The Hamptons vs. Newport

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Newport caught on as the place for the superwealthy of NYC to summer long before the Hamptons. So why did the Hampttons take longer to get popular? The Hamptons are closer to New York.

The train goes from NYC to Newport.

Newport, Rhode Island was a town before it became a summer resort for the rich during the Gilded Age. I assume the far eastern parts of Long Island where the Hamptons are weren't very developed until the 20th century when more people had cars. By the way, OP, I believe the Gold Coast of northern Long Island just outside NYC's city limits, (peninsulas like Kings Point and Sands Point) was popular with rich people around the same time as Newport. I assume at that time, the Hamptons were too remote and difficult to get to. Long Island's Gold Coast went into decline as the area became more built up with middle class suburbs and more accessible to the average person. Also, many rich people took a big hit when the stock market crashed in 1929, followed by ten years of depression and WWII. They probably couldn't keep up their grand country houses on the Gold Coast and couldn't sell them, so the houses became dilapidated and many were eventually demolished. After WWII, more rich people probably moved to the Hamptons because it was more remote.

The Hamptons is popular with celebrities and new money.

Of course, Long Island's north / Gold Coast is the setting for "The Great Gatsby". It's not nearly as exclusive now. Very rich people build country homes in the Hamptons, Greenwich CT, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard. I think Newport has lost a lot of its luster too.

I disagree, R3. If you look on real estate websites at the most expensive homes in Nassau County, L.I. (where the Gold Coast is) and Suffolk County, L.I. (where the Hamptons are), there is a big difference in price and how many expensive homes there are. Too many ordinary middle class suburbs on the Gold Coast. The rich don't want to be mixing with those types. And I assume the ocean is significantly cleaner way out in the Hamptons.

*Long Island's north shore

People who used to “summer” in Newport were the ultra-wealthy and didn’t need to be close enough to New York to commute back for the work week like people in the Hamptons do.

That’s why the Roosevelts, who could have afforded to spend their summers anywhere along Long Island had a place all the way up in Maine.

R6 - Nah - there were always people who spent the entire summers in the Hamptons. The Maidstone Club started in 1899, so the area has been an area for the elite for a long time.

I believe the only reason Newport took off is because of Astor's '400 list' that she made. She built a home in Newport with a ballroom that could handle...yep, just 400. So those 400 went because it was the social elite and you wanted to be there.

Then the Vanderbilts and the Morgans built their homes and it took off. But after the Gilded age (1870-1910), it was not as much of a hotspot any more.

I assume train systems were significantly expanded - and of course automobiles and drivers came around so you weren't as tied to the train anyway.

If you google "zillow most expensive homes Rhode Island" and then google "zillow most expensive homes New York" (and then zero in on the map where the Hamptons are), you'll see that the Hamptons have way more very expensive homes than Newport. I think Newport is past its prime. Not everyone wants to go to the trouble and expense of completely restoring an old mansion. I don't think it's just a division of old money in Newport and new money in the Hamptons.

No, R7. You're thinking of the Astor House in Manhattan at 840 Fifth Avenue. It had a ballroom that could accommodate 400 people. Mrs. William B. Astor thought there were only 400 people in New York's high society that were worth knowing. The house was demolished in 1926 and Temple Emanu-El was built on the spot.

The former Astor mansion in Newport is called Beechwood. I seriously doubt it has a ballroom that could accommodate 400 people.

Oops, I'm wrong too. The 400 may have been referring to the ballroom at Mrs. Astor's brownstone at 350 Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, where the Empire State Building is now.

If you look up photos of that house, it's awfully plain on the outside.

R6 wrong. They summered in New Brunswick, Canada.

Judge Judy and Jay Leno in Newport, R12? There goes the neighborhood.

[quote]He added that while the properties might not be expensive compared to destinations like the Hamptons, real estate taxes are incredibly high in Newport, and many of the old houses, especially those along the oceanfront, require a significant amount of upkeep.

I did read about some rich guy doing a massive, very expensive renovation of Hammersmith Farms in Newport, which used to belong to the Kennedys.

R14. Did you read it in your Weekly Reader? How wrong can you be?

It belong to the Auchincloss family. Duh.

Thank you for the correction, R15. I was mixed up because Jackie had her wedding reception there when she married JFK.

R16 - yeah, because that was her stepfather. Jackie lived at Hammersmith Farms after her mom married Auchincloss.

Right, right, R17. Hammersmith Farm was built for the uncle of Jackie's stepfather.

Amazing to read on wiki all the extensive renovations the new owner has done. So many old houses become so dilapidated that they're eventually demolished.

The Roosevelts were on Campobello Island that is on the border of Maine and New Brunswick and is part of Canada.

These "resorts" all developed at the same time for the Robber Barons and old money alike:

Lenox Mass, Adirondack (grand camps), Gold Coast Long Island, Hamptons, Bar Harbor, and Newport. Newport was a little bit earlier with grand fortunes dipping in toes after the Civil War. In fact southerners used to come all the way up to Newport. Hamptons were a little late to the game, as noted above, after the MAMMOTH estates of the Long Island Gold Coast. Grand mansions didn't have the vast farms, greenhouses, stables, lakes, etc etc etc, out in the Hamptons. All these resorts had the same spurt of enormous projects 1890-1920.

Roosevelt and old dutch money had estates on the Hudson River. One Vanderbilt joined them, using their renaissance palace in the Autumn, only. Rockefellers further south, where Jay Gould also expanded a preexisting estate, in the early Gilded Age,1880s, into Lyndhurst.

Oheka survives. Pretty amazing. I didn't know it's a hotel, now.

Several great camps survive.

True, R22, and so does Old Westbury Gardens as a museum but I doubt really rich people think of Long Island's North Shore as a prime location. Its day in the sun has passed.

There's a Canyon Ranch in a gilded age mansion in Lenox. A banker fuckbuddy took me there decades ago. It must have just opened!

Yes the North Shore is completely lost as a resort. Newport is pretty dead, too. There are a few mansions still in private hands but it's mostly just a nostalgia town, not important socially. It's a beautiful town though! And will survive global warming. There are yachting people, and many large modern homes for very rich people, way out on the peninsula.

The monied side of my family had houses in Watch Hill and Narragansett. Watch Hill was a kind of B list Newport back in the day. In fact that's the only reason there was money, because they had land there they could sell. Narragansett even more downscale, just middle class and pleasant back in the day. All that real estate is pricey nowadays, of course.

Sometimes you have a "grand" mansion on Long Island's North Shore, like this one on 26 Pond Road in Kings Point. It was initially put on the market for $100 million but its owner's taste was so gaudy and bizarre, it still hasn't sold after the price was slashed to $45 million. Even so, really expensive mansions on the North Shore are uncommon. The area doesn't have the cachet it did a 100 years ago.

Marjorie Merriweather Post's camp in the Adirondacks, Camp Topridge, still exists. It has a private owner.

Deerlands is still there, the Whitney camp. With its remaining 35,000 acres. Been for sale for a while.

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