Fairholme, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 3rd 2011 at 1:01PM

Today's estate, Fairholme is one of Newport, Rhode Island's treasures. The Tudor-style estate is on 4.3 acres of Newport's legendary Gilded Age coastline with 425 feet of ocean frontage. The five-bedroom main house is a Frank Furness-designed home built circa 1875. Fairholme was first created as a "summer cottage" for Fairman Rogers of Philadelphia, a wealthy arts patron and engineer. Twenty years later, the Drexel family purchased the property and updated it. After that it was bought by the the Count and Countess Alphonso Villa, followed by industrialist railroad magnate Robert Young, whose wife Anita was the sister of artist Georgia O'Keefe. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were close friends of the Youngs and were frequent guests at the estate during their tenure there, as was Jack Kennedy. More recently it belonged to publishing heir Gilbert Kahn. The compound also includes a six bedroom carriage house, three interconnected greenhouses, and a swimming pool with a pavilion and outdoor living area overlooking the Atlantic.

The 20,000+ square foot main house has a Gothic tripartite entrance porch. Inside, silk covered walls, molded plasterwork and limestone fireplace blend together in the entrance hall. The great hall has leaded glass windows and doors and leads to a receiving room with a marble fireplace, a paneled library with a carved wood fireplace, an oceanfront salon and a barrel-vaulted Horace Trumbauer ballroom. A colonnaded terrace runs parallel to the salon, overlooking a soft green lawn that runs toward the ocean. The entertaining options including a dining room with ocean views, a waterfront kitchen and butler's pantry. The service wing is located beyond the dining room and two additional floors of staff living and sleeping rooms are located directly above.

The second floor is divided into two oceanfront master suites, both with stone terraces, bedrooms, sitting rooms, offices, baths, fireplaces, dressing rooms, and custom designed closets. Three additional luxury bedroom suites and two smaller bedrooms are situated on the third floor. An elevator serves all three floors and the basement level. A natural gas powered generator is capable of running all systems in the main house as well as providing power to the 3 bedroom carriage house apartment.

The infinity edge swimming pool and pool house pavilion are sheltered from breezes within a brick enclosure. On the shore side, retractable glass walls offer a view while two heated marble cabanas, a covered lounging area, and an extensive sound system add to the ambiance.

Three heated greenhouses provide flowers, plants and topiaries, including Fairholme's signature pink geraniums. The 4000+ square foot carriage house contains a three bedroom apartment, a one bedroom apartment, two staff suites, an office, a gym, several storage garages and a main parking garage that can accommodate five cars. It is listed at $18 million with Lila Delman.

Gallery: Fairholme

Tags: estate of the day, fairholme, newport, newport rhode island, rhode island real estate

Filed under: Estates

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Travis Jan 3rd 2011 1:57PM

Although not my style, this is a beautiful estate. I love the huge chimneys outside.

Rod Jan 3rd 2011 2:28PM

I like estates on the ocean. This one is very impressive.

Spectacular Bid Jan 3rd 2011 3:15PM

A fascinating property with all the bells and whistles from built quality, location/setting, history, architectural detail, and so forth. All that said its one of those properties that it would be very difficult to see a family in the modern era wanting such a baronial property.

Its almost too big of an estate compounded by being in a very seasonal community that will diminish its selling opportunities. A magnificent white elephant that can eat even the wealthiest family out of a considerable chunk of money with upkeep, insurance, taxes, maintenance, and any upgrades as needed.

Fairholme has been on the market a while and I suspect it will be for a considerable time to come - regardless if the price drops into the low teens. Newport has a large inventory of mansions always on the market formally and an even larger group of estates available for the right price.

Travis Jan 3rd 2011 5:56PM

Check out my new mansion blog http://projectdreammansion.blogspot.com/

Eric Jan 3rd 2011 6:24PM

After reading the description, and looking at the initial picture, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this property is listed BELOW $20M.

JLS Jan 4th 2011 12:29AM

I agree with SPECTACULAR BID's comments. While a beautiful mansion with enormous extras, I think it needs some upgrades and the maintenance on it is staggering. Looks like it swallows money easily.

And TRAVIS-I loved the chimneys as well. That's the first thing I noticed lol. Really unique.