548 Bellevue Avenue
Newport, RI o2840
Phone: 401-847-5793
www.newportmansions.org
Rosecliff was the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs. Mr. Oelrichs (1850–1906) made his fortune in steamships. Mrs. Oelrich’s maiden name was Theresa Fair (1869–1926). She was an heiress whose father was a developer of a mine at the Comstock Silver Lode in Nevada. They met at the Casino in Newport, were married in 1890, and lived in New York City. The following year they acquired this property as their summer home.
The wooden house they bought had been home to George Bancroft (1800–1891). Bancroft was from Worcester, Massachusetts, and had a distinguished career. As secretary of the Navy he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845. He was a statesman, a strong proponent of secondary education, the author of several history books, and a horticulturist. He cultivated the “American Beauty” rose. Because his rose gardens overlooked the Cliff Walk, the estate came to be known as Rosecliff.
In 1898 the Oelrichs had the wooden house demolished. They hired Stanford White (1853–1906) to design this home. White’s model was the Grand Trianon at Versailles. Interestingly, the exterior here has a cap of glazed terra cotta. The project was completed in 1902 at a cost of $2.5 million. The house has 28,800 square feet, and there are thirty rooms.
Mr. Oelrichs died at sea in 1906; Mrs. Oelrichs died in 1926. Rosecliff was inherited by their son Hermann Jr. He continued to summer here. An occasional house guest was American songwriter and composer Cole Porter (1891–1964). He and Hermann would play table tennis in the ballroom, and it is believed that Porter composed some of his songs here.
Hermann sold the house for $21,000 in 1941. There was a series of owners. The last to own Rosecliff were Mrs. and Mrs. J. Edgar Monroe of New Orleans. In 1971 they donated the estate, the furnishings they had accumulated, and an endowment to The Preservation Society of Newport County.
A tour of the first floor starts in the salon and then proceeds to the ballroom, which is the largest in Newport, measuring forty feet by eighty feet. This room is often used for wedding receptions, corporate parties, and other special functions. Next are the billiard room, marble hall, and dining room. The tour continues upstairs by way of the heart-shaped grand staircase. It is made of Caen stone from France, is rococo in style, and is a copy of one in the eighteenth-century town hall in Nancy, France.
On the second floor there are several galleries in which special exhibits are mounted.
Several movies have been filmed in part at Rosecliff. These include The Great Gatsby (1973), starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford; True Lies (1994), with Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Jamie Lee Curtis; The Betsy (1977), starring Sir Lawrence Olivier, Katherine Ross, and Robert Duval; Amistad (1997), with Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins; and 27 Dresses (2008), starring Katherine Heigl.
On leaving the house, be sure to visit the rose garden. This leads to the fountain and lawn at the back of the house, both of which overlook the Atlantic Ocean.