Founded in 1968 by Doris Duke, the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF), a non-profit institution, was formed with the express purpose of preserving, interpreting, and maintaining landscape and objects reflecting Aquidneck Island’s 18th- and 19th- century architectural culture. It fulfills its mission in the following ways:
Since its founding, the NRF has restored or preserved 83 buildings. Today, the NRF continues to own a collection of 76 historic buildings, including 71 homes that are rented as private residences and maintained by a full-time crew of carpenters and painters. This is one of the largest collections of period architecture owned by a single organization anywhere in the country. More importantly, the majority of these structures are being lived in and used as they have for more than three centuries, making them a vibrant part of the community.
The NRF also owns and operates three museum properties:
- Rough Point, Doris Duke’s Newport mansion
- Whitehorne House, featuring the Doris Duke Collection of 18th-century Newport Furniture
- Prescott Farm, an example of early American landscape and architecture
The NRF continues to be actively engaged in educational efforts, scholarly research and historic preservation.
