Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard
Deborah & William Hillyard

Visit:

Rough Point

Princess and Baby were Doris Duke's pet Bactrian camels. They were gifts from Adnan Khashoggi, and they spent the summer at Rough Point whenever Doris did. 
Rough Point was built over a five years period starting in 1887, in the style of an English Manor.  The owner, Frederick William Vanderbilt, sold it in 1906 to William Bateman Leeds who left it to his wife when he died in 1910.  In 1922, she sold it to James Buchanan Duke, of Duke University fame.  On his death in 1925, he left the house and his entire fortune to his 12 year old daughter, Doris.  It was little used for some time, and even emptied of its contents, until Doris Duke started to re-furnish it in the late 1950s.  In her bedroom, much of the furniture is veneered in mother-of-pearl, some of which belonged to Helena Rubinstein; however, the white drapes on the four-poster bed came from J.C. Penny's.  She spent from May to November at the house for most years up until 1992, just before her death in 1993.  The house is preserved exactly as it was at her death; nothing has been added or removed.  The house contains an amazing art and furniture collection, including works by Gainsborough, Van Dyck, and Renoir.  Unlike all the other mansions, there is no gift shop at Rough Point.  Doris insisted there not be one as she considered them to be in bad taste. 

Doris loved jazz and was known to have made many anonymous gifts to starving musicians.  In 1968, she founded the Newport Restoration Foundation and bought 84 colonial properties in Newport.  These are restored and rented. She left Rough Point to the foundation with the stipulation that it be used as a museum.

Vacations -

Rhode Island - Newport Mansions