This large, low-slung and stuccoed Spanish Colonial Revival house in Newport Rhode Island, looks straight out of Southern California, thats because it is.. kind of. The Ellen Mason Villa was built in 1899-1902 from plans by Irving Gill, a southern California architect, for sisters Ellen and Ida Mason. The two unmarried sisters were daughters of Robert Means Mason a Boston millionaire, who had a summer cottage on the site that the family enjoyed for decades. The old Mason Villa was designed by H. H. Richardson, but burned to the ground in 1899, replaced by this structure. The sisters lived between Boston and here at this Newport estate until their deaths. In 1943, the property came into the ownership of the St. Michael’s Country Day School, who have both preserved the old estate house, but also added new structures to the campus. The house is unique as a rare Spanish Colonial Revival style property in New England, what a treat!
Buildings of New England 