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        <title>Newport RI Real Estate Blog</title>
        <link>https://www.hoganassociatesre.com/blog/2012-06/</link>
        <description>Read Hogan Associate's take on real estate trends and life in Newport, RI.</description>
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    <guid>https://www.hoganassociatesre.com/blog/coal-mines-in-portsmouth.html</guid>
    <link>https://www.hoganassociatesre.com/blog/coal-mines-in-portsmouth.html</link>
        <author>leslie@hoganri.com (Leslie Hogan)</author>
        <title>Rhode Island Coal Mines at Carnegie Abbey Golf Resort</title>
    <description> <![CDATA[ 
Portsmouth, RI Coal Mine


COAL MINES BENEATH CARNEGIE ABBEY GOLF COURSE


PORTSMOUTH, RI - Most golfers at Carnegie Abbey Club are unaware that the water used to irrigate the golf course comes from miles and miles of abandoned coal mines running east/west from Narragansett Bay to East Main Rd. and north/south from Portsmouth town hall and to Melville Marina.  Today, the mines contain an estimated 400 million gallons of fresh water. Carnegie Abbey's original developer briefly considered bottling this fresh water under a private Carnegie Abbey label. 


HISTORY OF MINING PORTSMOUTH RI


In the early 19th century they were teeming with men and mules mining coal to fuel America's industrial revolution. The mules hauled the coal bins in and out of the mines. Local legend has it that some of these animals lived their entire lives underground.


Inscription on back of photo to right: &quot;Portsmouth Coal Miners. Photo - circa 1904. Tall man in center John W. Marshall on his right is Tom Hughes, the company clown &amp; fiddler. Extreme right: Dr. Steele. Man kneeling: Souza (?)&quot; Photo from The John T. Pierce, Sr., Portsmouth Historical Collection


In 1809 rich deposits of coal were discovered in the northwest section of Portsmouth.  They were mined on and off by a variety of companies including the Rhode Island Coal Company and the Aquidneck Coal Company.  In 1866 a thriving copper smelting operation was established near the mines with 8 blast furnaces, 22 kilns, tenements, a store, a school house and a depot on the Old Colony Newport Railroad (a current stop for the Newport Dinner Train). The Taunton Copper Company thrived treating copper from the US and abroad.


Rhode Island coal was of poor quality* resulting in a series of corporate booms and busts until 1883 when the last ore was removed and the mines were abandoned.   In 1909 new mines began serving a modern power plant.  It closed four years later in 1913.


The luxury Carnegie Abbey Tower was adapted from the Kaiser Aluminum plant that fabricated aluminum and copper wire in the 60s and 70s.  The area is still zoned &quot;HI&quot; or Heavy Industrial.


The legacy of Rhode Island's coal mines continues every time a sale is recorded in neighborhoods like Hilltop Estates where properties are transferred without their mineral rights. 150 years ago farmers sold these rights to the coal companies.


*Rhode Island coal is hard anthracite which burns very hot, but is much harder to ignite than the coal found in Pennsylvania, the more common softer bituminous variety.
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    <pubDate>Sun, 24 Jun 2012 19:12:00 -0400</pubDate>
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    <guid>https://www.hoganassociatesre.com/blog/newport-mansion-stories-afternoons-with-mrs-firestone.html</guid>
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        <author>leslie@hoganri.com (Leslie Hogan)</author>
        <title>Newport Mansion Stories: Afternoons with Mrs. Firestone</title>
    <description> <![CDATA[ 



I married into a family of native Newporters descended from the European immigrants who worked in Newport's mansions.  As I result, I have heard many amazing stories about Newport's gilded age families.  Among my favorites are my husband Paul's recollections of Elizabeth Parke Firestone and his visits to her Newport, RI Firestone Estate, Ocean Lawn. 


After her husband died, Mrs. Firestone (a.k.a Betty) summered alone at Ocean Lawn, a sprawling 1888 Peabody &amp; Stearns mansion overlooking the water on the corner of Narragansett Avenue and Cliff Walk. She was the widow of the late Harvey Firestone, Jr., son of the founder of Firestone Tire. 


In those days, Mrs. Firestone didn't get out much, but she enjoyed a little sherry and conversation with occasional afternoon visitors. Somehow, my husband, Paul, and his pal, Matt, became part of this tradition. (I must admit, I cannot imagine a more unlikely trio.) She enjoyed their company and told them what it was like when Henry Ford's auto business took off, and the money started flooding into Firestone Tire.


According to Mrs. Firestone, her father-in-law was reluctant to make tires for Henry Ford.  But as he ramped up his tire business, the auto industry took off and so did the Firestone fortune.  According to Mrs. Firestone, &quot;Each day we had no idea what the postman was bringing, where it was from and whether the amounts were correct.&quot;  They had no idea how much money was coming in, how much was was outstanding or how to account for it all.  &quot;So, of course,&quot; Mrs. Firestone said, &quot;we had to start a bank.&quot;  The Harvey J. Firestone Bank of Akron, Ohio is still in business today.





On another visit the conversation turned to more domestic matters.  Mrs. Firestone told Paul she was looking for a cleaner and asked him who he used.  Paul told her that Plaza Cleaners on Aquidneck Avenue was the best.  Mrs. Firestone replied, &quot;I'm still sending my linens to France, and I'm just not happy with the way they're coming back.&quot; (Apparently she was unaware of Madame Bonnetat who ran a French laundry right off Van Zandt Ave.)


On another afternoon, Mrs. Firestone took her gentleman callers to see her couture dress collection.  She had hundreds of custom made dresses in her closet each with two diminutive pairs of hand made shoes on the floor underneath.  In the 1950s Mrs. Firestone was regarded as one of America's best-dressed women, and she liked her shoes. She was a size 4 and a half.







When Mrs. Firestone needed a place to store her Jamaica furniture, she bought the mansion next door.  She said it was good for the furniture, and lIfe was more peaceful without neighbors. Both this house and a spectacular pool house she built for a favorite granddaughter are now grand private homes.


Mrs. Firestone died in 1990. Her home was sold, and the property was subdivided into several large lots between the Cliff Walk and Annandale Road.  Today the original mansion, the converted pool house and several new homes coexist behind the original iron gates.


If you have a Newport Mansion story of your own, don't keep it to yourself  Please share it here.


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    <pubDate>Mon, 11 Jun 2012 21:17:00 -0400</pubDate>
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