The Newport Casino is an athletic complex and recreation center located at 180-200 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island in the Bellevue Avenue/Casino Historic District. Built in 1879–1881 by New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr., it was designed in the Shingle style by the newly formed firm of McKim, Mead & White. The Newport Casino was the firm's first major commission and helped to establish the firm's national reputation. Built as a social club, it included courts for both lawn tennis and court tennis, facilities for other games, such as squash and lawn bowling, club rooms for reading, socializing, card-playing, and billiards, shops, and a convertible theater and ballroom. It became a center of Newport's social life during the Gilded Age through the 1920s. The casino was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. The complex, which was the site of the earliest American lawn tennis championships, now houses the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The Newport Casino also hosted the first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954. 1879 – 1900 James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was a summer resident of Newport and in August 1879 paid $60,000 to acquire the Sidney Brooks estate "Stone Villa" (demolished in 1957, the Bellevue Gardens shopping complex currently stands in its place). Legend claims that Bennett placed a bet with his guest and polo partner British Cavalry Officer, Captain Henry Augustus "Sugar" Candy that Candy would not ride his horse up onto the front porch of Newport's most exclusive men's club – The Newport Reading Room. Candy won the bet, but the Reading Room members were not amused and revoked guest privileges for the men causing Bennett to build his own social club. The Newport Mercury does not confirm the polo-pony exploits by Bennett and Captain Candy, but rather states Candy was dismissed from the Newport Reading Room "for a clear violation of the rules of that institution." Nonetheless, Bennett had already been in discussions with Charles McKim in 1879 about converting his summer home Stone Villa into a social club. However, he then decided to acquire the vacant lot across the street and commission McKim and his partners, William Mead and Stanford White to bring to life a facility that would allow for both private and public areas. The blueprints for the Newport Casino were drawn up by the end of