Type Private residence Construction started 1911 Opened 1915 Owner David Ford Inaugurated 20 August 1915 | Address 646 Bellevue Avenue Completed 1915 Floors 3 Architectural style Neoclassical architecture Architect Horace Trumbauer | |
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Location Aquidneck Island, Newport, Rhode Island, USA Client George & Eleanor Elkins Widener Similar Rose Terrace, The Elms, Vernon Court, Kingscote, Beechwood | ||
Miramar is a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) French neoclassical-style mansion on 7.8 acres (32,000 m2) bordering Bellevue Avenue on Aquidneck Island at Newport, Rhode Island. Overlooking Rhode Island Sound, it was intended as a summer home for the George D. Widener family of Philadelphia.
Contents
Map of Miramar, Newport, RI 02840, USA
History
It was designed by Horace Trumbauer, who had earlier designed the nearby Edward Julius Berwind property, The Elms; the gardens were created by Jacques Gréber.
The building and landscaping were still in the design stage when George Widener and his son Harry lost their lives aboard the RMS Titanic. His widow, Eleanor Elkins Widener, who was rescued in a lifeboat from the Titanic, completed the project and construction was undertaken during 1913 and 1914 and opened to friends with a large reception on August 20, 1915.
The 27-bedroom, 14-bath mansion has a 27' × 63' Grand Salon/ballroom on the first floor which opens onto a 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) oceanfront terrace. Among its other features, the mansion has a 10,000-bottle wine cellar with a 20-ft (6 m) stone basin for icing up to 200 bottles of champagne at once.
The property features includes a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) carriage house and gardens with a bronze fountain designed by French sculptor Henri-Léon Gréber, father of the landscape designer.
Owners
In 1956, Miramar was sold by the estate of Eleanor Widener's second husband, Alexander H. Rice Jr's estate for $118,000, and in 2006 it was sold again, for $17.5 million.