Gilded Age Glamour

What: 30 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms in 30,000 square feet on almost six acres.

Where: Newport, R.I., 75 miles from Boston

Amenities: With more than 700 feet on the Atlantic Ocean, this limestone, H-shaped mansion has water views from all major rooms. The 11,000-square-foot lower level has been converted to offices with two bathrooms plus a wine cellar.

Asking Price: $25 million

Opening Bid*: $15 million

Listing Agent: Sidney Gorham, Gustave J.S. White Real Estate 401-848-6718

Due Diligence: On Bellevue Avenue among the fabled Gilded Age estates, Miramar was built for railway magnate George D. Widener and his wife, Eleanor. It was designed by the architect Horace Trumbauer and completed in 1913. The year before, the Wideners with their son Harry sailed the Titanic. Of the three, only Mrs. Widener survived. Though in mourning, she decided to complete the project and also commissioned Mr. Trumbauer to draw up plans for the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University. No residential properties here have changed hands for more than $11 million. The highest price paid for a property on Aquidneck Island, which consists of the towns of Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth, was $10.8 million for 24 acres in 2000. A high-profile $8.3 million sale occurred in 1999 with the sale of Hammersmith Farm, the 46-acre property that was the childhood home of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and where she married John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator. Miramar's seller is American Capital Corp., which is owned by Andrew Panteleakis, a real-estate developer and a builder of health-care facilities.

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*The opening bid is Weekend Journal's estimate of a reasonable starting point for negotiations to buy the property, based on past sales, prevailing market conditions and interviews with local real-estate experts.

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