Finishing Touches: Newport & Bridgehampton
By Augustus Mayhew
Lou Ordway and his sister Katharine Ordway grew up together on St. Paul’s mansion row atop Summit Avenue. Their shared memories inspired scenarios for neighbor F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories and novels. The weekend reunion would be the Ordways’ last visit before Lou returned to Palm Beach for what became his final season. Also, some views of Newport’s summer of ‘63 when local swells attempted to acquire the estate next to Hammersmith Farm as a Summer White House for President and Mrs. Kennedy. Ever gracious, JFK did not accept the proposal, saying the family spent so little time in Newport for such a great expense. Nonetheless, the Kennedys proceeded with a deposit to lease a Newport house for the following summer, never realized due to the tragic events of November 1963.
I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came. — President John F. Kennedy, Remarks at the America’s Cup Dinner, The Breakers, Newport. 14 September 1962.
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