Guide to the Drexel family homes photographs, ca. 1921-1959

The Preservation Society of Newport County
424 Bellevue Avenue
Newport, RI 02840
Tel: 401-847-1000
museumaffairs@newportmansions.org

Published in 2023

Collection Overview

Title:	Drexel family homes photographs
Date range:	1921-1959
Creator:	Drexel, Alice Gordon Troth
Abstract:	Photographs of Drexel homes in Paris, France and Newport, Rhode Island. Notable French firm Studio Waléry photographed the interiors of the Alice Troth Drexel and John Drexel Sr. apartment at 34 rue François-Ier, Paris, France, to which Mrs. Drexel added room descriptions. Collection also includes photographs taken by Richard Nelson depicting Rock Cliff in Newport, mostly in panoramic format.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	The Preservation Society of Newport County
Collection number:	PSNCA.H.027

Scope & content

This collection consists of photographs of the interiors of the Drexel family apartment at 34 rue François-Ier in Paris, France. Many of the photographs have accompanying descriptions written by Mrs. Drexel, which note particular pieces or characteristics of the room as well as the sources of some of the furniture, such as whether the furniture came from the Drexels' New York apartment. The photographs and descriptions of the Paris apartment are numbered, and gaps in the numbering show that these are an incomplete set. Also included in the collection are photographs of Rock Cliff in Newport and duplicates of some other images of Newport.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Drexel, Alice Gordon Troth
• Drexel, John Rozet, Sr.
• Nelson, Richard

Subject Organizations

• Studio Waléry

Geographical Names

• Paris (France)
• Newport (R.I.)

Subject Topics

• Interior decoration
• Architecture, domestic
• Antiques

Document Types

• Photographs

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in two series:

• I. Paris apartment, organized according to Alice Troth Drexel's numbering
• II. Rock Cliff and Newport, organized alphabetically by room

Biographical and Historical Note

Alice Gordon Troth (1866-1947) and John Rozet Drexel Sr. (1863-1935) married in 1886. They were socialites and notable collectors of antique furniture. Mr. Drexel was the son of banker Anthony Drexel, founder of Drexel University. The Drexels maintained several homes throughout their lives, including the Horace Trumbauer-desgiend John R. Drexel Mansion in New York City, a home in Philadelphia, Fairholme in Newport, Rhode Island, and the townhouse in Paris.

The Drexels had four children: Lillian Mae Drexel (1889-1894), John "Jack" Rozet Drexel Jr. (1890-1936), Alice Gordon Drexel Barrett (1892-1959), and Gordon Preston Drexel (1895-1964). Eldest son Jack married Elizabeth T. Thompson (1893-1943) in 1918, and they had one son, John Rozet Drexel III, who would maintain a close relationship with his grandparents. Jack would later marry Jane Barbour and father another two children, David Anthony Drexel (1927-2003) and Jane Barbour Drexel (1929-2008). Gordon Preston Drexel did not have any children.

Daughter Alice Gordon Drexel surprised her family and social circles by eloping with Captain William N. Barrett (1887-1963) of the Army Air Service in 1919. The following year, they separated around the time a California woman, Syadia (Mrs. John) Spreckles, Jr., accused Barrett of stealing a valuable pearl necklace. Their son, Edwin Gerald William Barrett, was born in 1920 but died of meningitis in 1921.

Alice and John Drexel departed the United States, selling much of their real estate but transporting their interiors and antique collections to Europe; in 1921 they purchased the townhouse at 34 rue François-Ier, in the eighth arrondissement of Paris. John Drexel Sr. died in 1935, and Alice Troth Drexel in 1947.

Originally designed as a Stick Style cottageby George Champlin Mason for Thomas Forbes Cushing in 1869, Rock Cliff's first name was New Lodge. Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. purchased the house in 1916; after a massive renovation rendering the house into a Classical Revival style, it became known as Ames Villa. Jessie P. Donahue purchased the house in 1945 and renamed it Rock Cliff. John R. Drexel III, grandson of Alice and John Sr., and his wife Noreen Stonor Drexel briefly lived at Rock Cliff on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, purchasing it in 1956 from Donahue. The house sits on the southern end of Bellevue Avenue, between Ocean View and Rough Point, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The Drexels sold the property to Harold Sterling Vanderbilt in 1961.

The archivist found these photographs in the archival collection of the Preservation Society of Newport County. A note on the box of Paris photographs read "Allard," possibly denoting that this apartment or perhaps the furnishings the Drexels brought from New York were from the Jules Allard et Fils firm. Handwriting on the note is similar to that of Noreen Stonor Drexel, the granddaughter-in-law of Alice Troth Drexel and John Drexel Sr.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	The collection is open to the public, and there are no restrictions on access. However, the collection can only be seen by scheduled appointment.
Use of the materials:	All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the PSNC Archives and Special Collections are requested to contact the archivist, prior to reproducting, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although the Preservation Society has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim copyright ownership. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the copyright and to obtain any necessary permission from them.
Preferred citation:	"Courtesy of the Preservation Society of Newport County."
Contact information:	The Preservation Society of Newport County 424 Bellevue Avenue Newport, RI 02840 Tel: 401-847-1000 museumaffairs@newportmansions.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The photographs were found in the PSNC archives collection in 2023.
Accruals:	Additional accruals are not expected.
Processing information:	The archivist paired room descriptions with their photographs and arranged the collection much as it was found.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Genna Duplisea, Archivist, 14 March 2023.
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Related material:	MC-00-071, John R. Drexel III and Alice Troth Drexel papers, Drexel University Archives, https://archivalcollections.drexel.edu/repositories/4/resources/1432. The Preservation Society holds a Louis XVI revival table from the Jules Allard et ses Fils workshops, from the Drexels' Paris residence: http://newportalri.org/items/show/23751. The table was a gift of Noreen Stonor Drexel and John R. Drexel, III, and is on display at The Elms.
Separated material:	Some reproduction copies of the photographs, most likely made by Noreen Stonor Drexel or her husband John R. Drexel III, were removed from the collection. These were not contemporary to the creation of the originals, having been created from photographs of the originals.
Bibliography:	Drexel University Libraries. "University Archives Drexel Family Research Guide." Last modified December 23, 2021. https://libguides.library.drexel.edu/archives-drexel-family/genealogy. HWA. "Edwin Gerald William Barrett." Find a Grave. Last modified September 22, 2020. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/215932008/edwin-gerald_william-barrett. "Mrs. Spreckels Seeks Barrett's Extradition." The New York Times, September 25, 1920. https://www.nytimes.com/1920/09/25/archives/mrs-spreckels-seeks-accuses-husband-of-alice-drexel-of-theft-of.html. Newport County, Rhode Island, Recorded Land Records Volume 192:16-18, Document #85042, Jessie W. Donahue and John R. Drexel III, December 3, 1956. Newport County, Rhode Island, Recorded Land Records Volume 202:472-474, Document #88565, John R. Drexel III and Harold S. Vanderbilt, Feburary 3, 1961. Item description for Robert Yarnall Richie, [Roger Wilson Cutler's 'Ames Villa' Estate and Mrs. Ogden L. Mills's 'Ocean View' estate, Newport, RI], Southern Methodist University Libraries, https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digital/collection/ryr/id/383. Accessed October 16, 2023.

Inventory

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