Issues → September/October 2007 → Home & Garden →
House For Sale: Newport, Rhode Island
Three-bedroom colonial home at the Top of the Hill
by The Moseyer
Residents of the Newport's Top of the Hill section feel it is the most heavenly neighborhood. And we recently found out why.
For one thing, the Top of the Hill neighborhood is just an easy 10-minute walk to the downtown area with all those wonderful shops and restaurants along the harbor.
Then, if you walk 15 minutes in the opposite direction, you'll find yourself at Newport's primary beach, Easton's, and a bit farther south, the famous Cliff Walk. If you're feeling really frisky, you could even walk down Bellevue Avenue to all those incredible mansions you've heard about. Or if that's too far, they're only five minutes away by car. Then, after touring one or two, you could head on over to Ocean Drive, ending up at Fort Adams, with the Dwight D. Eisenhower summer White House (he'd golf at the nearby country club) and the beautiful state park where the Newport Jazz Festival is held every August.
In other words, Newport's Top of the Hill neighborhood is ideally located in one of America's most popular tourist destinations. Even better, its lovely old homes, dating back to the 1850s -- many designed by famous architects -- create a quiet, tree-lined residential area, away from the hustle, bustle, and, yes, noise you'd have to expect in other areas of town during the busy summer and fall seasons.
"When we decided 20 years ago that we wanted to live in Newport, we simply waited for something in the Top of the Hill section to come on the market," said Claire Ball to us one recent summer morning as she and her husband of 40 years, Charlie, chatted with us over coffee and cinnamon buns. Their three-story, five-bedroom Colonial Revival home is number 26 Greenough Place, right in the heart of the Top of the Hill neighborhood. Turns out they were both born in the Boston area, but had lived all over the world while raising their two children. Charlie worked for the National Security Agency -- doing, as he put it to us with a smile, "spy stuff."
Eventually, he found himself teaching at the Naval War College in Newport, and that's when the Balls decided they wanted to settle down in this famous New England town. "We simply fell in love with living here," said Claire. When 26 Greenough Place came on the market a few months later, they grabbed it, and then, over the next few years, they replaced walls; rebuilt the kitchen (complete with gorgeous granite counters), all three full baths, and the half bath; put on a new roof; restored both fireplaces; installed a central vacuum; replaced the old furnace -- and on and on. "In the past 20 years," said Charlie, "we've rebuilt and/or painted every square foot of this place."
In the early 1990s the Balls found themselves to be "empty nesters." Both their daughter, Carolyn, and son, Brian, were off to college and then on into the professional world -- which left both their rooms, each with its own bath, empty. Thus was born what became well-known in the area (and, through the Internet, around the world) as "Claire's B&B."
For the next 13 years, until a year ago, Claire cooked a full breakfast for her guests every morning. Then, over coffee, she'd tell them what to do that day, where to eat, how to get there, and so forth. "She was their mother," Charlie said. Guests came from all over, many about to be married, just married, or attending a wedding. Apparently, in part because you can rent some of those mansions, Newport is a very popular town in which to be married (visit yournewportwedding.com for details).
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