The Audrain Building is an architecturally significant commercial building located at 222 Bellevue Avenue in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

. It is situated adjacent to the

Newport Casino The Newport Casino is an athletic complex and recreation center located at 180-200 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island in the Bellevue Avenue/Casino Historic District. Built in 1879–1881 by ''New York Herald'' publisher James Gordon ...

and is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

to the Bellevue Avenue/Casino Historic District. The building was constructed in 1902–1903 for Adolphe L. Audrain and was designed by noted New York architect

Bruce Price Bruce Price (December 12, 1845 – May 29, 1903) was an American architect and an innovator in the Shingle Style. The stark geometry and compact massing of his cottages in Tuxedo Park, New York, influenced Modernist architects, including F ...

. It is one of four buildings that form a distinguished central block within Newport, the others being the Travers Block by

Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of American architecture. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance fa� ...

, the

McKim, Mead, and White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), Wil ...

, and the King Block by Perkins and Betton. The building is two stories tall and forms six shop-front bays, with exterior dimensions of 110 by 73.5 feet. It is faced in red brick with brightly colored

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

trim in the style of the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

artist

Luca della Robbia Luca della Robbia (, also , ; 1399/1400–1482) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence. Della Robbia is noted for his colorful, Tin-glazed pottery, tin-glazed terracotta statuary, a technique which he invented and passed on to his ne ...

accentuating the bays and roofline. Street-level ornamentation is relatively restrained but increases at the arched second floor windows and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

."Audrain Building, Newport Rhose Island"
''Historic Structures'' The facade also features copies of

della Robbia Della Robbia is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Luca della Robbia (1400–1481), Italian sculptor * Andrea della Robbia (1435–1525), Italian sculptor, nephew of Luca *Giovanni della Robbia (1469–1529), son of Andrea *Girola ...

's swaddled infants from the Hospital of the Innocents in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

.Interpretive sign for site Recently renovated, the new owner has brought the building back to its original condition. The Audrain Building is located in the Bellevue Avenue/Casino Historic District, which was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1972.

Automobile Museum

Since October 2014, the building has housed the Audrain Automobile Museum. In October 2019, the museum hosted the Audrain’s Newport Concours & Motor Week.Audrain’s Newport Concours & Motor Week

Gallery

File:Audrain Building, Newport.jpg, The building's facade featuring the replicas of

Tondi Tondi may refer to: * Tondi, Tallinn, district of Kristiine, Tallinn, Estonia * Ibrahim Tondi (born 1985), Nigerien hurdler * Tondi Elektroonika, factory for electrotechnical components located in Tallinn, Estonia See also * Tondo (disambigua ...

File:Audrain Automobile Museum exhibit, Newport Rhode Island.jpg, Exhibits in the Audrain Automobile Museum File:Audrain Building (Newport, RI).jpg, The structure in 1970 as documented in the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

File:Historic American Buildings Survey, Cervin Robinson, Photographer July 17, 1970 DETAIL OF CENTRAL ENTRANCE. - Audrain Building, 220-230 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Newport County, RI HABS RI,3-NEWP,41-3.tif, A detail of the ornate terra cotta decoration adorning the building's entrance File:Audrain Automobile Museum (51488123683).jpg, The building from Bellevue Avenue

References

Notes

External links

{{commonscat, Audrain Building
Historic American Buildings Survey
Buildings and structures in Newport, Rhode Island Bruce Price buildings