slides: James Clatyon Sattel’s RI Summer: Newport’s Steeples + Domes

St. George's School

The full moon makes the already fairytale spires of Middletown's St. George's School even more fantastic.

Founded in 1896 by the Rev. John Byron Diman, a member of a prominent Rhode Island family, St. George's sits on a hill overlooking Second Beach, and is known for having a beautiful campus.

The school's classic Gothic chapel was built in 1928 with John Nicholas Brown's donation and designed by Ralph Adams Cram. Once a week the chapel choir, consisting of nearly 80 students, sings inside, evoking shades of England both visually and musically.

St. Columba's Chapel

This 19th-century church in Middletown was originally known as The Berkeley Memorial Chapel (in honor of Bishop Berkeley of Derry, who stayed in nearby Whitehall). The story goes that its first treasurer felt the chapel should be dedicated to a saint; the Irish-born missionary Columba, renowned for his teaching, healing, and miracles in sixth-century Scotland, was chosen.

Trinity Church

It's no wonder that this famous house of worship has been constantly photographed--it's even breathtaking at night.

Trinity, located on Newport's Queen Anne Square, is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. Built in the Georgian style, Trinity was was designed by architect Richard Munday and built in 1725–26.

St. Mary's Church

A National Historic Shrine in Newport, St. Mary's was built between 1848-1852, and is part of the oldest Catholic parish in Rhode Island (which was established in 1828).

United Baptist Church

Tucked away on Spring Street in Newport's historic Point Section, this historic church's origins date back to the 17th century, when settler John Clarke and others began holding religious services in their newly founded settlements of what is now Portsmouth and Newport. Around 1944, after a split with other leaders, Clarke's congregation in Newport emerged as a Baptist church.

Newport City Hall

A fresh angle on the cupola of Newport's City Hall building, which sits on Broadway and Bull streets.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Located right in downtown Newport, Emmanuel Church is a parish of the Episcopal Church. It was originally founded in 1841 as a mission church of Trinity Church. The congregation began somewhat humbly, meeting in private homes until they were able to purchase an unused Baptist church. In 1852, the congregation was admitted into Diocesan Convention as Emmanuel Free Church.

The beautiful Tudor Gothic Revival Structure was the gift of the widow of John Nicholas Brown, Sr. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Old Colony House

Not a church, but crowned by a octagonal cupola that demands photography, this building has played a dramatic role in Newport's, and Rhode Island's, history.  Known as the Old State House or the Old Colony House, this 1741 brick Georgian was one of the meeting places for RI's Colonial legislature, which rotated its sessions among 5 locations. 

Still remarkably like it looked in the 18th century, it's considered one of the best-kept surviving Georgian public buildings in the United States from the colonial era and was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1960.

Besides its political and architectural importance, the building was the site of many important Revolutionary events in Rhode Island. George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower have both been guests at the building. It has been used as a barracks, hospital, courthouse and a location for a Steven Spielberg film.

Tower & Channing Church

The Newport Tower in the foreground looks prehistoric (and rumors will never cease about its alleged Viking provenance), but the round stone tower in Newport's Touro Park is commonly considered to have been a windmill built in the mid-17th century.

In the background is Channing Memorial Chapel, which sits on Pelham Street. The church is named for William Ellery Channing, considered the father of Unitarian Universalism. Channing was the leading minister in Boston and his 1819 sermon on Unitarian Christianity represented the development of the faith among  New England's Puritans.

Channing Memorial Church was built in 1880 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Portsmouth Abbey Church

Aquidneck's legacy of religious expression extends into the modern era, represented by contemporary houses of worship such as this church at Portsmouth Abbey, a Catholic Benedictine boarding school.

Portsmouth Abbey's Church of St. Gregory the Great is among 14 buildings on the school's campus designed by the renowned modernist architect Pietro Belluschi, who was part of the Bauhaus movement and head of urban planning and architecture at MIT.  The church is considered the most important piece of conservative modernist architecture in Rhode Island. It was completed in 1961.