The Elms

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The Elms, viewed from its great lawn.

The Elms is a large mansion, or "summer cottage", located in Newport, Rhode Island. It is owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is open to the public. On June 19, 1996 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Located on Bellevue Avenue, the Elms was completed in 1901 for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind, and is an exact copy of the Chateau d'Agnes in Asnieres, France. Because Mr. Berwind was nouveau riche his neighbors on the avenue shunned him. Because of this, he ordered his face to be carved on the urns atop the wall surrounding it, forcing his neighbors to see his face every day. This same wall shut the Elms off from the public for almost two generation, and was brought back from the brink of destruction by the preservation society and re-opened to the public in 1962. Some consider the Elms to be the most pleasant and livable mansion in the whole of Newport.

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