254. Touring Bellevue Avenue | Champ Soliel

Done & Dunne

Hemlock Creatives

True Crime, History

4.7 • 629 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode, we continue our tour of Bellevue Avenue to explore Champs Soliel, the last great home built in Newport in 1929, truly shitting down the Gilded Age. We get to know its owner, Lucy Wharton Drexel Dahlgren, who led quite an interesting life, with a real twist on a trashy divorce too. Other notable owners include Russell and Annie Laurie Aitken, mother of Sunny von Bulow. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Dun & Dunn. I'm Alicia, your hostess on this podcast journey, All Things Dominic Dunn.
0:07.9	Thank you for joining me today as we continue our tour of Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island.
0:15.5	Today, our story is only one home. The last of the homes we have to talk about really do fill their own episodes.
0:23.5	So stay tuned for multiple drops coming this week before we make it to the very last home,
0:30.2	Rough Point, and the saga of our next heiress, Doris Duke. Today we're backing it up just slightly to a grand estate, Champ Soley.
0:42.2	This one has a whole lot of old money attached and a whole lot of spider webs too. Let's investigate.
0:49.1	Music All right, friends, after leaving Ruggles Avenue, where we were last week, and before we travel, any further
1:12.7	southward down Bellevue Avenue, the Grandest Street in Newport, Rhode Island, we're going
1:19.0	to stick around the middle here, talking about a great house today with so much history.
1:26.3	This one later ties in a little bit to Sunny von Buello.
1:31.3	Sunny's mother, Annie Laurie Aitken, lived in Champsoulet. Sunny and her mom were very close in
1:39.5	Newport geographically. Clarendon Court is just around the corner. Remember, that was part of the allure of
1:47.7	Sunny buying Clarendon Court. She would be close to her mom, Annie Lorry. This grand home,
1:55.3	Champsoulet, located at 601 Bellevue Avenue. Champsoulet is French for Field of Sun. Isn't that lovely?
2:05.9	A home that is fitting for its name as it was inspired by a French design. A little noteworthy here,
2:13.7	Champsoulet is a version of the hunting lodge that was built at Versailles. This hunting lodge is called
2:22.4	La Lantern. Now, perhaps you would not be inclined to think that 1929 would be a big building year
2:31.8	in the United States for grand and luxurious homes, but Newport,
2:38.0	Rhode Island was the exception to this rule. Champsoulet was built in 1929 designed by the New York
2:46.0	City firm, Polemus, and Coffin. Who would want this grand home? Honestly, Shamp Soley is the last of the great
2:56.0	homes built in Newport from the Gilded Age. 1929, this is grand home sunset on Bellevue Avenue.
3:07.7	This is the house that shuts it all down.
	...

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