page_title: Theresa Fair Oelrichs
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Theresa Fair Oelrichs / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: American homes and gardens Identifier: americanhomesgar00newy (find matches) Year: 1905 (1900s) Authors: Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening Publisher: New York, Munn and Co Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden Digitizing Sponsor: BHL-SIL-FEDLINK View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: i56 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS March, 1906 vided, a setting adequate in size and in style, adequate in form and in expression. So splendid house after splendid house has been built at Newport, until to-day the "cottage" section of the city contains one of the most splendid collec- tions of splendid houses in America. One uses the word "splendid" deliberately and of choice, for whether the architecture of these buildings be good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate, they are dominated by the supreme idea of splendor. And fortunate it is that the social distinction that has made the city what it is should have found visible expression in houses of genuine distinction —fortunate that the great building activity of Newport has arisen in an epoch of considerable architectural culture. Never were our architects, so well equipped to design splendid houses as in the last ten or fifteen years, during which period the larger number of Newport's costliest dwellings were erected. Not every great house is an architectural master- piece, but many of them are fine in a true architectural sense. And this is an architectural distinction of no mean sort. ing of the European palace, moreover, has been spread over a great period of time—centuries, in not a few instances. We haven't yet begun to have the time to carry on such building operations in our swift and rapid land. The American palace must be quickly built, that its splendor be enjoyed by the person commissioning it. And even if a capacious structure, as it often is, its size is in no sense comparable to the great palaces, castles, chateaux of Europe. No one in this country has any use for such colossal dwellings, and the conditions under which our great houses are built are so different from those that brought forth the great house of Europe that a comparison between them is unfair. "Rosecliff," Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs's superb house at Newport, is a fine type of the splendid house that, in very recent years, has become characteristic of Newport. Noth- ing whatever was left undone to obtain a satisfactory and satisfying house, splendid in every sense of the word, and T) Text Appearing After Image: A Stately Fountain with a Seated Figure of a Woman is the Chief Adornment of the Garden of the Sea Front On the contrary, the architectural achievements of New- port, in some instances, are of the most impressive kind. There are few more difficult tasks than to design a sumptuous house in a quiet and unpretentious way. A contradiction of terms, no doubt, but a simple statement of the real problem&#160;! Splendor in architecture is not necessarily produced by rich- ness of parts and elaborateness of detail. A skilled tic- signer can give a true splendor to a comparatively simple design by his mere way of designing. But the task is not an easy one, though the results will amply repay the labor put upon it. And there are limitations that must be met in designing a splendid house in America. These are the limits of size ami time. The large American house is, as a rule, a compara- tively small affair measured by the great houses of England and the Continent. Our American "palaces" are small; those of Europe arc vast, almost beyond comparison. The build- thoroughly adequate to meet any social demands which would be put upon it. The first step, naturally, was the selection of an architect, and in giving her commission to Messrs. McKim, Mead &amp; White, of New York, Mrs. Oelrichs was not only taking her first important step, but was practically securing the very result desired before any plans were drawn or any work of construction undertaken. It is a singular characteristic of most of the Newport houses that the grounds that surround them appear inadequate to the great houses built upon them. It is an inadequacy that is comparative rather than actual, and seems actually so since a great house, quite naturally, presupposes a great garden. This is not the case in Newport, where the grounds are re- stricted ami the gardens small; and "Rosecliff" is no excep- tion to the rule, although it has a very unusual situation from the fact that its grounds are entered from Bellevue Avenue by a private road that adjoins the Whitney property, and Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Theresa Alice "Tessie" Fair was an American socialite. She went from being the daughter of a hard-scrabble California miner to become heiress to a fortune in Comstock Lode gold and silver, the wife of steamship magnate Hermann Oelrichs, mistress of the Rosecliff estate in Newport, Rhode Island, and a member of the elite "Triumvirate" of American society."
context_section_description: In 1889, in Newport, Tessie met steamship tycoon Hermann Oelrichs, whom she wed the following year on June 3, 1890.  The lavish wedding was held in San Francisco. James Fair's gift to his daughter was one million dollars, but even so he was not invited to the wedding. Now a wealthy heiress, Tessie moved east permanently to join the social circles of New York, Newport and Europe. Tessie later gave birth to her only child:
  Hermann Oelrichs, Jr. (1891–1948), who married Dorothy Haydel (1893–1961) in 1925. After his death, she married Prince Ferdinand von Liechtenstein (1901–1981) in 1950.
  She publicly acted as a devoted and happy wife, but privately, she and Hermann were estranged.  When news reached her that he survived the massive San Francisco earthquake of 1906, she hoped for a reconciliation.  Hermann returned east, so she prepared a lavish supper for them together.  When he did not attend, she was enraged.  Unreconciled, Hermann later died of a heart attack.  He left his full estate to his brother Charles May Oelrichs, thinking that Tessie would be content with her own fortune, but Tessie contested the will.  Eventually, they settled the dispute and she received half of the estate.
  Oelrichs died at Newport on November 22, 1926.  After a funeral in the "beautiful blue and gold tapestry room" at Rosecliff, which was attended by Charles M. Oelrichs and his wife among others, she was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City. Her son inherited the vast majority of her estate with the provision that should he die without issue, her sister Virginia would be the residuary legatee.  Her son later sold her stately home in 1941, and today, Rosecliff stands open to the public.
caption: Rosecliff's rear steps.
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