Rhode Island – MegaPixel Travel

“Rough Point”, Newport, Rhode Island

During our visit to Newport, Rhode Island, we decided to tour the former “summer home” of Doris Duke, daughter of James Buchanan Duke, a wealthy American electricity and tobacco industrialist. The construction of the original “Rough Point” was completed in 1892 and served as a “summer home” for Frederick William Vanderbilt. Two wings were added by Mr. Duke after he purchased the home in 1922. His wife wanted more light and wanted more room for entertaining.

Doris Duke died in 1993 and the home is now owned and managed by the Newport Restoration Foundation which opened the home for public tours in 2000.

New England Trip 2012 – Day 7 – Newport, Rhode Island

New England Trip 2012 – Day 7 – Newport, Rhode Island

Last night we crossed from Connecticut into Rhode Island and toured along the beach area hoping that one of the beach resorts might still be open this late in the season. No luck! They were all closed for the season so we moved back inland a bit and found the Winnapaug Inn which stays open all year long. We had supper in their adjacent Venice Restaurant and then headed off to bed. It was pretty tough to see anything at night but,, in the morning when I walked out onto the room’s balcony, I found out that there was a golf course right next to us that provided me with a pretty nice view of the area.

Our destination for today was Newport, Rhode Island. Neither of us had been to Rhode Island before so were looking forward to the adventure of seeing some of Newport’s famous mansions and its seaport. We were traveling along the secondary roadways so getting to the western end of the Jamestown Bridge (Route 138) was our first challenge. The Jamestown Bridge is toll free and links the mainland to the island community of Jamestown and from there a toll bridge (the Newport Bridge) carries travelers to Newport, RI.