Newport is a city of firsts. A look at what the City-by-the-Sea lays claim to.
As one of the oldest cities in the country, Newport is home to several of the oldest “things” in the United States, whether that be the oldest continuously-run tavern – White Horse Tavern – and the oldest synagogue – Touro Synagogue – but being the oldest surviving version of something does not make it the first.
Luckily, being as old as it is, Newport lays claim to several historic “firsts,” most of them related to the many sports played in the city throughout its history.
First Gas-Illuminated Streetlights
If you’re walking south along the cobblestone road of Upper Thames Street, and turn onto the street between Ryan Family Amusements Arcade and the bar One Pelham East, you might spot a single black gas-powered street lamp. This lamp is one of the first of its kind in the entire country, the placard on the wall behind it reads: “First street to be lighted with gas. Installed by David Melville 1805.”
Melville was born in Newport and made housewares for a living, but in 1805, he had successfully used hydrogenous gas to illuminate both his home and Pelham Street. In 1817, he even received a one-year contract from the United States government to light the Beavertail Lighthouse in Jamestown with gas until whale oil lobbyists successfully killed the proposal after one year. Although Melville was not able to profit off gas-powered lamps himself, Newport’s first commercial gas lighting service, Newport Gas Light Company, began operations in 1853, just three years before Melville’s death.
First Public Roller Rink
Just up the street from the first gas-illuminated lamp lies the former site of another historic first: the country’s first public roller skating rink. In 1863, James Leonard Plimpton, a New York City furniture manufacturer, developed quad roller skates, which allowed users to steer by leaning from side to side and made turning easier. These skates proved so successful, Plimpton went on to open two of the United States’ first roller skating rinks three years later. One was in New York City and the other was in Newport’s Atlantic House Hotel, which sat at the corner of Pelham and Bellevue Avenue, where the current Elks Lodge sits today.
According to essays by historian and architect Ross Sinclair Cann on the A4 Architecture website, the Atlantic House Hotel was one of Newport’s famous grand hotels, a center of culture and social activity for Newport. During the Civil War, the Naval Academy had used the Atlantic House Hotel as a base to protect it from Confederate Army invasion. The hotel opened the roller skating rink with Plimpton’s help on Aug. 11, 1866, in the hotel dining room. The hotel would operate until 1877 when the building was demolished and the property was subdivided.
First Polo Club and first International Polo Match
The Westchester Polo Club was established in 1876 by New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett, and although it had begun its life on the Jerome Park race track in Westchester County, New York, the club alternated its playing seasons between New York and the club members’ summer homes in Newport, where the club eventually established its permanent residency.
There in Newport, the Westchester Polo Club challenged the English army officers who introduced the sport to Bennett to compete in the first international polo match, which was held in 1886. The International Polo Cup, also called the Westchester Cup or the Newport Cup, has had 20 games in total, from 1886 to 1939 and then revived in 1992. England won the most recent competition in March 2023, which was held in Florida.
First U.S. Open
Newport Country Club on Harrison Avenue, one of the country’s earliest golf clubs hosted both the first U.S. Amateur Championship and the first U.S. Open in 1895. The first Open was played on Oct. 4 on the club’s original nine-hole course, which is now the site of holes two through seven in the club’s modern 18-hole course. Horace Rawlins, an English professional golfer, won $150, or around $5,000 in 2023 dollars, for his 173-stroke win. In June 2023, American professional golfer Wyndham Clark won $3.6 million for his 270-stroke victory at Los Angeles Country Club in June.
So far there have been 123 U.S. Opens, but only the first has been held in Newport.
First X-Games
Contrasting starkly with Newport’s preppy, Gilded Age image, the city also hosted the first two ESPN X-Games, an extreme sports competition featuring contests in sports like skateboarding, in-line skating, Bungy Jumping, Skysurfing, Biking, Water Sports and other action/extreme sports.
Looking back: What maps from the 1700s and 1800s tell us about the creation of Newport
Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk was present for the first X-Games, which was hosted in Newport, Providence and Middletown in 1995, winning gold for vert skateboarding and silver for street skateboarding. The X-Games has run annually since then but has never returned to Rhode Island after 1996.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport historic firsts include X Games, US Open, public roller rink
