Ochre Court is Newport’s second-largest mansion and one of the purest expressions of French Renaissance-revival architecture on America’s Atlantic coast. Commissioned by real-estate titan Ogden Goelet and completed in 1892 at a then-staggering cost of about $4.5 million (over $150 million today), the château-like residence blends Loire-Valley flamboyance—Caen-limestone walls, soaring slate roofs, gargoyles, and traceried dormers—with a modern steel frame and electric lighting. In 1947 Goelet’s son Robert handed the estate to the Sisters of Mercy, allowing Salve Regina University to open its doors; the mansion remains the beating heart of the campus and an unforgettable venue for concerts, lectures, and community celebrations.
Gilded-Age Origins
Richard Morris Hunt, already famous for Vanderbilt palaces, drew up plans for Ochre Court in 1888, deliberately modeling the bulk and detailing on French Louis XIII country seats such as the Château de Blois. Construction stretched from 1888 to 1892 and absorbed an estimated $4.5 million of the Goelet family’s Manhattan real-estate fortune. With fifty principal rooms and roughly 44,000 square feet of floor area, it out-scaled every Newport “cottage” except the Breakers.
Architectural Highlights
Exterior
White Caen limestone rises three-and-a-half stories, punctuated by turrets, tall chimneys, and elaborate dormers that give the façade its châteauesque silhouette. A double seaside terrace and carved stone galleries open the house to sweeping Atlantic views along today’s Cliff Walk.
The Great Hall
Stepping through the porte-cochère, visitors enter a three-story Great Hall that channels French Renaissance grandeur. Intricately carved wooden arches, tipped in gilt, lift the eye toward a domed ceiling mural ringed with heraldic shields and stained-glass windows. Limestone reliefs and gilded woodwork by New York firm Ellin, Kitson & Company enrich the walls, while a massive 16th-century French stone fireplace, edged in Flemish tiles, anchors the north end of the room.
From the hall radiate reception suites in contrasting styles—a Tudor study hung with Holbein-inspired murals, a Louis XV breakfast room, a Rococo ballroom lined with mirrors, and a dining room once backed by a Gobelin tapestry—demonstrating the Goelets’ taste for historicist eclecticism.
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From Family Seat to University Icon
After World War II, upkeep on the seasonal palace proved untenable. In 1947 Robert Goelet donated Ochre Court and seven oceanfront acres to the Sisters of Mercy, providing the nucleus for Salve Regina College (now University). Today the mansion houses the Office of Admissions and hosts weddings, fund-raisers, and academic ceremonies; the Great Hall, still glowing with its original murals and stained glass, doubles as a public concert venue.
Pop-Culture Footnote
Hollywood took notice of the fairy-tale skyline: director James Cameron used Ochre Court’s exterior as an Alpine villa in the 1994 film True Lies, cementing its place in cinematic as well as architectural lore.
Closing Thoughts
Ochre Court distills the ambitions of America’s Gilded Age—European in inspiration, American in scale, and determined to dazzle. Preserved and repurposed rather than demolished, it now offers students and visitors alike a living classroom in art, architecture, and social history, proving that grandeur can adapt to new generations without losing an ounce of its original allure.
