Frederick W. Vanderbilt built this vast English Manorial house in 1889 on a dramatic, windswept promontory on Newport’s Cliff Walk, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. In 1922, James B. Duke, the founder of fortunes in electric power and tobacco, and benefactor of Duke University, purchased Rough Point. In 1925, Mr. Duke died, leaving his enormous financial legacy to twelve-year-old Doris, his only child.

Rough Point became one of Doris's several very private retreats.

Upon her death in 1993, she bequeathed the estate to the Newport Restoration Foundation, the organization she founded to help preserve Newport Rhode Island's architectural heritage. Rough Point was opened to the public as a museum in 2000.

Music Room

Bedroom

Solarium