MALBONE HALL CASTLE

Malbone Hall castle is located in Newport, RI. Designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, famous for dozens of noteworthy American castles of the last century, it was built from 1848 to 1849 for New York lawyer Jonathan Prescott Hall. Malbone Hall is the second castle to occupy this site!

The original Malbone Hall was the country estate of slave trader Col. Godfrey Malbone, of Virginia, who had a pink sandstone castle built on this site in the mid 1700's. The architect was Richard Munday. Colonel Malbone had an underground tunnel built down to the sea from the castle so as to receive contraband goods without paying customs duties on them. One day in 1766, during a dinner party, the kitchen chimney caught fire, and the house burned to the ground. Colonel Malbone ordered dinner to be served in an adjacent building, seeing no reason why the party should be interrupted. "If I have lost my house, that is no reason why we should lose our dinners", he said. For a hundred years the castle lay in ruins until Mr. Hall chose the site for the existing castle.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

I enjoyed reading your Castle website and noticed that my home Malbone Castle in Newport, RI was listed among your extensive listings. For updated information on the restoration of Malbone Castle please visit www.malboneestate.com

Best regards,

James Leach

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Picture and information courtesy of Phil Bilzor.