Anyone who reads a biography of Doris Duke (1912-1993) before going to Newport is in for a pleasant surprise. The spoiled, narcissistic "Richest Girl in the World" of the tabloids finally got something right. No, it isn't Rough Point, the Gothic-cum-pseudo-Tudor house beloved by her social-climbing mother.

Rough Point is worth a visit, but for a look at socially responsible restoration and, arguably, Doris Duke's most important legacy, go down into Old Newport, the colonial Point and Historic Hill sections of the city. These neat 18th century houses, some with period gardens and all discretely labeled with the names of their original owners, were once prime candidates for urban renewal. While the Vanderbilts, Astors and Belmonts were building their famous summer citadels (a.k.a. "cottages") on Bellevue Avenue and Ocean Drive, the original maritime city was rapidly becoming a slum.

The mansions of the Gilded Age may be Newport's major tourist attraction, but the houses owned by Duke's Newport Restoration Foundation are the nation's most complete concentration of original colonial-era buildings. They are also a paradigm for what can be done when sensitive historical preservation saves the past and produces mid-priced rental housing as well as museums for the present.

The Foundation was established to maintain what had become one of Doris Duke's collections - not jewelry this time, but derelict houses.

It began when the "World's Third Wealthiest Woman" (after Britain's Elizabeth II and Juliana of the Netherlands) grew interested in Newport's colonial heritage through the work of its artisans. As her accumulation of fine Goddard & Townsend furniture, silver, clocks and pottery increased, even Rough Point began to run out of space.

With no place to put new acquisitions she decided to buy a house in the old part of town and store them in plain view. In 1968 the 1811 home of onetime shipping magnate Samuel Whitehorne was on the market, its interior all but destroyed after a century of haphazard conversion into apartments and shops. Once restored, furnished and enhanced with a period garden by the NRF it became the only Federal style brick house in Newport open to the public.

To understand Doris Duke, begin at Rough Point, the house named for its rocky promontory, the most dramatic setting in Newport.

In 1922, James Buchanan Duke (1856-1924), founder of the American Tobacco Company, owner of power companies in the Carolinas and patron of Duke University, bought Rough Point for his second wife, Nanaline. It was built in 1889 for Frederick W. Vanderbilt, but it provided no magic key to the Newport society Nanaline Duke coveted. Doris, his only daughter, educated by tutors and with only the occasional imported playmate, must have associated it with her lonely childhood.

As you listen to the uncritical patter of the guides, think about the adolescent girl wandering about the vast tomb she inherited at age 13. Imagine the adult woman sitting alone at the piano for hours at a time compulsively playing jazz or wondering how she could make the cavernous rooms cozy with fabrics and color. Then there is the truly awful bedroom furnished with mother-of-pearl veneered pieces, many from Goa. Can you see it with 12 dogs on the floor, bed and chaise while the heiress dines alone before the fireplace? Look twice at the handsome solarium and wonder how it was in 1991 with Hurricane Bob howling outside and Duke crouching in there feeding graham crackers to her two full-grown camels.

Except for summer visits, she had stayed away until 1966, four years after her mother's death. Then, with all Newport in an economic downspin, she tried to give Rough Point to the Newport Hospital. The trustees turned it down.

Gradually the estate became a reflection of her life. She built a fence ten feet high; kept fires burning year round; constantly rearranged the furniture. Her guard dogs roamed the property terrifying guests. The results of her obsessive shopping filled every corner. Being able to focus on Newportıs neglected architectural heritage may have been psychological salvation.

When she became aware of the derelict houses in the old town, she opened her checkbook. It was a characteristic response, but she did not stop there. Ever a hands-on person (she mended her own broken dishes), she micromanaged details even as she set up the Newport Restoration Foundation to accomplish the larger task. Her friend Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis agreed to serve on the board, giving advice as well as lending cachet. Over a period of 16 years, more than 100 architects and skilled craftsmen were called in to research, repair and restore 83 decaying structures.

Today the houses are immaculately maintained by the RNF, no small task in the destructive salt air that mandates repainting every three years. Rental prices of $800-2000 per month are low for pricey Newport, but tenants are held to strict rules and no changes are permitted inside or out.

Duke created her first charitable foundation at age 21 and had always been a frequent if unpredictable and often anonymous giver to the needy who popped up on her screen. At the same time she was chided by gossip columnists for presenting her lovers with BMWs, polo ponies and airplanes; accused of paranoia when she walked rather than risk overcharge by a taxi driver. Itıs unlikely that she ever heard of social responsibility though she would probably have relished the concept.

She died in 1993 at age 80 and, according to her wishes, Rough Point opened to the public in 2000. "Gems from the East and West," 110 items from her extensive jewelry collection, were on display from May through September, 2003, a show sponsored by Verdura, the jewelers who created many of the custom-designed pieces. After exhibitions in Honolulu and Newark, the jewels will be sold with the proceeds going to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support medical research, conservation and the prevention of child abuse.

Her collection of colonial architecture, the treasure of Newport, will continue to be self-supporting, an example for historic preservation everywhere.

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