Casino Theater - Newport RI

Built in 1883, this is the last surviving theater designed by Stanford White, the most famous and infamous architect of the Gilded Age. The theater is remarkable in many ways. The exterior is a wood barn while the interior is an elegant gold-tipped ornamental plaster jewelbox. The surprise and delight as one walks through the rough barn exterior into the refined auditorium interior is indescribable.

The theater is one of several pavilions in the Newport Casino, a sort of catering facility, located in the center of Newport, the playground of the Gilded Age.

The Newport Casino grass courts were the original site of the US Open Tennis Tournament, starting in 1881. The facility is the home of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame found a perfect tenant for the theater in Salve Regina University. Salve Regina University has a campus nearby, teaches and practices architectural preservation, and needed a performing arts venue. Together, Salve Regina University and the ITHofF renovated the Standford White Casino Theater to preserve it and to serve their communities with a supremely gracious public space.

The auditorium renovation preserves the original fabric perfectly. The Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission recognized the project with a Project Award, celebrating a great preservation achievement.

Architect: Durkee Brown Viveiros and Werenfels
Acoustician: Marshall KMK