‘Gilded Age’ home in Newport sells for $9M

A HISTORIC “GILDED AGE” HOME at 115 Narragansett Ave. in Newport recently sold for $9 million. / COURTESY MOTT & CHACE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY

PROVIDENCE – A “Gilded Age” home in Newport that was built by renowned New York architect Charles A. Platt recently sold for $9 million, according to Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty, which represented the seller in the deal.

Built in 1927 and known as “Bois Doré,” which translates as “Golden Wood,” the 115 Narragansett Ave. home in Newport is designed in a “Louis XVI palatial fashion,” with a marble foyer entrance, a limestone façade and an 85-foot “great hall” that gives the home “a sense of balance and grandeur,” according to the real estate agency. The front steps are flanked by two dog statues.

Originally built for William Fahnestock, founder of Oppenheimer & Co., the home was once owned by Campell’s Soup heiress Elinor Winifred Dorrance Hill Ingersoll and later oil baroness Carolyn Mary Skelly.

The estate also features a nearly 2,000-square-foot ballroom, “the largest of any private residence in Newport,” according to Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty, along with an 8-foot antique Regency chandelier.

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Throughout the 18,407-square-foot French chateau, built on a 4-acre lot, there are 23 bedrooms.

The Newport home was sold for the first time since 2006, when it was last bought by David and Candace Keefe. Public records showing the identity of the new owner were not immediately available from the city.

“This historic home is an architectural masterpiece steeped in Newport society,” said Judy Chace, Mott & Chace Sotheby’s broker owner who helped sell the property.

Kylie McCollough, a Mott & Chace Sotheby’s sales associate who helped facilitate the deal, called it “one of the last great houses built for Newport” and “a beautiful piece of Rhode Island history.”

Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.

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