International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum

The Newport Casino was built in 1880 as a private playground for wealthy summer residents — and it nearly became a strip mall. By the 1950s, the building was at risk of demolition when Jimmy and Candy Van Alen purchased it and established the National Tennis Hall of Fame there in 1954. The facility was officially sanctioned by the United States Tennis Association that same year. The grounds had already hosted the first U.S. National Championships in 1881, the tournament that eventually became the US Open.