Mollie O’Hara

The building where you now stand is known locally as the Audrain Building. With 6 store fronts and 12 offices on the 2nd floor, it was designed in the Italian Renaissance style by architect Bruce Price, and constructed by M.A. McCormick for merchant Adolphe Audrain, completed in 1903. It was a welcome addition to what was Newport’s distinguished commercial and social center. Much of the Audrain building was rented to businesses that followed their elite clientele to Newport and set up shop for the summer season. 

One such retailor was Mollie O’Hara.  It was Mollie O'Hara that brought The Newport Historical Society and the Audrain Automobile Museum together. O’Hara was a New York-based “importer and designer of distinctive clothes for every occasion.” She expanded her business to Newport during the summers and occupied some portion of this building from 1908 to about 1930.

In 2018 the Newport Historical Society received a collection of clothing worn by the family of Cornelius Vanderbilt II of The Breakers; a study of the collection revealed that one of Alice Vanderbilt’s favorite dressmakers was Mollie O’Hara.  The clothing seen in the boutique, much of it by O’Hara and some by her competitors, explores retail history and provides insight into how women coped with both societal and sartorial shifts of the early twentieth century.