National Tennis Club

06/15/2023

This week the top Real Tennis players from around the world have come to Newport, Rhode Island to compete against one another for the Shochet Cup at the US Pro Singles at the Newport Casino. They are playing an eight-hundred-year-old sport at the oldest Real Tennis court in the United States and here is a short article on both the tournament, the history of this amazing facility and this extraordinary sport:
https://a4arch.com/the-us-pro-singles-at-the-national-tennis-club-located-at-the-newport-casino/
Thank you for reading, liking, commenting and sharing this post, if you find it interesting and informative.

Camden Riviere Serving   Hidden at the back of the International Tennis Hall of Fame located at the Newport Casino (194 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island) is one of the rare existing examples of an eight-hundred-year-old sport called Real Tennis, which is the ancestor to all other racquet sp...

05/04/2023

To celebrate his thirtieth anniversary as a licensed professional architect (and the tenth anniversary of his A4 Architecture Blog) he put down some of the "Words of Wisdom" he coined over the years to explain architecture and court tennis to friends and clients: https://a4arch.com/the-a4-architectural-words-of-wisdom/ Thank you for reading, liking, and commenting on them and FEEL FREE TO QUOTE HIM! *_^

After being a licensed architect for thirty years (which is even more amazing considering how long it takes to become licensed), I am taking the liberty of sharing some thoughts and quotations that I have developed over that time. I hope you will find some of them insightful, informative, or amusing...

12/31/2022

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from the NTC!!

09/29/2022

Today, with a solemn heart, we remember Mike Gooding, our Head Professional, following a year-long battle with bladder cancer. Mike was a colleague, friend, and teacher to so many of us.

An esteemed athlete, Mike was once ranked court tennis World No. 2 in singles. He was a British Open singles champion in his native country in 1996 and the French Open singles champion in 1995 and 1996.

Here in Newport, Mike shared his love for the game generously with so many. His coaching abilities were lauded by all - from his peers to the countless beginners he introduced to court tennis. For those of us who worked closely with Mike, we knew him as a kind, spirited, intelligent, and caring man.

Mike will be greatly missed by the United States Court Tennis Association (USCTA) and global court tennis communities, and by all us of here at the ITHF/NTC. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Amanda, their daughters, and his many friends and family. Service details will be shared as they become known.

08/11/2022

Wherever you are it is easy to take your local treasures for granted. In Newport most locals had no idea how important so many of the local buildings are considered from an American Architectural History perspective. To help educate about, protect and celebrate the architecture of Newport County, I helped found the Newport Architecture Forum in 2007. Since then we have organized, sponsored and promoted many dozens of lectures, exhibitions, tours, panels and other events focused on Architecture, Planning, Landscape Design and the Decorative Arts. Now that COVID is waning we are started to organize more in person events again. Here is a short article on the history of the Newport Architectural Forum: https://a4arch.com/a4-guide-newport-architectural-forum/ (including pictures from our recent Real Tennis exhibition at the Newport Casino designed by McKim, Mead and White in 1880).
Thank you for Reading, Liking, Commenting and Sharing the post is you find it interesting and informative.

Newport’s architecture is some of the oldest and grandest in the country. From the Colonial Era, to early Victorian, to the Gilded Age, leading up to present times, Newport’s small community has countless architectural marvels. There are more National Historic Landmarks here than the rest of the...

08/04/2022

In 1880 the Newport Casino was built by James Gordon Bennett as a place where Newport summer residents could (in Bennett's reported words) "finally have a bit of fun!" The facility was designed for both men and women (which was daring at the time) and for a variety of activities, from dining, to card playing, to coaching (driving horse drawn carriages around a track). It also catered to a very new sport called Lawn Tennis (only 6 years old when the facility was built) and a very old sport now called Real Tennis, which was 600 years old when the Newport Casino was completed. Here is a link to a short article on the subject of the history of these two sports at America's first country club: https://a4arch.com/a4-spotlight-national-tennis-club-at-the-newport-casino/
Thank you for Reading, Liking, Commenting and Sharing this, if you find it interesting or informative.

In 1880, when the Newport Casino was designed by McKim Mead & White and built for James Gordon Bennett, the game of lawn tennis was very young. Major Walter Clopton Wingdale had been granted a patent for the game by Queen Victoria just a few years earlier in 1874 and the All-England Croquet Club (no...