Listing of the Day
Location: Newport, R.I. Price: $3.65 million
For Joni and Paul Jablansky, this sprawling seven-bedroom Victorian on Bellevue Avenue was the perfect weekend getaway from their full-time home in New Rochelle, New York.
It was plenty big for them and their three children, with lots of room for extended family and big summer get-togethers. Sometimes they even hired actors from a local troupe to goose up murder-, or "Seinfeld"-themed weekend parties.
Known as "The Villa," the 1863 house was designed by George Champlin Mason. You can still see some of Mason’s signature touches in the house, says listing agent Kate Greenman.
These include the distinctive "decorative striped floors with two different woods and the step-down in the master suite," along with the 12-foot ceilings and large rooms, she says.
Those floors were an instant draw for the Jablanskys.
"When we first looked at the house, we saw that floor in the entryway and said, OK, we’re done—and then the center hall and that stairway that goes up three stories," says Ms. Jablansky.
The house was in good shape when they bought it 10 years ago, but it had been split into four apartments. The Jablanskys pulled it back together as a single-family house and also added copper gutters and a shingled roof made of Alaskan yellow cedar, redid the mahogany porches and renovated the carriage house.
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The Stats
The 7,728-square-foot house has seven bedrooms and nine full bathrooms. There is also a two-car garage on the 0.684-acre landscaped property. The Jablanskys use the two-bedroom, one-bath carriage house as a caretaker’s cottage.
Design Pedigree
George Champlin Mason Sr. (1820-1894) was a prominent American architect who built a number of mansions in Newport during the Gilded Age. He helped to found the Newport Historical Society and was also the part owner and editor of the Newport Mercury newspaper. His son, George Champlin Mason Jr., was also a well-known architect, in Newport and elsewhere.
Neighborhood Notes
Bellevue Avenue is a major thoroughfare that runs through the heart of Newport.
"It’s a pretty storied street with beautiful gas lamps, crunchy gravel sidewalks and lots of estates," Ms. Greenman says. "You have stately house after stately house."
The Jablanskys love the neighborhood’s easy walkability.
"We park the car when we get there, and then we walk everywhere—to town, to the beach, to our favorite restaurants," Ms. Jablansky says. "That’s what we love about Newport—you can walk everywhere."
Agent: Kate Greenman, Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty
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