These pieces reflect profound and lasting changes in human-animal relations. They also reveal the individual stories of wondrous creatures that continue to capture our imagination. For hours and complete information visit https://www.newportmansions.org/events/wild-imagination/
The Newport Tree Conservancy invites you to take a stroll through Second Wind Arboretum. This Ocean Drive Neighborhood gem on 2.7 acres includes Gingko plantings, forested wetland featuring native Amelanchier canadensis and Acer rubrum, and the owner’s Heritage Collection – specimen trees planted in honor of members of the family inspired by favorite trees planted along Bellevue Avenue. This vibrant, whimsical property is a must see! Register at www.newportconservancy.org
Join the Newport Tree Conservancy on October 2 for a detailed look into the delicate art of coastal gardening. Salt Marsh Arboretum is a species diverse landscape bordering on the restored salt marshes of Gooseneck Cove. To learn more about Salt Marsh Arboretum visit our page here. Estate gardener Devin Skelly will join us for an engaging look at the intensive restoration efforts made, involving the reestablishment of native species. Devin will show us around the arboretum, describe the horticultural and restorative work he has done, and showcase the plant collection. Highlights of the arboretum include a paperbark maple grove, young giant sequoia trees, a collection of buckeyes (Aesculus), and the rare wheel tree (Trochodendron aralioides). Registration required at https://www.newporttreeconservancy.org/events/arboretum-tour-salt-marsh-98ngp
