New life is being breathed into an old Newport, RI mansion from the Gilded Age. Now known as Carey Mansion, but more famously as Seaview Terrace, this 40,000 sqft home is more widely recognized as Collinwood from the 1960s daytime drama ‘Dark Shadows.’
The house is quite unique in that it contains rooms from a French Chateau that were incorporated into a Washington DC home in the early 20th Century, but by the 1920s disassembled, packed up and sent to Newport to be reconstructed and expanded into the sprawling mansion we see today. The expansive home was ravaged by a hurricane in 1938 and eventually became housing for Army officers. In 1950 it saw new life as a private girls’ school and continued throughout the rest of the 20th Century as an education facility in different forms until just a couple of years ago.
The current owners, the Carey family who have owned it since the 1970s and had leased it to Salve Regina University, are now in residence at the grand home and have engaged in significant restoration projects to revive the grandeur of a forgotten age. The Careys must be commended for the desire to undertake such a huge task in what is turly an ultimate act of historic preservation.
Photos of the restoration and exquisite architecture can be seen at Seaview Terrace.
Photo credit: 2004-10-03 Newport, RI – Cliff Walk, Carey Mansion by QuiteLucid, on Flickr
It’s so heart breaking to see these old homes fall to ruins. I love reading the history behind them and it’s so inspiring to see them restored and brought back to life.