page_title: The Elms (Newport, Rhode Island)
section_title: Preservation
hierarchical_section_title: The Elms (Newport, Rhode Island) / Preservation
caption_attribution_description: English: Staircase and Entrance Hall of "The Elms" — the Edward J. Berwind Mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Built 1899-1901; designed by architect Horace Trumbauer. 1970 image: HABS—Historic American Buildings Survey of Rhode Island.
context_page_description: The Elms is a large mansion located at 367 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, completed in 1901. The architect Horace Trumbauer designed it for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind, taking inspiration from the 18th century Château d'Asnières in Asnières-sur-Seine, France. C. H. Miller and E. W. Bowditch, working closely with Trumbauer, designed the gardens and landscape. The Preservation Society of Newport County purchased The Elms in 1962, and opened the house to the public. The Elms was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.
context_section_description: In 1961 when Julia Berwind died, The Elms was one of the very last Newport cottages to be run in the fashion of the Gilded Age: forty servants were on staff, and Miss Berwind's social season remained at six weeks. Childless, Julia Berwind willed the estate to a nephew, who did not want it and fruitlessly tried to pass The Elms to someone else in the family. Finally the family auctioned off the contents of the estate and sold the property to a developer who wanted to tear it down. In 1962, just weeks before its date with the wrecking ball, The Elms was purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County for $116,000. The price included the property along with adjacent guest houses. Since then, the house has been open to the public for tours. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.
  In addition to a self-guided audio tour, The Elms offers a Servant Life Tour, which brings guests to the basement to view the coal-fired furnaces and the tunnel from which the coal is brought into the basement from a nearby street. The tour shows the lengths to which Mr. Berwind went to keep the servants out of view from guests on all floors of the mansion. Visitors on the Servant Life Tour view the laundry room, steamer trunk storage area, the giant circuit breaker box, ice-makers, galley, and wine cellar below the main floor, and climb the service staircase to the servants' quarters on the third floor. The tour then proceeds out on the level tiled roof and a small aluminum platform, with a view of the rear lawn, shade trees and gardens, and the vista of Newport harbor in the distance.
caption: Staircase and Entrance Hall
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