The Isaac Bell House is very different from anything else I saw in Newport. While the Vanderbilts, Berwinds, and other prominent Newport families looked to the past to imitate Renaissance, Gothic, and Baroque architecture, Isaac Bell looked forward instead. Thanks to his architect Stanford White, his house (completed in 1883) began a new style that’s now called Shingle Style. It was a precursor to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and may have inspired him. The Isaac Bell House is the Preservation Society’s newest acquisition, and it needed a lot of restoration work when they got it in 1997. They are still researching and piecing together what the original furniture and decoration looked like, so visitors mainly see just bare architecture. Fortunately, that’s the interesting part of this house, anyway. It has all sorts of subtle and masterful woodwork and detailing. The shingles on the exterior form three different patterns on different features, and the interior moldings and carvings are just sublime. Thanks to bits of old wallpaper found under light fixtures and such, the society has been able to commission reproductions. They are all spectacular, often with flecks of gold or silver imbedded to catch the light. I also loved the stained glass and built-ins, one of which was taken from antique northern European beds. Stanford White was clearly a genius. This house is easy to imagine yourself living in, even though you see it without furniture.
The shingles on the Isaac Bell House form three distinct patterns on different portions of the exterior.
These animal-shaped brackets hold in the house’s porch. They look like Chinese dragons to me, but my guide book says they’re dolphins.
Woodwork inside the Isaac Bell House. I believe it was recycled from an antique Northern European bed.
A cozy bay window nook in one of the bedrooms.
While most of the house’s original décor is lost, some wallpaper fragments remained. They were used to commission gorgeous reproductions like this, made in Europe with period-appropriate techniques. They’re a real treat to see in this house.
This built-in can be found in one of the bedrooms. It’s an example of both the high-quality woodwork in the house and its references back to colonial Newport design.
The stained glass windows are just lovely.
More beautiful woodwork, back on the ground floor again.
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Alexandra Kiely, aka A Scholarly Skater, is an art historian based in the northeastern United States. She loves wandering down the dark and dusty corners of art history and wholeheartedly believes in visual art's ability to enrich every person's life.
Her favorite periods of art history are 19th-century American painting and medieval European art and architecture. When she not looking at, reading about, writing about, or teaching art, she's probably ice dancing or reading.
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A Scholarly Skater 