By any measure, 1929 was not an auspicious year…except, perhaps, in Newport. For that was the year that an exquisite version of the hunting lodge at Versailles, La Lanterne, was designed by the New York firm, Polhemus & Coffin. Champ Soleil, a neighbor just down Bellevue Avenue from Parterre, is one of my favorite houses in our town.

I find so many of its architectural details enchanting, from the high pitched roofs…

to the charming side view framed by two old trees…

to the intimate terrace overlooking the grounds.

Champ Soleil has enjoyed a succession of noteworthy owners, from the first…Lucy Drexel Dahlgren, the granddaughter of Joseph W. Drexel…to the second owners, Roberta & Robert Goelet, who both enlarged Champ Soleil and chose the famed French firm Maison Jansen to contribute their decorating talents (the firm which decorated the White House under the Kennedy presidency), per my dear friend Gary Lawrance, Mansions of the Gilded Age. The estate was later owned by Russell B. Aitken and his wife, heiress Annie Laurie Aitken (mother of Sunny Von Bulow). It is the current owners of 18 years, Joshua McKinney-Zarrilli and his husband, real estate developer Kenneth Zarrilli, who now have this mansion on the market. They, too, have applied their stewardship skills to Champ Soleil, spending nearly $10 million renovating and restoring this property that is also distinguished as one of only nine intact Newport estates.

The venerable Long Island landscaping firm of its day, Innocenti and Webel, designed the 5.35 acre grounds, with Newport’s signature beech trees, fragrant rose gardens, a generously scaled swimming pool and one of the finest croquet courts in the country.

The grounds also include the original gate and carriage houses, each a smaller reference to the main house’s charming details.

Sharing the southern end of Bellevue Avenue with Larry Ellison’s Beechwood, the Preservation Society’s Marble House, and Beaulieu, Clarendon Court, Miramar and Belcourt Castle, Champ Soleil (like many of its neighbors) is set behind elegant wrought iron gates.

The 22 room main house has  a total of 11 bedrooms and 8.5+ bathrooms within 13,428 square feet with many gracious touches and details, starting with the entry and continuing through the halls.

Other rooms throughout the large square footage include a ball room and large living rooms…

the formal dining room adorned with a spectacular Neo-Baroque chandelier…

a library built of Louis XV pine panels imported from France…

and a large kitchen, a chef’s kitchen, and butler’s pantry.

Plus, a 3,000 square foot home theatre and a massage room. The current owners also updated Champ Soleil with the latest in green design and technology including 26 internet-controlled zones for heating and cooling efficiency, state-of-the-art security, fire protection and an audio/visual system.

So happy you could join me…this seemed the perfect mid-summer post (pool and all) on a topic near and dear to my heart (other than gardens), Newport’s exceptional architecture.

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Images courtesy of Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty.