Fred Albert
Newport Home magazine
A few years ago, Jill and Barry Martin went shopping for a house in Newport so they could indulge Barry’s passion for sailing. Although the couple loved old houses, they weren’t looking to tackle a makeover so much as a makeunder Jill’s term for a light, cosmetic touch-up where you slap on a new coat of paint and call it a day.
The house they ended up buying was not one of those.
The Queen Anne–style residence in Newport’s Kay-Catherine neighborhood had been remodeled several times over the past 130+ years, and spent much of its life as a two-family home (with the narrow, closed-off staircase to show for it). By the time the Martins found the place in 2019, much of the history had been stripped away, and years of renters had left their mark.