Malbone
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Malbone
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Malbone Castle
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| Location | Newport, Rhode Island |
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| Coordinates | 41°30′18.02″N 71°18′35.55″W / 41.5050056°N 71.3098750°WCoordinates: 41°30′18.02″N 71°18′35.55″W / 41.5050056°N 71.3098750°W |
| Built | 1849 |
| Architect | A. J. Davis; Dudley Newton |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 76000039 |
| Added to NRHP | October 22, 1976 |
Malbone is one of the oldest privately owned estates in Newport, Rhode Island. Located on Malbone Road, the estate has a history dating to the mid-18th century, but the present main was built in 1848-49. The estate once served as the country residence of Colonel Godfrey Malbone (1695–1768) of Virginia and Connecticut. Colonel Malbone made his fortune as a shipping merchant and slave trader, becoming one of the wealthiest men in Newport during the 1740s through privateering and the triangle trade. Malbone had built what Dr. Alexander Hamilton called one of the finest houses he had seen in the colonies, probably to a design by noted colonial architect Richard Munday.
Future President George Washington boarded and dined at Malbone in February 1756 when he visited his good friend Col. Malbone. In 1766, during the course of a gala dinner party, a chimney fire reduced the house to a pile of sandstone rubble. Reportedly Colonel Malbone, seeing no reason why the party should be interrupted, ordered dinner to be served outside, saying, "By God, if I have to lose my house, I shall not lose my dinner!"
A new house was built on this property, as the country villa of Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan Prescott Hall. Hall was an eminent New York lawyer and descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence. In May 1848, the Halls commissioned Alexander Jackson Davis, a notable 19th-century New York architect, to design a house of pink sandstone with the ivy-covered ruin as its principal feature. The stone and brickwork before the front door is all that remains of the substantial country house built in 1741 by Malbone. Reconstruction was completed in 1849. In 1875, the house's interiors were remodeled under the supervision of noted local architect Dudley Newton. The home remained in the same family for over 130 years and served as the summer residence of the Morris family, a prominent family from New York, who held positions of social and political prominence in America and Newport since the 18th century.
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