Ogden Goelet commissioned Ochre Court, the large châteauesque mansion in Newport built at a cost of $4.5 million in 1892. This is the second largest mansion in Newport, right after nearby The Breakers, and like The Breakers, Belcourt Castle and Marble House it came from the hand of Richard Morris Hunt. Today it belongs to Salve Regina University.
Imagine the Goelet family, an American dynasty that rose from humble 18th century trade into vast 19th century investments; Ogden Goelet himself was a banker, real estate investor and competitive yachtsman. His wife, Mary Wilson Goelet, ran Ochre Court through a typical eight-week summer season, a household that required twenty-seven house servants, eight coachmen and grooms and twelve gardeners. Hunt modeled the design on the chateaux of France's Loire Valley in the Louis XIII style, so you notice high roofs, turrets, tall chimneys and elaborate dormers.
Look closer and you can sense the elaborate decoration inside and out—classical-style ceiling paintings, heraldry, carved emblems and statues, and a profusion of stained.... Picture the façade, the roofs, and the turrets rising just beyond you.