Participant Reflection

The group of 15 gathered Sunday morning inside the blue Colonial house on Spring St. It was empty of furniture and still being cleaned out. Gina encouraged us to wander a bit as we gathered. Such low ceilings; such a steep staircase. Though most of this walk was inside the house, Gina first brought us down the street and helped us think about what had been here before and the ways Doris Duke had moved houses in the name of preservation, but is a house just the structure? Or is the address -- the location -- also part of a house? And when an apartment complex is torn down for a “historic” home to be saved, what are we saving? We stood in the back garden and wondered about how much of the house was still “original,” but original to what time period? Maybe now we’re just looking at the 400 year old idea of the house. Inside we talked about paint colors and the 1970s period that Doris Duke and her team were restoring everything to and that now the NRF has to wonder about what time period is being “preserved” and whose stories. Gina said that her team was uncertain about opening up a house in this state to a group, but Gina knew it was ripe for a Jane’s Walk. She ended by sharing her own project of rethinking the historic plaques all over the homes in Newport. The group was eager to think through all the ways these plaques could be more reflective of the story of the houses here.