PROVIDENCE – A custom 8,200-square-foot home located along the ocean, on a stretch of land in Newport called Cherry Neck, was recently sold for $12.5 million, according to Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty, which represented the seller in the deal.
The Newport home, with its seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, along with six fireplaces, was constructed in 1914 on 4.4 acres of land at 232 Ocean Ave., according to city property records.
The home, known as “Normandie,” was designed by New York City architectural firm Delano & Aldrich, which was founded in 1903, according to Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty. William Adams Delano, the famed architect behind the firm, known for serving some of the most wealthy clients in the region, was quoted in a magazine at the time about the secluded waterfront environment where the Newport home was built.
“This house on the Ocean Drive in Newport was designed to grow from the rocks on which it stands and by which it is surrounded,” Delano said.
At the head of the driveway to the property is a massive brick archway structure that vehicles must pass through.
The property was most recently owned by the Normandie Irrevocable Trust and Catherine F. Gunning, a trustee to the estate.
A record of the deed transaction was not immediately available among property records maintained online by the city.
Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty did not disclose the identities of the buyer or seller.
While Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty represented the seller, with the firm’s co-owner Paul A. Leys personally taking part in the sale, the buyer was represented by Capital Realty, Leys said.
The property listing elicited a crush of interested clients after it was put on the market about two months ago, Leys said.
“In all my years of selling houses and estates with prices north of $10 million, I have never had a listing that generated the amount of interest and activity that ‘Normandie’ did,” Leys said. “In the short time of only two months, I had at least 25 showings.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.