Chanler at the Cliff Walk, Newport
A Mansion Built for an Astor is Now a Boutique Hotel
First in line of the "cottages" once graced by Vanderbilts, Dukes and Astors, the Chanler has become an ornately designed 14-room hotel by the sea in Newport, R.I.
Originally called “Cliff Lawn,” the mansion was constructed in the late 19th century as a summer cottage for John Chanler and his wife, Margaret Astor Ward.
Chanler was a New York congressman and his wife was the niece both of the William Astors and of Julia Ward Howe, a leading suffragette who wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” so together they welcomed many of the toniest people of the time.
Returning from a midnight swim on the nearby beach, you stoke the fire in the master bedroom of your 20-room cottage and fall asleep to the jagged susurration of wave against cliff.
If your name is Duke or Vanderbilt, this is just another chilly summer night. If not, you are one of the guests of the Chanler, the first mansion ever built on Newport’s three-mile Cliff Walk, and now the first to be reimagined as a boutique hotel.
Today, each of the 15,000-square-foot mansion’s 14 inside rooms is themed and named for the period style in which it is decorated.
The pale blue, cream and gold Louis XVI rooms has hand-painted designs inspired by a French chateau and crystal chandeliers; the Renaissance room has gold brocade chairs and a sunken tub encircled by columns; the Gothic room, decorated in purple, gold and green, boasts a king-sized wrought-iron bed with a Gothic arch and a stone mantelpiece.
All of the rooms feature canopied beds and ornate fireplaces, and most offer private decks overlooking the Atlantic. Amid the luxurious antiquities are the most contemporary of amenities: flat-screen televisions, DVD and CD players, Internet access, Jacuzzi tubs, rainhead showers and heated bathroom floors are standard.
The five-acre property also features six private-entrance villas, three of which face the ocean. Each of the ocean villas has a private courtyard hot tub and sauna with a view of the cliffs and the ocean beyond.
The on-site restaurant, The Spiced Pear, serves Continental cuisine as well as the local seafood and lays claim to a 3,500-bottle, vintage-wine cellar.
The Chanler at Cliff Walk, 401-847-1300, $300-$700 per night.
