Tag Archives: Rhode Island

4 November 2018:
Newport, Rhode Island, US:
Winter Coming

By Corey Sandler

We sailed out of Boston last night and into the teeth of a storm headed up the coast. To get from Boston to Newport, our course was essentially this:

  • west to exit Boston Harbor and its many islands and to get far enough out to sea to be clear of Provincetown on the hook of Cape Cod, then
  • south, past Provincetown and thirty more miles to the east coast of the island of Nantucket and an additional 30 miles below Nantucket to stay clear of the shoals and rocks, then
  • west in the main transatlantic channel about 60 miles until we were in line with the entrance to Narragansett Bay, and then finally
  • north, back up to Aquidneck Island, the home of Newport, Rhode Island.

If that sounds like a complicated route that includes all four cardinal points of the compass, that’s because it is. The waters around Cape Cod and Nantucket are very hazardous to uninformed mariners.

In any case, we arrived at midday in Newport, to a beautiful fall day. This is the last day of this cruise, which began in Montreal, and a fitting end.

Here are some scenes from Newport. You can read more about this special place by entering Newport in the search bar of this blog.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

17 October 2018:
Newport, Rhode Island, US:
Modest Abodes

By Corey Sandler

We have been coming in and out Newport all season, and for many years in the past, and always concentrating on the magnificent “cottages” built by the very wealthy industrialists and financiers of America’s Gilded Age that followed the American Civil War and continued into the early decades of the 20th century.

On this visit, a glorious fall day, we returned to one of the most elegant and meaningful houses in Newtown. Not a cottage, but a house of worship: the Touro Synagogue, the oldest Jewish temple in North America, built in 1763.

It is an extraordinary place, emblematic of the origins of Newport as a place of tolerance for most people, including Jews, Quakers, and other religious denominations who were not always welcome elsewhere in the colonies.

At Touro Synagogue is displayed a copy of George Washington’s famous letter to the congregation, one of the most magnificent pieces of writing and expressions of tolerance by an American president.

He wrote:

“May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

15 October 2018:
Newport, Rhode Island, US:
Cottage Industry

By Corey Sandler

We are once again in the beautiful town of Newport on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.

We have not been enjoying the best weather for much of the last few weeks with the exception of a superb day yesterday in Boston.

Today, Newport was cold and windswept but still beautiful. The mansions, which were called with a wink and a nudge “cottages” are preparing to close for the winter but the major cottages are still open.

We went for a walk in the rain to The Elms, and here are some of the pictures I took. Inside.

THE ELMS

A NEWPORT ALBUM

On a previous, sunny day:

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

26 September 2018:
Newport, Rhode Island, US:
The Big Bay

By Corey Sandler

We are headed back to the north, but first we have pulled into Narragansett Bay on the south shore of Rhode Island for a return visit to Newport.

Narragansett Bay encompasses about 147 square miles of handsome shorefront, islands, and shores. Seven waterways enter into the bay, including the Taunton, Pawtuxet, and Blackstone rivers.

Within the bay are Newport at the south end of Aquidneck Island on the ocean. At the northeasternmost reach is Fall River (where Lizzy Borden cut her teeth). And the northernmost part of the bay is home to Providence, the capital of Rhode Island.

Just for the record: most of Rhode Island is on the mainland, not on an island.

Once again we went for a visit to one of the less-known historic houses of Newport: Hunter House, built about 1748 by a prosperous local merchant and Colonial Deputy Governor.

With the outbreak of the American Revolution, the governor was forced to flee and the home was used as headquarters for the French forces in Newport assisting the American rebels.

We sailed into the bay in a deep fog and mist, which deepened the sense of history here.

Here is the fog, the Hunter House, and the nearby Brenton Counting House of the same time: 1748, Newport’s Golden Era, more than 130 years before the second wave of money have rise to the Gilded Age.

NEWPORT THIS MORNING

THE BREAKERS

Here’s a glimpse of The Breakers, one of the most famous of the “cottages” on Newport, built during the Gilded Age by some of the aged gilded of the time.

You can read even more about Newport in my posting from September 24.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

24 September 2018:
Newport, Rhode Island, US:
The Cottage Industry

By Corey Sandler

Newport, Rhode Island was where the rich came to play.

One game, at the peak of the Gilded Age, was a grand form of one-upsmanship, a competition to impress, astound, and outspend each other.

They built “cottages”, a word some used with a wink and a nod.

After the Civil War came the Gilded Age, a time of great wealth and expansion.

Bar Harbor in Maine, and the Adirondacks of upstate New York boomed: a surge of privately owned American castles, if you will. Newport was perhaps the greatest beneficiary.

Fall in New England in town and at the Tennis Hall of Fame. All photos by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

The Breakers is the grandest of the summer “cottages.”

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt established his fortune in steamships and later the New York Central Railroad, which was key to the nation’s industrial growth in the late 19th century.

His grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the railroad in 1885, and purchased a wooden house called The Breakers.

After a fire in 1892, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a replacement.

Hunt created a 70-room Italian Renaissance-style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin.

It’s a pleasant little cottage.

CHATEAU-SUR-MER

On this visit we took the opportunity to visit a lesser-known gem of the Newport properties: Chateau-sur-Mer.

This home, erected in 1852, was a product of the China trade. It predates most of the Gilded Age Cottage of Newport, but in many ways outshines cold and formal marble with its warm carved wood interior including hand-carved Italian woodwork, Chinese porcelain, and other treasures.

The Mansion was home to three generations of the Wetmore family.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

9 October 2013: Newport, Rhode Island

9 October 2013: Newport, Rhode Island

When Fall Comes to New England

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Our sail-away from New York was, just as we hoped, spectacular. Silver Whisper backed out of Pier 88 at 5 pm, and we moved majestically down the Hudson River toward its exit to the sea.

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The gangway from Pier 88 to our ship during the quiet morning before guests came aboard. Photo by Corey Sandler

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The view from the Bridge of Silver Whisper as we backed out of the pier. Photo by Corey Sandler

On our port side was Manhattan; to starboard, the Statue of Liberty. I was up on the bridge giving commentary, but—as always—I had my camera with me.

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Scenes from our sailaway. Photos by Corey Sandler

And then we sailed into New England. One of my favorite songs is When Fall Comes to New England, by the singer-songwrite Cheryl Wheeler. She has a lovely line about autumn colors; she says that the leaves turn “Irish Setter red.”

Newport, Rhode Island is where the rich came to play.

One of their games, at the peak of the Gilded Age, was a grand form of one-upsmanship.

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The colors of New England. The Newport Museum of Art, and the gardens at the historic Touro Synagogue. Photo by Corey Sandler

It was a competition to impress, astound, and outspend each other.

They built “cottages”, a word they used with a wink and a nod.

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Downtown Newport. Photo by Corey Sandler

In some ways, Newport and the rest of Rhode Island was a model for the ideal of America, a place where freedom of conscience and religion was paramount.

They had been all but driven out of Boston by strict and punitive laws and discrimination.

A year later, the original settlement of Pocasett divided, and a group moved south to found Newport.

By this time, many had become Baptists.

Their political beliefs had been shaped by the difficulties of Boston.

At the heart of their plans was separation of church and state, codified in the Newport Town Statutes of 1641.

Newport became one of the first secular democracies in the world, certainly one of the first in the Americas.

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Newport’s Redwood Library, and an old hotel in town. Photos by Corey Sandler

The original settlers were soon joined in the 1650s by others including Jews and members of the Religious Society of Friends: the “Quakers.”

In the years leading up to the American Civil War, Newport began to attract influential artists, writers, scientists, educators, architects, theologians, architects, and landscape designers.

Summer residents included the activist and poet Julia Ward Howe, the famed Unitarian preacher William Ellery Channing, the author Henry James and his psychologist brother William James.

After the Civil War came the Gilded Age, a time of great wealth and expansion.

Bar Harbor in Maine, and the Adirondacks of upstate New York boomed: a surge of privately owned American castles, if you will.

Newport was perhaps the greatest beneficiary.

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The Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport. Photos by Corey Sandler

My wife and I live in this part of the world, on the island of Nantucket about 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. And so we know Newport and southern New England quite well.

On this visit, I chose to go on a photo safari. I concentrated on the glorious details of Fall in New England.

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Silver Whisper at anchor, offshore of Newport. Photo by Corey Sandler

All photos and text copyright 2013 by Corey Sandler. If you would like to purchase a copy of a photo, please contact me.