Newport is probably my favorite city in Rhode Island. Providence has more of a traditional city feel and plenty of history of its own, but I really liked Newport’s smaller size and coastal atmosphere. The busiest part of town is concentrated around the waterfront, where you’ll find restaurants, shops, marinas, and plenty of boats coming and going through the harbor. You can explore most of central Newport on foot, which was exactly how I spent much of my visit.
Many of the stores and restaurants around the waterfront seemed locally owned, which helped give Newport more character than a typical shopping district filled with chains. On the left is an art store with paintings and photographs lining the walls, while the shop on the right had a nautical theme that fit the town perfectly. Newport is compact enough that walking is one of the best ways to explore, especially if you enjoy wandering down small streets and alleys that you might completely miss from a car.
One place I came across almost by accident was the International Tennis Hall of Fame. If you’re interested in tennis, this is obviously one of Newport’s major attractions. The museum occupies the historic Newport Casino complex and includes grass tennis courts along with a large collection of exhibits covering the history of the sport and many of its greatest players.
If you don’t want to walk everywhere, Newport has plenty of other ways to get around, including small rental vehicles and bicycles. I still preferred walking because it gave me time to notice the smaller details, like narrow alleys, unusual storefronts, and historic homes tucked between the main streets.
The houses, hotels, and restaurants around Newport are almost attractions by themselves. I’m still not entirely sure whether the dining room on the left belonged to a restaurant or a private residence. I happened to see it through a window while walking past and couldn’t resist taking a photo. The hotel on the right was one of the larger ones I saw during my visit and looked exactly like the kind of place you’d expect in an old New England resort town.
Newport is famous for both its surviving colonial architecture and the enormous mansions built during the Gilded Age. Wealthy families from New York and other cities constructed elaborate summer estates here, many of which are now preserved and open to visitors. There are enough mansions that you could easily spend an entire day touring them.
I only visited one, The Elms, photographed above. The mansion was built as a summer residence for Edward Julius Berwind, who made his fortune in the coal industry. I’ve visited some pretty remarkable homes around the world, but The Elms was still one of the most elegant I’ve seen in the United States. The house was eventually preserved as a museum, allowing visitors to see how some of America’s wealthiest families lived during Newport’s Gilded Age.
The interior is every bit as elaborate as the outside, with ornate rooms, artwork, decorative ceilings, and furnishings designed to impress visitors. It’s hard to imagine using a place like this only as a summer home, but that was exactly the point during Newport’s Gilded Age.
Newport was founded in 1639 during a period when religious disagreements were causing major divisions throughout the English colonies. Rhode Island became known for allowing a degree of religious freedom that was unusual at the time, and Newport attracted people from several different faiths.
Among those who settled here were Jewish families, who eventually established one of the oldest Jewish communities in the United States. Newport is home to Touro Synagogue, completed in the 18th century and recognized as the oldest surviving synagogue building in the country. With so much history packed into a relatively small city, Newport also has a number of old cemeteries. The photographs above show gravestones from different burial grounds, including an early Jewish cemetery containing the graves of some of Newport’s first Jewish settlers and their descendants.
Running alongside many of Newport’s famous mansions is the Cliff Walk, one of the best places in the city to combine architecture with coastal scenery. The trail stretches for roughly 3.5 miles along the shoreline, passing rocky cliffs, ocean views, and the back sides of several enormous estates. Parts are easy paved walking, while other sections become considerably rougher.
Along the Cliff Walk you’ll eventually reach an area known as Forty Steps. The stone steps descend toward the water and have long been a local gathering place. During Newport’s Gilded Age, servants who worked in the nearby mansions reportedly came here during their free time to socialize, play music, and enjoy the coast.
I didn’t bother counting the steps, so I’ll trust that there really are forty. Nearby signs warn visitors about slippery rocks, but I still decided to climb down toward what looked like a small sea cave. My flip-flops were completely useless on the wet, mossy rocks and I ended up taking a fall, but at least I got the photo on the right. Whether that makes the decision worthwhile is debatable.
Another important historic site in Newport is Fort Adams. The first fortification here was built around the end of the 18th century to help protect Narragansett Bay. Following the War of 1812, the United States decided that a much larger and stronger fort was needed, resulting in the massive Fort Adams that stands today.
The rebuilt fort became one of the most impressive coastal defensive works in the United States. It also played several different roles during its long military history. During the Civil War, for example, the U.S. Naval Academy was temporarily relocated from Annapolis to Newport because of concerns about Maryland’s position between the Union and Confederacy.
Unfortunately I reached Fort Adams late in the day and wasn’t able to properly tour it. Parts of the grounds were also being used for an event, so I eventually had to leave the area. I did manage to photograph some of the walls and entrances from outside, including one shot where I stuck my camera through a locked gate. This is definitely one of the places I’d like to explore properly when I return to Newport.
These final photos were taken from around Fort Adams and ended up being my last views of Newport. The weather was perfect on this summer evening, so I spent some time simply relaxing beside the harbor and watching sailboats and yachts pass through the water.
Between the historic waterfront, mansions, Cliff Walk, colonial history, sailing culture, and Fort Adams, Newport packed much more into a small city than I expected. Providence may be Rhode Island’s capital and largest city, but Newport was the place that really made me appreciate the Ocean State during the summer.
