At which Rhode Island venue was the first U.S. National Championships held in 1881?

The first U.S. National Championships, held in 1881, took place at the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Newport Casino was selected for the inaugural tournament because Newport had become an important summer resort and a center for the emerging American lawn-tennis movement. The competition was played on grass courts in August 1881, and entry was restricted to clubs affiliated with the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. The men's singles and men's doubles events were both part of that first edition.

Richard Sears won the inaugural men's singles championship, defeating William E. Glyn in the final and launching a seven-title streak. In doubles, Clarence Clark and Fred Taylor won the first championship. The venue remained associated with the national championships through 1914, although the tournament's organization and individual events evolved over time.

The Newport Casino is now closely linked with the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which preserves the sport's history and honors major figures from tennis. It is easy to confuse the venue with later sites: the Philadelphia Cricket Club hosted the first U.S. women's national singles championship in 1887, while the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills became the men's championship venue in 1915. Longwood Cricket Club also hosted later doubles competition, but none of those venues hosted the inaugural 1881 championship.