Welcome center planned for Newport mansion

WELCOME SIGHT: A rendering of the proposed welcome center at The Breakers emulates the garden pavilions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. / COURTESY PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY
WELCOME SIGHT: A rendering of the proposed welcome center at The Breakers emulates the garden pavilions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. / COURTESY PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

A new pavilion-style welcome center being proposed for The Breakers, one of the nation’s most famous landmarks of the Gilded Age, is part of a strategic plan for The Preservation Society of Newport County that includes expanding the tourist season and strengthening links with the area’s hospitality industry.
The society has just begun the process of seeking approval for the $4.2 million project from state and local regulatory boards, society CEO Trudy Coxe told Providence Business News last week.
Designed in the style of garden pavilions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the proposed welcome center is to replace tents set up 12 years ago to sell tickets, and to do away with port-a-potties.
“This project is to treat our visitors better,” said Coxe. “We have 400,000 people a year coming to The Breakers. What we have now in terms of welcoming them is so insufficient.”
Putting a new structure on the grounds of the mansion completed in 1895 may be unsettling to some in a city rich in history.
“Anyone who cares about the Gilded Age could be nervous. Some may ask why we’re putting it on the sacred ground of The Breakers property,” said architect Alan Joslin of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Epstein Joslin Architects, who designed the project.
“Now there are tents and port-a-potties. This pavilion is much more dignified and compatible with a world-class venue,” Joslin said.
From the mansion, the design keeps the welcome center out of view. The pavilion would be “embedded in a grove of trees, with landscaping designed to feel like a secret garden,” said Joslin.
With a green, rounded roof and skylights, screened by tall trees and low hedges, the pavilion has a view of the sea from one side, where greenery would be less dense. The proposed welcome center is part of a broader strategic plan for the society.
“We’ve stabilized a lot of properties,” said Donald Ross, chairman of the board of the society, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, protecting and presenting the area’s historic architecture and landscapes, including 10 other Newport mansions. “In the next 10 years we have to raise capital, and we need bricks-and-mortar pieces as part of our strategic campaign.”
A substantial portion of the funds for the welcome-center project has already been raised, said Ross.
The early presentations of the design have gained substantial positive feedback, especially phase 2 plans to enhance landscaping along the serpentine walkway, said Ross.
The society’s goal is to start construction in October or November, but groundbreaking depends on regulatory approval, said Coxe. So far, the plans have been submitted to the state historical commission because it has an easement on the property, she said.
The proposed welcome center is an important factor in the society’s efforts to expand the tourist season and increase economic growth.
The Breakers is open year-round and the schedule for two other mansions, Mable House and The Elms, was recently extended to begin in mid-February and run until New Year’s. The other mansions are open seasonally.
Admissions at mansions for March were up 36 percent over last year, said the Preservation Society’s Director of Museum Experience John Rodman.
Overall, admissions to the mansions were up 11 percent over last year, said Rodman.
Winter weekends and holidays attract mostly regional visitors, while summers attract tourists from around the globe, Rodman said. •

No posts to display