The Newport Mansions: Everything You Need to Know
Photo: Gavin Ashworth
Newport, Rhode Island, was once the epicenter of the Gilded Age—and still is, in a way, thanks to the famous Newport mansions. The quaint New England city grew from a booming port town to a seaside destination for Manhattan’s wealthiest families—including the Vanderbilts, the Astors, and the Schermerhorns. In the late 19th century, these elite members of high society looked for a respite from the city and started building what they described as summer cottages but were really palaces made of 500,000 cubic feet of white marble and sprawling mansions inspired by Versailles. “I think that, if you can’t afford to go to Europe, then come to Newport,” Trudy Coxe, the CEO and executive director of the Preservation Society of Newport County, tells AD. And thanks to the preservation society, nine of these ornate historic houses have been restored to their glory days and are open to the public. Read on for a timeline of the Newport mansions, and what it takes to preserve such an integral epicenter of American history.
Hunter House
Of the nine Newport mansions, Hunter House is the oldest. The Georgian Colonial home was built in 1748 for a merchant named Jonathon Nichols Jr., as well as his wife and eight children. The home has a rich, albeit dark past. It was once the home of enslaved people, acted as a headquarters during the American Revolution, and served as the home for a US senator during the time Andrew Jackson was president. Over the next 80 years, the historic home passed through a series of owners. It was in the 1940s that Katherine Warren, the first president of the Preservation Society of Newport County, stepped in and led the charge on preserving the home. Today, Hunter House acts as a National Historic Landmark devoted to sharing the complex history of Newport. Lovers of Colonial architecture will appreciate the House’s examination of the important traditions of artisanship and craftsmanship seen throughout the home. The Hunter House collection includes original furniture handcrafted by celebrated Colonial-era cabinetmakers, the Townsend-Goddard family. Visitors will spot Newport pewter as well as paintings by Cosmo Alexander, Gilbert Stuart, and Charles Bird King.
Kingscote
This ornamental cottage was built in 1841 as a summer home for a Southern plantation owner. The architect Richard Upjohn designed the dwelling in the Gothic Revival style, resulting in a romantic home complete with towers, Gothic arches, and porch roofs inspired by medieval tournament tents. Due to the outbreak of the Civil War, the storybook summer cottage was eventually sold in 1864 to the King family, who renovated and expanded the home. Kingscote stayed in the family until 1972, when the last descendant donated it to the preservation society. The home is best known as the site of the first recorded use of Tiffany glass bricks, its cork ceiling in the dining room, and its collection of Chinese art.
Kingscote underwent a series of paint studies in 2023 to examine and identify the original paint history. “Our conservation team is equipped with a series of microscopes in the studio that allow for us to study paint layers both inside and outside our properties,” Leslie B. Jones, the director of museum affairs and chief curator at the Preservation Society of Newport County, tells AD. “If we need further help determining the original shade of a color, we call upon our network of paint analysis experts. Kingscote was one of those instances where we called in all the experts, and the result is spectacular.” Approximately 125 samples were collected from siding, shingles, trim, windows, doors, and finials. The analysis revealed a grayish brown color, which was then applied to the home, bringing the house closer to its period of historical significance.
Chateau-sur-Mer
110 West 80 St-4R, NY, NY 10024212 874 3879
Built in 1852, Chateau-sur-Mer, which translates to Castle by the Sea, is considered the gateway to the Gilded Age in Newport. It epitomizes High Victorian architecture and was seen as the most palatial residence in Newport, that is, until Vanderbilt’s came along. The Italianate-style villa was originally built by a local contractor named Seth Bradford, for William Shepard Wetmore. Wetmore settled in Newport after making his fortune in the China trade. The chateau was built using rough-cut Fall River granite that gave the home an almost rugged look and feel—a far cry from the other seaside villas in Newport. It was three stories tall with a four-story tower over the entrance.
However, the Chateau-sur-Mer that Wetmore built is not exactly the one visitors see today. The China trade merchant’s heir, George Peabody Wetmore, inherited the estate in 1862 and hired Richard Morris Hunt to rebuild. Hunt altered the appearance of the home to such an extent that passersby thought the original house had been torn down. Some of the changes he made included: relocating the main entrance and building a grand porte cochere, adding a 1,000-square-foot billiard room, creating an entire new west wing, and most importantly, knocking down an entire portion of the house in favor of a three-story hall with balconies and a skylight.
And the evolution of Chateau-sur-Mer is still ongoing. “We are in the midst of completing a major geothermal system at Chateau-sur-Mer, our fourth geothermal system at our properties,” Jones tells AD. “These projects are critical, as they reduce our carbon footprint, make for a more comfortable visitor environment, and—above all—ensure the long-term protection of our collections, which need stable environments year-round in order to maintain conditions over the long term.”
Chepstow
Chepstow was built in 1860 and, like Chateau-sur-Mer, falls under the Italianate-style architecture umbrella. The home was built by Newport architect George Champlin Mason as a summer residence for Edmund Schermerhorn, a member of a prominent New York society family. The exterior of Chepstow feels more understated and modest in comparison to other Newport mansions, as do the interiors. On the outside, one can observe black-shuttered windows, bracketed trim, and a welcoming front porch. And on the inside, comfortable sitting rooms, Hudson River School paintings, and ancestral furnishings. The home was acquired by Mrs. Emily Morris Gallatin in 1911 and remained within the Morris family until the home and its collections were bequeathed to the Preservation Society in 1986.
Isaac Bell House
Isaac Bell House is an architectural marvel. The home was built by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White in 1883 for Isaac Bell, a wealthy cotton broker and investor. The mansion is considered by the former head of the Yale’s art history department, Vincent Scully, to be the finest example of shingle-style architecture in America, according to Coxe. “There is not an architect who comes to Newport who doesn’t want to see the Isaac Bell House,” Coxe tells AD. The home is the best surviving example of shingle-style architecture in the country.
“This is the house that transitioned us from Victorian architecture into modern architecture,” Coxe tells AD. “ Isaac Bell House gave Frank Lloyd Wright a sense that you could open up spaces and you could have more light. The old style, Victorian, stuffy, crowded, dark, gloomy… Those days were gone, and it was time to go for something more modern.” Isaac Bell House passed through a succession of owners until it was purchased by the preservation society in 1994.
Marble House
It was when William Vanderbilt built Marble House in 1892 that everything in Newport changed forever. The home set the pace for the town’s evolution from a quiet summer colony to the epicenter of opulence we know it for today. Marble House was built as a 39th birthday present for William Vanderbilt’s wife, Alva. William was the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who can be accredited to establishing the family’s fortune in steamships and the New York Central Railroad. The house was inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles and designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, who was later nicknamed the Vanderbilt family architect. Hunt is most known for designing the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Statue of Liberty pedestal, and other Vanderbilt estates such as The Breakers and Biltmore.
Of all the great summer cottages and palazzos of Newport, Marble House is easily the most opulent, states Newport Mansions, a book by the Newport preservation society. The home took nearly four years and a reported $11 million to build. Like the name states, Marble House was built of 500,000 cubic feet of white marble and is home to a collection of priceless artifacts, such as an 18th-century French Gobelins tapestry. After the completion of the home, Hunt’s creation was celebrated as a classical masterpiece that set the precedent for Gilded Age mansions to come. No expense was spared, and everything throughout the house was done on the grandest of scales, with Pietro da Cortona style murals, a Rococo-style library, and a dining room surrounded by carved gilt wall allegorical panels.
From the Gilded Age to now, Marble House was home to many grand balls, suffragist meetings, and different families before being purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1963. Money for the purchase came from Harold S. Vanderbilt. Since then, the home has played a role as the backdrop for many scenes in Julian Fellowes’ HBO series The Gilded Age.
The Breakers
If there was ever a home to evoke real estate envy, it would be The Breakers. The grandiose, four-story mansion is the star of Bellevue Avenue. It was constructed over the course of two years, from 1893 to 1895, for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, one of the richest men in America. Being a millionaire, Cornelius spared no expense when it came to the construction of his summer home. He commissioned the family architect, Richard Morris Hunt, to design a classic Italian palazzo-style home complete with the finest American and European craftsmanship and expansive views of the sea. To ensure the home’s legacy and endurance, Hunt designed The Breakers using steel, brick, and limestone instead of wood. Classical Roman influences are seen throughout the exterior of the Italian Renaissance-style home, which was inspired by the palaces of Turin and Genoa, according to the book Newport Mansions. To evoke the feeling of being in Tuscany, the exterior of The Breakers was outfitted with columns and arches, while the interior was built around an awe-inspiring Great Hall, which was inspired by the open-air courtyards of Italy. Throughout the mansion, one can find 48 bedrooms, 27 fireplaces, and modern technology like electricity and gas—both novelties during the Gilded Age. But the lavishness doesn’t stop there. When touring the home, one can observe Baccarat crystal chandeliers, Louis XVI wall paneling, 17th-century Flemish tapestries, and an ornate music room that was constructed by Allard & Sons in France, disassembled, shipped to the United States, then reassembled.
The Breakers is a true status symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial dominance throughout the Gilded Age and stayed within the family until 1972. It was then that the Preservation Society purchased the mansion from the heir of Countess Széchenyi, the daughter of Cornelius and Alice, who had been living there.
The Elms
One might forget they’re still in America when visiting The Elms. Built in 1901, the mansion was designed after an 18th-century French château. The summer residence was home to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind, the founder of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company. The Elms was designed by architect Horace Trumbauer and is said to have cost $1.4 million to build.
At one time, Berwind owned the most coal mines in the world. And thanks to the immense fortune he earned through coal, he was allowed to dedicate his life to his true passion—art. Like other mansions in Newport, the interiors of The Elms and furnishings were designed by Allard & Sons of Paris. These ornate rooms set the stage for the Berwinds’ expansive collection of Renaissance ceramics and 18th-century French and Venetian paintings.
The elaborate Classical Revival gardens on the grounds were developed between 1907 and 1914. They include terraces displaying marble and bronze sculptures, plus a lavish lower garden with marble pavilions, fountains, and carriage house.
Rosecliff
Fantasy and escapism meld together at Rosecliff, a glistening white palace built in 1902. The mansion was built for Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs by Stanford White, an architect who also worked on the Isaac Bell House. Like Marble House, Rosecliff was designed to emulate Grand Trianon, a 17th-century garden retreat built at Versailles for Louis XIV of France. The home is said to have cost $2.5 million to build. Like the Gran Trianon, Rosecliff has Ionic columns, French doors, and a multitiered entablature topped with intricate statues. Looking at the mansion, you’d never know it was built out of bricks; it was then finished with white glazed tiles made to give the appearance of marble, according to the book, Newport Mansions.
With an exterior inspired by Versailles, it only makes sense that Rosecliff’s interiors are just as opulent. Some highlights of the mansion include a heart-shaped, Rococo-style staircase designed by White, a bleached oak library filled with oil paintings, and of course, the largest ballroom in all of Newport. The fairy-tale-like room measures 40 feet by 80 feet, making it a grand backdrop for some of Newport’s most extravagant and legendary parties, according to the book, Newport Mansions. Some may even recognize Rosecliff as the backdrop for the 1974 film, The Great Gatsby.
After Oelrichs passed away in 1926, the mansion was passed through several different owners and hands until it was donated to the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1971.
Preservation of the Mansions
Everything visitors see today while exploring the Newport mansions is thanks to the Preservation Society of Newport County, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect, preserve, and present an exceptional collection of house museums and landscapes in one of the most historically intact cities in America.
The society was founded in 1945, when there was talk of demolishing Hunter House. In an attempt to save the historic property, Newport rallied together, formed a group known as the Georgian Society, and purchased the home. Shortly after, the organization changed their name to the Preservation Society of Newport County. Those who are in the business of restoring old homes know it is quite the financial undertaking, so the preservation society looked to the Countess László Széchenyi (also known as Gladys Moore Vanderbilt) to help raise funds for the restoration of Hunter House. Their idea? To open her family home, The Breakers, to the public for the first time. The Countess agreed, and with the revenue earned from the historic house tours, the preservation society was able to restore Hunter House. Since saving Hunter House, the preservation society has acquired the 10 other iconic properties we know Newport for today.
“These are architectural marvels,” Coxe tells AD. “You can get an education on American architecture from the Colonial era, because we have so many Colonial houses that are special, all the way through the Gilded Age.”
With 11 properties under their belt (nine mansions, a topiary garden, and the horse stables at The Breakers) the preservation society has their hands full making sure each property is at its best. “We have our priorities as of now, but we always maintain a necessary sense of flexibility as surprises do come our way,” Jones tells AD. Whether that is hunting down period furnishings in auctions or conducting scavenger-hunt-like searches throughout the homes. “Our conservation and collections teams never miss a detail,” Jones tells AD. “We discovered recipes in drawers, signatures on furniture, and labels hidden under carpets that gave us great insight into the generations of people who lived here.”
HBO’s The Gilded Age
The Gilded Age, a series by Julian Fellowes, chose Newport as the backdrop for portions of the show’s first and second seasons. The series is set during the Gilded Age and tells the story of Manhattan’s elite battling it out for the top seat in society. In season one, fans can witness scenes filmed at The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff, Chateau-sur-Mer, and Hunter House. Season two features scenes filmed at Marble House, The Elms, Chateau-sur-Mer, and Kingscote. Those especially curious to learn more about the Emmy-winning series can take a tour dedicated to exploring the Newport mansions where the Russells and the Astors wined and dined.
FAQs
What are the operating hours for Newport mansions tours?
All of the Newport mansions are open from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.
Are any of the Newport mansions still privately owned?
The Newport mansions are owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County.
Can you get married at one of the Newport mansions?
Rosecliff, Marble House, and The Elms are all available to rent out for weddings and other special events.
Are the tours self-guided or guided?
The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff and Chateau-sur-Mer offer engaging self-guided audio tours. Simply bring your own smart device with headphones and download the free Newport mansions tour app. Those curious about domestic life at the mansions can book tickets to one of two tours: Beneath The Breakers at The Breakers and Servant Life at The Elms.
Visitors to Isaac Bell House and Kingscote can take self-guided, non-audio tours, as can visitors to Green Animals Topiary Garden, the oldest topiary garden in the United States. The marvelous garden has been in the preservation society’s careful possession since 1972.
Hunter House and Chepstow offer guide-led tours at certain times throughout the day.
How do I book tickets to tour the Newport mansions?
Tickets may be purchased in person at the Breakers Welcome Center, Marble House ticket booth, inside the entrance of The Elms or Rosecliff, or at Green Animals Topiary Garden. Tickets are also available online at www.newportmansions.org.
What is the address of the Preservation Society of Newport County?
The Society is headquartered in a three-story Romanesque Revival mansion located at 424 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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