The town is noted for fine scenery, and is one of the most fashionable watering-places in America, containing some of the finest mansions in the United States. Bathing facilities are unrivaled, and there are many fashionable promenades.
The chief attractions are Touro Park, and the Old Mill, Cliff Walk, Bailey’s Beach, and the Ocean Drive.
The central point of Old Newport is Washington Square, or the Parade, within a few minutes’ walk of the railway station and steamboat wharf. Here are the State House, with portrait of Washington, by Stuart; the old City Hall (new one in Broadway, corner of Bull Street); a statue of Commodore O. H. Perry, the hero of Lake Erie; the Perry Mansion, and the Roman Catholic Church, with an Ionic portico.
Following Touro Street, to the southeast, is the Synagogue built in 1762 and the oldest in the United States; the Newport Historical Society; and, a little beyond, the picturesque Hebrew Cemetery. Touro Street ends here and Bellevue Avenue, the fashionable promenade, begins, running to the south.
The fine Fern-leaf Beech is at the corner of Bellevue Avenue and Redwood Street. Nearly opposite this is Touro Park, containing the Round Tower or Old Stone Mill, the origin of which is still somewhat of a mystery. Some authorities believe that it was built by Governor Arnold in the seventeenth century as a wind-mill, while others regard it as very possibly the central part of a church built by the Norsemen in the eleventh century. Longfellow mentions it in his Skeleton in Armor. The park also contains statues of M. C. Perry and W. E. Channing; and opposite its south side stands the Channing Memorial Church.
A few hundred paces farther on, Bath Road leads to the left from Bellevue Avenue to the First Beach.
Bellevue Avenue soon passes the Casino, a long, low, many-gabled building, containing a club, a theater, etc. The Lawn Tennis Championship of America is decided in the courts attached to the Casino. Farther on, the avenue passes between a series of magnificent villas, and then turns sharply to the right and ends at Bailey’s Beach.
First or Easton’s Beach, a strip of smooth hard sand, three-fourths mile long, affords some of the best and safest surf-bathing on the Atlantic coast. From the east end of the beach a road leads round Easton’s Point to Purgatory, a curious fissure in the conglomerate rocks, one hundred and fifty feet long, seven to fourteen feet wide, and fifty feet deep.
At the west end of Easton’s Beach begins the famous Cliff Walk, which runs along the winding brow of the cliffs for about three miles, with the ocean on one side and the smooth lawns of handsome homes on the other. Here are summer residences, owned by the wealthiest society people of Boston, New York, and other cities.
Across the hill is Bailey’s Beach, a small bay with a long row of bathing-houses, which has become the fashionable bathing-resort of the Newport cottagers.