Newport, United States: Self-Guided Walking Tour

Newport, Rhode Island, brings together colonial history, naval heritage, Gilded Age mansions and dramatic coastal scenery. The city is worth visiting for its concentration of historic buildings, museums and waterfront landmarks, all within an atmosphere shaped by the sea. Neywo has a free audio guide for Newport with 51 narrated places.

What to see in Newport

Museum of Newport History

A useful starting point is the Museum of Newport History in the Old Brick Market on Washington Square. Built in the 1760s and designed by Peter Harrison, the three-story brick building is a National Historic Landmark. Its former market arcade and surviving architectural details reflect Newport’s commercial past, while the museum’s collection follows the city’s story from the pre-colonial era through the Gilded Age and beyond.

Trinity Church

Trinity Church, on Queen Anne Square, is the oldest Episcopal parish in Rhode Island. The present wooden Georgian-style building was designed by Richard Munday and constructed in 1725 and 1726. Its design was influenced by the churches of Sir Christopher Wren in London, and its importance is reflected in its National Historic Landmark status, granted in 1968.

During the middle of the eighteenth century, Trinity Church had the largest Anglican congregation in New England. It was therefore both a place of worship and an important center of community life.

Shiloh Church

Shiloh Baptist Church is also known as Trinity School House. The historic building served first as a school and later as an African American Baptist church, giving it two important roles in Newport’s community history.

Artillery Company of Newport

The Artillery Company of Newport occupies a historic armory and includes a museum dedicated to one of America’s oldest military organizations. The company was chartered by the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1741 and remains the oldest military unit in the United States operating under its original charter.

Hunter House

Hunter House, at 54 Washington Street in the Easton’s Point neighborhood, dates from 1748. It began as the home of Colonial Deputy Governor Jonathan Nichols Junior and later became the residence of Colonel Joseph Wanton Junior, who expanded it into a formal Georgian mansion.

The two-and-a-half-story house has heavy stud construction and a balustraded gambrel roof. Preservation efforts saved it from possible demolition in 1945 and led to the formation of the Preservation Society of Newport County. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1968.

St. Mary’s Church

St. Mary’s Church, officially the Church of the Holy Name of Mary, Our Lady of the Isle, stands at the corner of Spring Street and Memorial Boulevard. It serves the oldest Catholic parish in Rhode Island and is associated with one of Newport’s best-known weddings: Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy were married there in 1953.

Luce Hall and the Naval War College Museum

Newport’s maritime and military history comes into focus at Naval Station Newport. Luce Hall was the first building designed specifically for the United States Naval War College, founded in Newport in 1884. Completed on May 22, 1892, the Flemish-style building was designed by Newport architects George C. Mason and Son, who drew inspiration from the town halls and guild halls around Antwerp’s Grote Markt.

Nearby, the Naval War College Museum occupies Building 10 on Luce Avenue, also known as Founders Hall. The building originally housed Newport’s poor before becoming part of the National Historic Landmark District associated with the Naval War College.

The President’s House, also known as Quarters AA, overlooks Coaster’s Harbor, Dewey Field and Narragansett Bay from Coaster’s Harbor Island. The wooden Colonial Revival residence was built in 1896 and is the home of the president of the Naval War College.

Kingscote

At Bowery Street and Bellevue Avenue, Kingscote is one of Newport’s earliest summer cottages. Designed by Richard Upjohn and built in 1839, the Gothic Revival mansion is recognizable for its irregular roofline, gables, chimneys and decorative details. It is now a house museum, a National Historic Landmark and part of the Bellevue Avenue Historic District.

The Breakers

The Breakers is one of Newport’s defining Gilded Age mansions. Cornelius Vanderbilt II commissioned the Renaissance Revival house, which was built between 1893 and 1895 under the direction of architect Richard Morris Hunt.

The mansion contains 70 rooms and covers about 138,300 square feet, with 62,482 square feet of living space across five floors. Its interiors combine imported marble, rare woods, mosaics and architectural elements from French chateaux. The property faces Easton Bay and the Atlantic Ocean and is enclosed by a 12-foot limestone and iron fence.

Chateau-sur-Mer

Chateau-sur-Mer, built in 1852, was one of Newport’s earliest grand Gilded Age mansions. It began as an Italianate villa for William Shepard Wetmore, a merchant connected with the Old China Trade, and remained Newport’s most palatial residence until the Vanderbilt houses appeared in the 1890s.

Today, the mansion is a museum cared for by the Preservation Society of Newport County. Its Victorian interiors include period furniture, wallpapers, ceramics and intricate stenciling. The three-story great hall reaches a ceiling 45 feet high, while the billiard room displays Eastlake-style details.

International Tennis Hall of Fame

The International Tennis Hall of Fame occupies the former Newport Casino, commissioned by James Gordon Bennett Jr. in 1879 and designed by Charles McKim and Stanford White in the Victorian Shingle Style.

The museum presents tennis history through artifacts, films and audio, with a collection of roughly 30,000 objects. The complex was also the original home of the U.S. National Championships, now known as the US Open, beginning in 1881. Today, it includes 13 grass courts.

Newport Harbor Light and Castle Hill Lighthouse

Newport Harbor Light, also called Goat Island Light or the Green Light, has marked the harbor from the north end of Goat Island since 1842. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

At the end of historic Ocean Drive, Castle Hill Lighthouse sits on Narragansett Bay. The compact beacon has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since March 30, 1988, and is a recognizable setting for photographs and proposals.

A Newport self-guided walking tour with Neywo

Neywo lets you explore Newport through a free audio guide that plays each story as you reach the place, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The Newport guide includes five walking tours and one bus route:

• Colonial Newport: Taverns, Meeting Houses and a Synagogue — 1.6 km, 90 minutes and 12 stops.
• Art, Tennis and the First Summer Cottages — 2.65 km, 94 minutes and 10 stops.
• Gilded Age Giants and the Cliff Walk — 3.46 km, 89 minutes and 8 stops.
• Marble and Millions: Bellevue Avenue’s Palaces — 3.14 km, 84 minutes and 8 stops.
• Navy Town and Harbor Lights: Newport’s Maritime Side — 5.28 km, 115 minutes and 6 stops.
• RIPTA 67: The Mansion Mile by Public Bus — 5.7 km, 24 minutes and 7 stops.

Download Neywo and explore Newport’s churches, museums, mansions and harbor landmarks with the story arriving exactly when you do. If you are continuing through the country, discover more destinations across the United States, including Providence, Portsmouth and Portland, Maine.