Kingscote recently was painted a grayish brown that was revealed by paint analysis to be its color at the time of its renovation and expansion in the 1880s. For David King Jr. and his wife, Ella, Newport was a country getaway where they could enjoy riding, yachting, lawn tennis and golf. And Kingscote, where they summered from 1876 until his death in 1894, was a place to gather friends for dinners and games of whist. But it was a relatively cozy cottage compared to the homes of others in their social set. It is perhaps a measure of the Kings’ social skills that they hosted, and were hosted by, such super-rich families as the Astors, the Belmonts, the Goelets and the Lorillards. As society commentator Charles Wilbur de Lyon Nichols wrote in "The Ultra-fashionable Peerage of America" (1904): “[T]he Kings co-mingled quite successfully with this exclusive set during seasons in Newport despite their lack of comparative wealth and a grandiose summer ‘cottage.’” What Kingscote might lack ...