The Breakers is the grandest of Newport mansions.
Photo: Gavin Ashworth Photography
The Ultimate Guide to Newport’s Gilded Age Mansions
These real-life, dutifully preserved summer homes of 19th-century high society are a must-visit
The opulent stair hall of Marble House, a palatial dwelling in Newport, Rhode Island, that was the vision of Alma Vanderbilt. Photo: Alexander Nesbitt
Ever since HBO’s The Gilded Age hit the small screen, there’s been a revived interest with this lavish and opulent period in American history. At the end of the 19th century, the wealthy dynasties and new money of New York City built impressive homes both in the booming metropolis—where only a few survive today—and their favorite summer destination: Newport, Rhode Island.
Here, preservation efforts across the collection of historic homes along and around the era’s see-and-be-seen promenade Bellevue Avenue have been much more successful. This is primarily thanks to The Preservation Society of Newport County, a.k.a. Newport Mansions, the organization that takes care of 11 properties in the region, as well as the generosity of the families who have donated them to the trust. As custodians of these grand, glittering pieces of history, the Newport Mansions team works constantly to upkeep and renovate the buildings, acquire furniture, and art from the period to outfit the interiors and offer tours and programming for the public to marvel at their splendor.
Due to the meticulous attention to detail and authenticity to the period maintained in and around the mansions, several have been used as filming locations for The Gilded Age, standing in for spaces in both New York and Newport—from sweeping exterior shots, to scenes in the ballrooms, bedroom interiors, and servants’ quarters. Filming for season three is currently underway, so keep an eye out for more appearances from the mansions listed below.
All are available to visit, though some seasonally and others only sporadically. A special themed tour covers the HBO show settings, while another takes visitors through the back-of-house areas to offer a glimpse of what life was like for servants working in these buildings too. If you’re visiting Newport, Galerie’s guide to the best of these resplendent properties is here to help you decide which to check out first.
The Breakers forms part of the Vanderbilt dynasty’s sprawling real-estate legacy. Photo: George Gray
The Breakers
As the grandest of the Newport Mansions, The Breakers forms part of the Vanderbilt dynasty’s sprawling real-estate legacy, and it stands as a monument to the family’s wealth and social dominance of the era. The Italian Renaissance–style building designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt, and completed in just two years in 1895, replaced a smaller wooden structure on the same site that was destroyed in a fire. The massive “cottage” (as Newporters of the time called them) encompasses some 62,500 square feet across 70 rooms, including 33 for servants, for use during just six weeks over the summer. From the cavernous 50-foot-high great hall, to the book-matched marble of the billiard room and the sumptuous Allard & Sons music room shipped from France, the interiors by Ogden Codman Jr. are dazzling in every regard.
A highlight is the second-floor loggia, which overlooks the ocean beyond the publicly accessible Cliff Walk and the gardens that this summer hosted 26 sculptures as part of The Great Elephant Migration—a traveling exhibition of works created by indigenous artisans in South India. For the first time, the building’s third floor has opened for private tours after years of restoration work, which is still ongoing. This sneak peek at the additional bedrooms and living areas is curated in stages of renovation to help to paint a picture of the Vanderbilt children and their families, and offers glimpses of life at The Breakers beyond its heyday.
Rosecliff is the only venue among the mansions that can be hired out for large events. Photo: David Hansen
Rosecliff
If you’re dreaming of a Gilded Age–themed wedding, Rosecliff is the only venue among the mansions that can be hired out for large events. A heart-shaped staircase in the foyer and the largest ballroom in Newport are perfect for celebrations of love, and the building’s design and layout is ideally suited for throwing a big bash. With its perfectly symmetrical facade, a nod to the Grand Trianon at Versailles, the mansion was designed by architect Stanford White for silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs, who began hosting lavish parties there as soon as it was completed in 1902.
This tradition later continued on screen, when the home was used to film party scenes for the 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and it has also appeared in movies including True Lies and 27 Dresses. Rosecliff’s most recent owners, the Monroes of New Orleans, bestowed the house and its furnishings to the Preservation Society in 1971.
The Elms was designed to replicate the 18th-century Château d’Asnière. Photo: Gavin Ashworth Photography
The Elms
The Elms was designed to replicate the 18th-century Château d’Asnière outside Paris, by architect Horace Trumbauer for Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind. Its marble-lined reception spaces lead to a series of ground-floor rooms for entertaining, each with a distinct aesthetic borrowed from another culture. A English-style conservatory, where the decorative red-marble fountain was recently restored, sits at one end of an enfilade that opens onto the back terrace; the ballroom has Louis XV decor and features Giovanni Boldini’s painting of Lady Decies; the dining room is dedicated to Venice, in which paintings acquired from a palace adorn the walls and gold St. Mark’s lions decorate the plaster-cast ceiling; and a breakfast room is surrounded by panels imported from China.
Upstairs, the corner bedrooms are filled with light, while a secret hallway allows the family to separate themselves from their guests. As impressive as the house is, the real showstopper here is the grounds, which include a terraced Classical Revival garden filled with bronze statues, fountains, manicured topiary, and a pair of tea pavilions on either side. A carriage house and garage that is equally as ornate as the main house also sits on the property and is destined to become a restaurant.
The Isaac Bell House is intentionally left without furnishings to show-off its unique interiors Photo: Gavin Ashworth Photography
Isaac Bell House
The Isaac Bell House was commissioned by its namesake, Isaac Bell Jr., from starchitect of the time, Stanford White, who went on to design some of the most significant Beaux-Arts structures of the early 20th century—from the Washington Square Arch to the original Madison Square Garden. Completed in 1883, the project gave White the opportunity to experiment with unexpected elements and incorporate a variety of international influences, in an attempt to define an American architectural style.
The property has just completed a $3.3 million full exterior renovation, which involved painstakingly replacing all of the cedar shingles, stripping and repainting exterior woodwork, repointing brickwork, and installing new storm windows. The home is intentionally left without furnishings to show-off its unique interiors, which include dark-wood paneling, a dramatic stained glass window over the wide staircase, and remnants of original wallpaper.
Château-sur-Mer was one of the first mansions to be built in Newport. Photo: Gavin Ashworth Photography
Château-sur-Mer
One of the first mansions to be built in Newport, for trade merchant William Wetmore, Château-sur-Mer occupies a huge plot of land that once stretched all the way to the ocean (hence the name). The original 1852 home was built as an Italianate villa by architect Seth Bradford expanded twice, then remodeled by Richard Morris Hunt for Wetmore’s heir, George, during the 1870s. The result is an almost Gothic-esque exterior, and a layout inside that is centered around a tall atrium.
Its biggest boast is an entire room intricately carved by Italian master craftsman Luigi Frullini—one of his only fully realized spaces remaining in its entirety today. Meanwhile, the staircase is painted with a tree of life mural, and the upstairs rooms feature intricate stenciling on the ceilings. Also on the grounds is a stone Moon Gate that Wetmore had constructed based on designs brought back from China in 1860.
At the time of construction, the Renaissance Revival Marble House stood in stark contrast to the area’s wooden cottages. Photo: Alexander Nesbitt
Marble House
Built using 500,000 cubic feet of marble, this palatial dwelling was the vision of Alma Vanderbilt, wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt (whose brother Cornelius II built The Breakers). At the time of construction in 1892, the Renaissance Revival building stood in stark contrast to the area’s wooden cottages and sparked a change in architectural tone for subsequent summer homes.
Inside, the rooms are highly gilded and ornately furnished, while one space is designed in a Gothic style complete with stained-glass windows, an imposing carved-stone fireplace, and a ceiling reminiscent of the work of French cathedral architect Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. There’s also a replica Chinese tea house that Alva had installed in the garden close to the cliff’s edge, which is open for brunch and afternoon tea at varied schedules throughout the year.
Cover: The Breakers is the grandest of Newport mansions.
Photo: Gavin Ashworth Photography
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