Clouds Over the Hill

Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum in Warwick

The most authentic Victorian home in America is sitting on the South County line, at 4157 Post Road in Warwick. Have you heard? Famous worldwide, Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum, a 27-room country home, has eluded too many Rhode Islanders. Built as a summer home in the 1870s by William Smith Slater for his daughter, the majestic manor was originally surrounded by 500 acres in the heart of the state. Unfortunately, it suffered the lifestyle changes brought about by World War II, transitioning over time to a year-round home, selling off about 472 acres.

What remains is magnificent. Clouds Hill’s gothic high design features a different theme in each of its rooms, where original furn ture, fixtures – even curtains and straw mats – still reside, along with Anne D. Holst, the great granddaughter of original owner Elizabeth Ives Slater. Tourists from faraway places such as Australia and Africa schedule visits to scrutinize the intricate woodcarvings in many of the rooms: handmaidens flanking a walnut mantle in the Egyptian music room, griffins in the cherub-dominated parlor, herons in the dining room with its waterfowl motif, or the library satyrs.

Passed from eldest daughter to eldest daughter over its history, Clouds Hill was once a self-sufficient estate with a dairy, corn and hay fields, apple orchards and vegetable gardens. Built by local workers and craftspeople, its construction avoided the European involvement that dominated Newport’s mansions. Its workmanship is exclusively American, predominantly wood, untouched for almost a century-and-a-half. Its rooms contain artifacts, antiques, exotica and art from the world over, making Clouds Hill’s completion of theme the most comprehensive among American house museums, according to the Victorian Society.

There’s more: an impeccably maintained Butler’s Pantry, a bamboo furnished bedroom and original chandeliers that have never been electrified. A Carriage Museum sits behind the main house, containing the Rhode Island Conestoga Wagon, plus the incredible King Stanley Gypsy Wagon, built in the 1860s for Thomas Stanley, king of the New England gypsies.

Special Victorian-themed exhibits run regularly. Family Threads runs from September 16-23, showcasing 130 years of fabrics, including Abigail Allen’s 1790s bed sheet, Anne Crawford Allen’s 1926 coming out dress and Elizabeth Ives Slater Reed’s trousseau linen. Investigate this incredible place, filled with much more Rhode Island history than could possibly fit in one article.