I grew up with tennis. My mother, a lifelong fan of the sport and follower of its iconic superstars, introduced me to the sport early in grade school. I took lessons for several years, eventually getting as far as my high school’s Junior Varsity doubles team. I enjoyed playing but never obsessed over it, and as is the case during childhood my focus eventually shifted elsewhere. At 41 years of age, I blame the general lack of influence of tennis in my adult life on a lack of bandwidth on top of career and parenting, and not a result of disdain or disregard. But for my mom’s 75th birthday, I could think of no more appropriate gift than a visit to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. The Hall impressed – and for two Coloradans aching for a taste of coastal life, Rhode Island made for an ideal summer getaway. It also served as the backdrop for a rare few days of unbothered bonding between mother and son, forging memories both overdue and that may never come again.
A Birthday Gift and a Memory for Life: Exploring the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island
Teaching new-age urbanism to my mom in downtown Providence
Photo: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Basecamp for our trip was The Beatrice. This boutique hotel in downtown Providence is housed in the Exchange Building, a circa-1887 mid-rise in the city’s National Historic District that formerly housed the National Exchange Bank. Staying in the city allowed us easy access to the airport as well as an easy way to avoid peak season prices in tourist-heavy Newport. It also put us within walking distance of attractions including the RISD Museum, where we meandered through galleries of contemporary art often heavily charged with the progressive social messaging of well-known Rhode Island School of Design alums like Shepard Fairey (known for designing the iconic HOPE poster used during Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and the well-known OBEY street art) and the painter Jenny Molzer, whose work often addressed war, gender violence, government secrecy, and human rights abuses.
Much of the best dining in Providence is also within easy reach. On our first evening in town my mother and I walked from the hotel through the Kennedy Plaza transit center across the street and past the roller rink at Biltmore Park to Track 15, a diverse food hall in a former train depot. As a devout urbanist, many things excited me about this short jaunt. The walkability from our hotel, of course, coupled with the chance to stroll a multimodal transit depot that was humming with activity on a Friday evening. Track 15 itself is a lesson in proper urban renewal and small-business advocacy. Adjacent to its namesake train tracks, the food hall showcases local restauranteurs and chefs including Dune Bros, run by husband and wife Nicholas and Monica Gillespie, from whom I had a fantastic Lobster Roll, and There, There, where my mother ordered a burger from chef Brandon Teachout. The food hall is centered around a large bar and has ample patio seating along the tracks that nearly spills over into Union Station Brewery next door.
The evening was the first my mother and I have shared on our own in many years, and was made special by the fact that we were able to tour part of the city center on foot to make it happen. It was an exercise in new urbanism broadly – people interacting with the built environment in a manner that brings them closer together while benefitting the community and the environment at large.
Over three nights and two days in Providence we also dined at Ellie’s, a Parisian-influenced cafe a few blocks from the hotel. Here we had egg dishes and coffee before strolling to the riverfront, the true star of Providence. Much of the Providence River as it flows through the city center is lined with parks and crossable at multiple points on pedestrian bridges. We had lunch at Plant City, a vegan restaurant and market adjacent to the Brown University campus and strolled through a maker’s market across the river on our way back to The Beatrice. I recalled how at no point during our time in the city did humidity overwhelm us – a rarity owed here to the lower dew point than is found in most cities along the eastern seaboard. The maritime moderation here keeps temps cool, while the New England climate doesn’t brink on sub-tropical.
Exploring the Rhode Island coast, its cuisine, and classic cocktails
Expansive mansions line the coast off Newport, Rhode Island. Photo: Tim Wenger
Another unique factoid about Providence is that the city, and The Beatrice, are home to the only New England location of Bellini – the Italian restaurant chain owned by the Cipriani family, who famously invented the drink of the same name at Harry’s Bar in Venice back in 1948. The Providence outpost is well-trimmed but, like the hotel that hosts it, not intimidating or overbearing. My mother and I enjoyed a chef’s tasting menu here (I of course had to try the namesake drink) and the pasta rivals the best of Boston’s North End.
In Newport, we boarded the “Rum Runner II” with Newport Classic Cruises for a happy hour sail through the harbor and wharf, looking at the classic mansions and estates that line the shores just outside town. I’ll never have that kind of money – here was the heart of the Gilded Age, which we’d trolled underneath at The Breakers earlier in the day – but gazing upon beautiful architecture and striking waterside cliff bands near where Narragansett Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The beauty of this area is encapsulated by Beavertail State Park and its lighthouse, and the rocks on its shore where we watched cliff jumpers hurl themselves into the water from intimidating heights.
My mother and I also dined quite well during our day in Newport. We had lunch at Giusto, a popular Italian seafood spot on Hammet’s Wharf. I had a fresh mussel escabeche, in an aioli that paired perfectly with the salty mussels. For dinner that night we dined on the patio at Stoneacre Brasserie, where I again opted for fresh seafood – this time Moules Frites, while my mother enjoyed the veggie burger. I don’t often eat seafood back home – hard to maintain any semblance of sustainability when the ocean is hundreds of miles away – but thoroughly enjoyed the binge over the course of this trip. I hadn’t expected the food to be such a highlight of our trip to Rhode Island, but didn’t have a bad meal the entire time. The food was outdone by the impetus for the trip, however.
Coming full-circle at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
The sky opened blue before us as my mother and I made the five-minute walk from Kaffeology in Newport – best coffee of the trip, bar none – to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. I’d visited Cooperstown a few years prior, and along the walk wondered aloud why major halls of honor tend to be located in small towns that remain relatively obscure outside of specific niches – and I hoped these walls that honor Agasi and Ashe would live up to those that hold the legacies of Ruth and Robinson.
The facility is housed in the historic Newport Casino, a social-club-cum-tennis-society commissioned by James Gordon Bennett Jr., the wealthy publisher of the New York Herald. Gambling wasn’t the activity du jour here – rather, it was a place to get rowdy (Bennet had been kicked out of another social club nearby for being toorowdy, and had this one erected in 1880 as a rebuttal). Lawn bowling, tennis, and a theater were all held onsite. Now, the large building surrounds 13 glass courts and a clay court, and has one of the few active indoor “court tennis” courts in the US.
We were both taken aback by the thoroughness of the exhibits. We learned of the sport’s early history as a sort of “social club” for well-to-dos, and that the US Open originated right here on the courts outside. One highlight of the hall is the extensive collection of tennis ball containers, of which the museum continues to add to as enthusiasts from around the world uncover rare ball stashes in their attics and locker rooms. Match-worn jerseys from Serena Williams, Roger Federer, and many more are on display, along with iconic works of art and advertisements from the sports storied history. Then there’s the Hall of Fame itself, where the sport’s elite have their names enshrined on bronze racquets. The facility is open 10 AM to 5 PM daily, with court rentals open to the public.
Life happens – I married and moved away from Denver. Work and travel and the vice of life’s frenetic lexicon mean that my three-year-old daughter doesn’t see her grandparents as often as they’d like. Moments that bring us together may be few, but here my love for travel and my mother’s love of tennis came together to create a lasting, meaningful experience. Walking through the hall and the museum galleries, surrounded by accomplished legends whose actions speak the testament of a lifetime of hard work and perseverance, is enough to make anyone emotional.
I don’t recall if I said it to her then or not, but having this time with my mom felt full-circle in that something we shared in my childhood became one of the defining moments of our relationship now that I’m an adult. It also meant that when we departed for lunch I walked outside onto Bellevue Avenue with eyes wetter than a Wimbledon court after a proper downpour. 