Ocean Drive Historic District
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Ocean Drive Historic District
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View of houses and shoreline
at Goose Neck Cove, 2008 |
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| Location | Newport, RI |
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| Coordinates | 41°27′18″N 71°19′57″W / 41.45500°N 71.33250°WCoordinates: 41°27′18″N 71°19′57″W / 41.45500°N 71.33250°W |
| Area | 1,509 acres (611 ha) |
| Built | Late 18th-20th century |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian, early 20th-century revival styles |
| NRHP reference # | 76000048 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 11, 1976 |
| Designated NHLD | May 11, 1976 |
The Ocean Drive Historic District is a historic district that covers the long street of the same name along the southern shore of Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1976, in recognition for its distinctive landscape (in part the work of Frederick Law Olmsted) and architecture, which is less formal and generally not as ostentatious as the grand summer properties of Bellevue Avenue.
It consists of houses on large lots that overlook the beaches and ocean. It was a favorite picnicking spot of the wealthy summer residents of the mansions on nearby Bellevue Avenue in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Ocean Drive begins at an intersection with Ocean Avenue, a short distance from the southern terminus of Bellevue. It follows the shoreline closely in a roughly east-west direction, meandering as it does, to Brenton Point State Park on Aquidneck Island's southwestern corner, the only place it turns away from the shoreline. It then continues along the shore again, with views toward Conanicut Island, before it ends just south of Fort Adams.
The topography along the road consists mainly of dunes and low hills, on which houses were built in a variety of late 19th and 20th century styles. The hills are mostly open, with occasional patches of scrubby bush and copses of trees. Land use is almost exclusively residential. Of the 53 buildings within the district, the few commercial structures are the clubhouses of private beaches and associated outbuildings (one, Gooseberry Beach, is open to the public). Unlike Newport's other historic districts, none of them are separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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