The International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino: 145 Years of History

By Matthew Longcore

Today is the first day of a three-day Induction Celebration for the International Tennis Hall of Fame Class of 2025. The celebration features events which highlight the best of tennis culture through art, fashion, music, and more. Each year the incoming Hall of Famers are welcomed into the esteemed club with the presentation of their official Brooks Brothers Blazer. This year’s inductees include Maria Sharapova and brothers Bob and Mike Bryan. The blazer presentation will take place during the Fit for Fame Blazer Dinner tonight at 7pm. My wife and I will join our friends from Brooks Brothers for this special event.

The game of tennis was adopted in the United States with lightning speed by those American Anglophiles, the elite of Newport’s Gilded Age. The first gentlemen’s tournament was held at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. Built in 1880 as a social club on Newport’s famed Bellevue Avenue, only a few years after the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877, the Casino hosted its first lawn tennis tournament in the summer of 1881. Now known as the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF), the Newport Casino was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

In his book Sporting Gentleman: Men’s Tennis from Age of Honor to the Cult of the Superstar, sociologist E. Digby Baltzell writes that James Gordon Bennett, owner of the New York Herald, “commissioned the day’s most distinguished architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White, to build him his own proper retreat, opposite his villa on Bellevue Avenue, And the new Casino soon became the tennis, both court and lawn, center of Newport.” (Baltzell, 49)

By the early 20^th century Newport would also become home to a Brooks Brothers store. The store was located on Bellevue Avenue, close to the Newport Casino, in what is now known as the Audrain Building. The building is named after Adolphe Audrain, an art and antiques dealer who commissioned architect Bruce Price to design the building in a Florentine Renaissance style. Brooks Brothers opened their store in Newport in 1903. After the flagship store in New York City, the Newport store was the second Brooks Brothers store in country.

Sporting Gentlemen features the following advertisement for Brooks Brothers from American Lawn Tennis, September 5, 1930.

“Clothes for Lawn Tennis and General Wear. Agents for the famous ‘Dozi’ tennis shirts. Our Representatives Visit a Number of Cities throughout the Country each season. Send for a List of Dates and for ‘A Wardrobe for Lawn Tennis & Yachting.’ Boston Newbury Corner of Berkeley Street. Newport. Palm Beach.” (Baltzell, 231)

Baltzell writes about the connection between tennis players inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame and navy blazers from Brooks Brothers:

“Two of the finest natural athletes in the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport are Frank Shields, who rose from the Irish Catholic Lower East Side of Manhattan into the posh world of Southampton, Long Island and Tuxedo Park, New York, and Richard Gonzales, who rose to world tennis fame from a Mexican American Catholic barrio of Los Angeles. Shields, already wise to the Eastern Seaboard country club world, made it a point to befriend the young man from the West, took him to Brooks Brothers and bought him a blue blazer and a rep tie, and generally smoothed his ways at various clubs, especially at Forest Hills. Both Shields and Gonzales grew up and played tennis in a class world where manners mattered as much as, or more than, money.” (Baltzell, 317)

Although tennis likely originated in France in the Middle Ages, the modern form of the game began in England in the great country houses of the Victorian Era. Once the lawnmower had been invented circa 1830, grass was cultivated and easily mowed – by servants, of course – to allow the gentlemen to while away the time with all sorts of lawn games, with tennis as one of the stars. It was played at house parties before the rules were codified, and official tournaments were held on the grass courts of Wimbledon.

Tennis is one of those sports where everyone is still expected to obey rules of civility and etiquette, players and spectators alike. It is the ultimate Ivy Style sport because of its continued reliance on sportsmanship and fair play. Although its origins may be rooted in social standing and old money, it doesn’t require the same type of investment as polo or sailing which are out of reach for many. It has also become increasingly egalitarian and accessible as time has passed, and as the sport has transitioned from amateur to professional tournaments. It is also a sport where women have been afforded an equal footing. Ladies’ Singles play began at Wimbledon in 1884, a mere seven years after the first official men’s tournament.

As a gentlemen’s game, tennis has contributed to the Ivy League look since its beginnings. Consider for example the ubiquitous Tennis Sweater which first became widely available in the early 20^th century. The cream colored long sleeved V neck was originally made from wool and traditionally trimmed with stripes of burgundy and blue. Its history is murky – did this sweater evolve from the ski slopes to the courts or from the game of cricket to tennis? Whatever legend you favor, the Tennis Sweater may wax and wane in terms of popularity, but it’s never completely down and out. It continues to stand for sport and sportsmanship, and many Ivy Style outfitters offer their own variations today.

Note that Ralph Lauren calls it a cricket sweater and has revised the color combination.

The induction ceremony for the honorees at International Tennis Hall of Fame began in 1955 and was expanded to include international honorees in 1975. This year’s inductees will be honored on August 21 through August 23, 2025.  The venue continues to host tennis championship matches. This July it was the site for both the Hologic WTA championship, the premier lawn tennis competition for the Women’s Tennis Association, and the ATP Challenger Tour for men.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame has the only grass courts still used for professional tournament play in the United States. The US Open Tennis Championship was played on grass at the Newport Casino from 1881 until 1914, at which time it was moved to New York on the grounds that it would be easier for players and spectators to travel there as tennis gained in popularity throughout the country.

Grass is the fastest way to play the game and the most expensive surface to maintain.  According to the Washington Post:

Sleek little blades of grass do little to slow a tennis ball as it strikes the court, which means the ball bounces low and flat as points tend to be quicker…The faster and drier it is outside, the more compact the soil is beneath the grass and the faster the ball flies.

As a result, grass courts favor aggressive, powerful players and long rallies are rare. Clay courts are deemed the slowest, requiring the most stamina, and hard courts, like those of the US Open now played at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in the Meadowlands of Queens, New York, are a hybrid between clay and grass. It is difficult even for tennis greats to play equally well on all three surfaces as they require different skill sets.

However, the Newport Casino is about more than tennis; it was built for the social traditions of a long ago era. Structurally, it is an important example of New England shingle architecture designed by the famed New York City firm of McKim, Mead & White. From the street, the complex looks like a row of shops, fitting into the architectural landscape of its times in the late 19^th century, but the facade hides most of the building, the extent of which is only evident once you step inside. CASINO is etched in mosaic tiles on the floor of its entryway, although it has never been used as gambling hall. The word is derived from the Italian “casina” – or villa – which refers to an Italian country house. In Italy, a traditional casino can also mean a social club where members gathered for theatre and entertainment, and games like lawn tennis. According to the Tennis Hall of Fame website:

The Newport Casino offered a block of shops on Bellevue Avenue, a restaurant and gentlemen’s lodging. Archery, billiards, concerts, dancing, dining, horse shows, lawn bowling, reading rooms, tea parties and theatricals, along with the staples of its present-day offerings of lawn tennis, croquet, and court tennis, were all part of the social scene. Writing three days after the opening, the Newport Daily News boasted, “it is doubtful if a more lively place can be found.”

It was estimated that more than 3,000 visitors attended the grand opening of the Newport Casino on August 2, 1880. It still offers more than just a place to play tennis. Its magnificent theater, having fallen into disuse in the 1980s, was completely restored in 2009 by Salve Regina University in cooperation with the ITHF and local fundraising efforts. The 300 seat theater has removable seats which enable it to be used for other functions such as dances.

In a collaborative partnership, Salve University’s Department of Performing Arts maintains and uses the theater year round unless the Hall of Fame requires it for special events. Additionally, the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum is being developed in conjunction with the Smithsonian.

This month’s issue of Quest Magazine features a photo of the International Tennis Hall of Fame on the cover:

Lawn bowling at Newport Casino in 1966, photographed by Toni Frissell. Minnie Cushing, Barbara Vought and a few well-dressed friends try their hand at the precision sport enjoyed by all ages. Said to date back to ancient Egypt, the game is similar to today’s well-loved bocce, once played during the Roman Empire and later embraced by kings and queens in Great Britain.

The Newport Casino shines as brightly today as it did when it was built, a testament to the game of tennis as well as a beautifully preserved slice of Americana. Standing in the hush of the courts today, you can almost hear the thwap of those long ago tennis balls hitting the manicured lawn.