Katherine U. Warren and George Henry Warren, Jr. awards and memorabilia (PSNCA.H.031)

Biographical and Historical Note

Katherine Urquhart Warren (1897-1976) was a philanthropist and preservationist who founded the Preservation Society of Newport County in Newport, Rhode Island. Born in Oakland, California, the daughter of David Urquhart and Katherine Hayes Urquhart, she was educated at the Spence School in New York City. She married George Henry Warren III (who also used Jr. as a suffix) in 1919; he was the son of stockbroker and real estate developer George Henry Warren II and grandson of lawyer and New York Metropolitan Opera co-founder George Henry Warren.

An avid art collector, Warren was elected a trustee of the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1943. In 1945, she became the co-founder and first president of the Preservation Society of Newport County, created to preserve the Wanton-Hazard-Hunter House in Newport. She was president of the society until 1975, at which point she became Chairman Emerita. She also served on the boards of several organizations dedicated to historical preservation in the state.

For her involvement in planning and operating a ten-day celebration 1955 commemorating the 175th anniversary of the 1780 landing of General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau in Newport, she earned the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, a French order of merit. In the 1960s she served on the Committee for the Restoration of the White House with former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

State, local, and federal organizations honored her for her preservation work during her life and posthumously; the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame recognized her in 1981.

The Warrens had two sons, George Henry Warren [IV] (1920-2022), and David Urquhart Warren. They owned and lived at an 1809 Federal-style home at 118 Mill Street in Newport, Rhode Island, which variously bore the names Paulholme, the Robert Lawton House, and the Katherine Warren house. The property served as the Preservation Society of Newport County’s headquarters until 1994.