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DK Eyewitness Travel Guide USA

Blithewold

  • Also Known As: Blithewold Gardens and Arboretum
  • Address: Ferry Rd
  • Hours: 1st week of April through mid-October, TUES - SUN and most Monday holidays: 11:00am - 5:00pm
  • Phone: (401) 253-2707
  • Type: Garden
  • Travel Genus: Sight , Visit
  • Sight Category: Museums
  • Activity Category: Tour
  • Available for private functions

Blithewold is a 45-room mansion featuring the original wallpaper, Baccarat crystal, Gorham silver, Tiffany lamps and 1600s Italian armchairs. The former Augustus Van Wickle residence is situated on 33 acres of lawns, gardens, specimen trees and historic stone structures on Narragansett Bay. - AsNotedIn


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Blithewold
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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1894/09/00 Coal magnate Augustus Van Wickle buys the former summer home of banker John Rogers Gardner and 70 acres of waterfront property and builds a Queen Anne mansion west of the existing Gardner House.
1895/00/00 John DeWolf Landscape Architect John DeWolf landscapes Van Wickle Estate, Bristol, Rhode Island, between 1895 and 1912.
1906/00/00 While the Queen Anne mansion slowly burns, people from Bristol help remove all the furniture and furnishings, even fireplaces and bathtubs.
1907/00/00 Kilham and Hopkins Architect A forty-five room mansion is built in the style of an English manor by Boston architects Kilham and Hopkins who incorporate features save from the first Blithewold.
1907/00/00 Inigo Jones Architect The living room is light and airy with a delicate plastered ceiling and classic mantlepiece designed by Inigo Jones for Gloucester House, Piccadilly and rescued when that residence was demolished in 1902.
1926/08/00 Two eminent plantsmen from the Arnold Arboretum, Ernest "Chinese" Wilson and Alfred Rehder are amazed to find Blithewold such a lovely and interesting place, saying, "Why you have an arboretum here, we never dreamed there was a place like this."
1938/09/21 1938 Hurricane roars through Blithewold damaging a c 1895 stone and frame boathouse (originally a bathhouse, partially rebuilt after the storm) and destroys the boatman's house near the dock. Great New England Hurricane of 1938

Data »

Particulars for Blithewold:
Area of Significance Architecture
Criteria Architecture-Engineering
Sight Category Building
Criteria Exemplar
Landscape Architecture Garden
Landscape Architecture Historic garden restoration
Museum Type Historical Museum
Area of Significance Landscape Architecture
Architectural Style Late 19th and 20th century revivals
Building Type Mansion
Criteria Person
Owner Private
Historic Use Single dwelling
Area of Significance Social History
Tree Attribute Specimen Tree
Private Event Wedding Venue



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration: 27th June 1980

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name: Blithewold
Registry Address: Ferry Rd.
Registry Number: 80000074
Resource Type: Building
Owner: Private
Architect: Dewolf,John; Kilham Hopkins
Architectural Style: Late 19th and 20th century revivals
Area in Acres: 33
Contributing Buildings: 9
Contributing Sites: 1
Contributing Structures: 2
Certification: Listed in the National Register
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: State
Area of Significance: Landscape architecture, Architecture, Social history
Applicable Criteria: Event, Architecture-Engineering
Period of Significance: 1900-1924, 1875-1899
Significant Year: 1895, 1907, 1912
Historic Function: Domestic
Historic Sub-Function: Single dwelling
Current Function: Recreation and Culture
Current Sub-Function: Museum

Activities »

Activity
Activity Category Tour

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