Opinion Editorial by Pieter N. Roos

This Opinion Editorial was published in the Newport Daily News on Monday, August 16.

What Would Doris Duke Want?

In May, our organization offered the City of Newport the gift of improvements to Queen Anne Square. The idea received a positive response, and many people are enthusiastic about it.  We are now in a period of public feedback about that project. Good suggestions have come from this process and many of these ideas have been incorporated. However, one question in particular has arisen that we wish to try to answer here.

What would Doris Duke want?
It is highly speculative to try to divine the wishes of a person who has been gone for twenty years. Since she was our founder, we have considered this question at length. Many staff members at the NRF knew her or worked with her for decades and knew her well. Yet, as a private person, there is still much that she left unsaid.

The park was the single most expensive project of the NRF, and one of the most personal to Doris Duke. Surprisingly, at its completion in 1976, she told one of her fellow NRF trustees (now the president of our board) that she was not very happy with the result. In 1978, she wanted to make improvements but was limited by public feedback, in what was now a city park. She was disappointed by the park’s subsequent decline from her original design. However, she realized that her original plan had involved too much maintenance, and in the end she was resigned to the fact that she could no longer make further changes. Photographic evidence shows that the park bears little resemblance to Doris Duke’s original plan. It is still a wonderful open space with sun, a historic street and an iconic view of Trinity Church. None of this will change.

In a larger sense, what do we know about what Doris wanted? We know that she cared intensely about Newport. She cared enough about Newport to establish the NRF for posterity, for which she was often publicly and privately criticized. Yet time has shown that her vision was clear and the gift she gave Newporthas been one of lasting and priceless value. We are proud to be the stewards of it.

We know that she cared passionately about great art and fine craftsmanship, and wished to share her passion with Newport. It is why she gave us the NRF, and why she left her home, and its wonderful collections for the public to see. It is why she thought that Newport’s early furniture should be brought back home and publicly displayed at the Whitehorne House.

Doris Duke’s passion was the reason we suggested improvements in the first place. She cared deeply about the park, as we do. On August 17, I will make a presentation to the City Council at a workshop on this subject. There have been some misconceptions, so I urge those concerned to come and hear the full concept. We think the improvements will make the heart of the city better for all of us, and honor Doris Duke. We know her as well as anyone, and better than most; and we believe that she would have loved this project, too.

Pieter N. Roos
Executive Director
Newport Restoration Foundation