 rosecliff, built 1898-1902, is one of the gilded age mansionsnewport summer houses were always referred to as "cottages", no matter how grand they were. of newport, rhode island, now open to the public as a historic house museum. the house has also been known as the hermann oelrichs house or the j. edgar monroe house. it was built by theresa fair oelrichs, a silver heiress from nevada, whose father james graham fair was one of the four partners in the comstock lode. she was the wife of hermann oelrichs, american agent for norddeutscher lloyd steamship line. she and her husband, together with her sister, virginia fair, bought the land in 1891 from the estate of george bancroft, and commissioned the architectural firm of mckim, mead, and white to design a summer home suitable for entertaining on a grand scale. with little opportunity to channel her considerable energy elsewhere, she "threw herself into the social scene with tremendous gusto, becoming, with mrs. stuyvesant fish and mrs. o.h.p. belmont (of nearby belcourt) one of the three great hostesses of newport." ferguson 1977, p. 7) the principal architect, stanford white, modeled the mansion after the grand trianon of versailles, but smaller and reduced to a basic "h" shape, while keeping mansart's scheme of a glazed arcade of arched windows and paired ionic pilasters, which increase to columns across the central loggia. white's rosecliff adds to the grand trianon a second storey with a balustraded roofline that conceals the set-back third storey, containing twenty small servants' rooms and the pressing room for the laundry. ==construction and interiors== the commission was given to mckim, mead, and white in 1898, and the new york branch of jules allard and sons were engaged as interior decorators. construction started in 1899, but the sharp winter slowed construction; mrs. oelrichs' sister had married [[william
1900s_architecture_in_the_United_States Baroque_Revival_architecture Historic_district_contributing_properties_in_Rhode_Island Historic_house_museums_in_Rhode_Island Houses_completed_in_1902 Houses_in_Newport_County,_Rhode_Island Houses_on_the_National_Register_of_Historic_Places_in_Rhode_Island McKim,_Mead,_and_White_buildings Museums_in_Newport,_Rhode_Island Neoclassical_architecture_in_Rhode_Island Stanford_White_buildings