One of Newport’s under-appreciated mansions, Chateau-sur-Mer opens its doors to show off a painting that is three stories tall, furniture that is original to the house, and gives us a behind-the-scenes look at restoration projects.
They are part of the architecture of a Victorian-style mansion built in Newport during the 1850s. The elegant Chateau-sur-Mer — Castle by Sea — once hosted parties with more than 2,000 guests.
It was the first of the grand homes on Bellevue Avenue, featuring Italian- and French-influenced architecture and breathtaking gardens and landscaping.
When it was built, Chateau-sur-Mer was surrounded by meadowland, offering an unhindered view of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a house that ushered in the Gilded Age, according to Trudy Coxe, CEO and executive director of the Preservation Society of Newport County.
The owner and builder of the mansion, William Shepard Wetmore, was a businessman and philanthropist who prospered in the China trade.
Radical renovation
When Wetmore died in 1862, his son, George Peabody Wetmore and his new wife, Edith Malvina Keteltas, hired Richard Morris Hunt, a prominent architect, to remodel and redecorate the mansion.
Hunt used the Eastlake or the Aesthetic Movement style to oversee a radical change in the mansion.
“I think perhaps the biggest change that he made was he blew out the second and third floors and created a tower on the house and created the Great Hall, which is the entranceway, if you will,” Coxe says. “And if you think about it, that Great Hall was really the practicing point for the Great Hall in The Breakers, which was built some 20-plus years later.
“I think it’s a fascinating story of the progression of an architectural style, and you can see it in this house.”
Six fireplaces were built on the first floor, and tiles were inlaid into the structure. They were designed and hand-painted by Walter Crane, a founder of the arts and crafts movement of the late 19th century, says Leslie Jones, director of museum affairs and chief curator for the Preservation Society of Newport County.
“Wetmore specifically wanted this design because it was in vogue at the time, and also represented that they were very much in an understanding of what style meant during the height of the 1870s,” Jones says. “Working fireplaces were essential for this space because it was large. That’s again, proportionately why that fireplace is so large to fill the entire room with warm air during cold winter months.
“And even getting into the summer season sometimes evenings were a little bit chillier here in Newport.”
As part of the 1870s remodeling, a billiards table was added to this room, which today doubles as a morning room.
On the second floor, a bedroom has its original furnishings. Jones believes it was used by George Peabody Wetmore during his youth because of the custom-made monogram carved into the furniture.
“This was made by Leon Marcotte of New York, a prominent furniture designer,” she says. “Marcotte had his stamp on Chateau-sur-Mer in a variety of places in all levels practically.
Two of George’s daughters, Edith and Maude, were active preservationists and supported the Preservation Society of Newport County when it was formed in 1945. Coxe says.
"(Edith) was actually the chairman of the board, the president, the first president of the Preservation Society. She held that office I think for a year and then it was handed on to Katherine Warren,” she says. “And Katherine Warren is considered to be the person who really expanded the organization.”
Warren served as the organization’s president from the late 1940s until her death in April 1976.
“But it wouldn’t have happened if the Wetmores hadn’t been there,” Coxe said.
During the 1880s, the Wetmores welcomed President Chester Alan Arthur to Chateau-sur-Mer. George Peabody Wetmore would become a two-term governor of Rhode Island and hosted a large inaugural party on the grounds of the mansion, inviting thousands of guests. He also hosted his daughter’s debutante ball.
The Tree of Life
The massive painting that greets visitors entering Chateau-sur-Mer is called the Tree of Life. It is painted underneath the staircase and rises to the third floor. The staircase was added by Hunt during the 1870s.
“Now the Tree of Life as a symbol you find in a variety of cultures and religions. Generally speaking, it means you know the cycle of life,” Jones says. “Immortal life is also one of the other interpretations but it also has some meanings in that it’s the center of the universe and where else would you wanna have that but in one’s home.”
The fresco mural features small birds chasing little insects. It also includes dragonflies, butterflies and birds holding laurel leaves.
Jones said it was unclear who painted The Tree of Life,
“When you visit Chateau-sur-Mer and you look up and see the progression of this mural, you’ll notice that obviously it changes. The tree is growing as are the scenes that are around it,” she says. “It does extend all the way up to the third floor, which beautifully shifts from this sort of vine work of cherries and grapes up to the very top where it’s just blue sky and also a few speckled birds that are flying above us in the heavens.”
Preserving a massive fresco like The Tree of Life can present some challenges.
“One day our staff came into the building and found a portion of this mural on the floor, on the staircase below,” Coxe says. “It had fallen into millions of pieces.
“Now, most people would pick those pieces up and throw them away. The Preservation Society picked up those pieces. We took them down to the stable at the Breakers. We laid everything out,” she says. “We asked our staff, who likes to do jigsaw puzzles, to come in.
“We put the pieces back together, then our conservators did the gluing and the painting and everything else and that is now back in place.”
“Tremendous restoration story.”
The legacy of the Wetmore family
Jones calls the mural “a treasure.”
“We don’t see too often something that is so encompassing that takes up so much of the footprint of the house,” she says. “It also is of a time period that this house was at the height of its taste within the larger cultural idea and it was remained frozen in that by the family.
“They didn’t make any alterations to this mural, which shows us that they treasured it and it gives us this, it gives us that idea of what was important to the Wetmore family throughout successive generations.”
The Tree of Life, like all of the artifacts inside the Chateau-sur-Mer, continues to keep the legacy of the Wetmore family alive to this day.
Treasure Inside the Museum steps into the back rooms of more than a dozen museums throughout Southern New England, and delves into their treasured collections and uncovering pieces that often remain hidden away.
