Newton who added a "massive carved oak staircase." The mansion remained in the same family for over 130 years, serving as the summer "cottage" of the Morris-Bedlow family (including Lewis Gouverneur Morris), a prominent family from New York who held positions of social and political prominence in America and Newport in the 18th and 19th centuries. Malbone Estate had some of the most prominent formal gardens in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. The gardens were originally established by Col. Malbone to the south of the house because it was from this direction that visitors and merchants from Newport town would approach the estate. Prescott Hall renovated these gardens from 1848 to 1850, expanding them to 17 acres and enlisting Andrew Jackson Downing, the leading landscape designer of the mid-18th century and an advocate of architectural philosophy. Downing partnered with Calvert Vaux to design the White House grounds and National Mall, collaborated with Frederick Law Olmsted to design Central Park, and is widely regarded as the "Father of American Landscape Architecture." The Malbone Gardens have been recently restored with an emphasis on the brick pathways lined by boxwoods, the central stone waterway, four prominent weeping willows, and the carriage path lined by beech trees, all remnants of Downing's original 1848 design. Current ownership The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The grounds of the estate "contain the largest collection of European beech trees in North America." The Morris family bequeathed Malbone to the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1978, who sold the estate to Patricia and Philip Archer Thomas in 1980. Around 1994, the Malbone estate was acquired by James Leach, who hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg there in 2004. In 2013, Leach listed the estate for sale for $2.2 million, and it was purchased by the Brede Family of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The house remains a private residence to this day. Gallery Exterior photographs from 1933 (Library of Congress) Interior photographs from 1933 (Library of Congress) See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island References External links Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Houses completed in 1741 Houses in Newport, Rhode Island Historic American Buildings Survey in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Newport, Rhode Island Gothic Revival architecture in Rhode Island Gilded Age mansions