Newport - Gilt, Gold, and Greed

Mark Twain is credited with giving the name ‘The Gilded Age" to the late 1880's. This was not meant as a compliment but rather a condemnation of what was a glittering exterior and a rotten interior. Shady deals and robber barons led to a whole class of excessively rich men who were looking for a new place to show off their wealth. Enter Newport Rhode Island. Here they built their massive mansions, each one more elaborate than its predecessor, each baron hoping to reach the pinnacle of wealth. Few found happiness, nearly all lost their massive wealth and some lost their wives and families as well. This is the story of the legacy that they left to Newport but even more so, it is the story of the regular families of Newport whose job it was to keep these houses running and to salvage them after their owners had moved on.

On this trip we visited The Elms, twice, The Breakers, Rosecliff, Chateau Sur Mer, Marble House and Belcourt Castle. Beyond that we also visited the Redwood Library, The Newport Art Museum, The Newport Historical Society, and the Topiary Garden.

The Breakers- Built for Cornelius Vanderbilt and his wife Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt the Breakers is the largest of the Newport "Cottages." It was designed by renowned New York architect Richard Morris Hunt. His inspiration was the 16th century Italian palaces whose design was influenced by Palladio. He designed it to have an open interior courtyard which today is the great hall. The east facade has a two-story loggia that faces the ocean and it is separated from the great hall by walls of glass, bringing the outside in.

Rosecliff, which is my favorite for no other reason than I can actually picture myself living here, opulently mind you, but not so overwhelming as the other cottages. I think that I found Tessie Oelrichs the most fascinating of the hostesses as well, she had not been born to this life but few would have dared to point that out in her day. What she did have in abundance was wealth and ambition. Stanford White was the architect of Rosecliff and what he gave her was the stage for her opulent entertainments, a ballroom that remains the largest in Newport.

Quick Tips:

The Preservation Society of Newport has taken on the daunting task of maintaining a good many of the Mansions that survive. One, Belcourt Castle is in private hands and the Tinneys have done an extraordinary job of restoring it to its former glory. Another Beechwood presents several different scenarios where you visit the mansion for a tea dance or another function. A group of actors plays the parts of the Astors and their guests and they interact with you.

Chateau Sur Mer this house has two sides, it was originally designed by Newport builder Seth Bradford and later updates by Richard Morris Hunt. What we have is a New England fortress with French Chateau embellishments. The whole feels heavy and not very French and yet it has a very safe feeling. It has a much warmer aspect than any of the other cottages.

Belcourt Castle. This Mansion is lived in and a visit here with a tour by Mrs. Harley Tinned is a wonderful privilege. This is a home and though they don’t live in the rooms we now visit, they did and the love Mrs. Tinney has for her home is sincere and deep.

Marble House If you were trying to keep your wife happy, this is the house you would let her build. It didn’t save his marriage but it certainly gave Alva a chance to show what she was made of. Visiting here will give the phrase "Gilded Age" a whole new meaning. One look at her Gold Ballroom and you jaw will just drop, it is so gaudy, you can’t stop looking.

The Elms This is the one house where you can do two tours, one of the family side of the house and one of the servants side. The contrast is great, the cast system just as rigid on both sides and though the servants traveled between the two, the owners did not.

Beyond the Mansions there is a lot to see in Newport. Unfortunately I couldn’t delve into most of the Colonial History because those houses are only open in season but I was able to visit the Historical Society, The Redwood Library and the Newport Art Museum as well as St Mary’s Church.

Best Way To Get Around:

Newport is best visited with a car but parking is a big issue. There is a parking garage at the visitor center and it might not be a bad idea to leave your car there in the summer and take one of the buses to the mansions.

All the mansions have their own parking lots and if you are visiting off season then by all means park there.

Depending on where you are staying you will be able to walk to many of the restaurants. You need to drive to get to Green Animals Topiary. It is located in Portsmouth RI. The Closest airport is located in Providence RI. Amtrak also has a stop in Newport.

Having purchased a week at the Fairfield Time Share on a discount site, I felt comfortable only using it for four nights since this made our average nightly rate around $50. There is no check in at The Inn. You have to go to the Marriott Resort which is located across the street. Once we had figured out where that was, I had to actually call them to find it, our check in was effortless. One of the benefits of staying here is that you get to have dinner at a discount- two for one -at the Marriott Hotel. We took advantage of this our first night.

Parking is at a premium at this resort. It is a very small lot with a few spots under the building. In March this was not an issue but I can imagine in say July it could be problematic.

This building was formerly a hotel. This makes for a rather strange room setup. When you open your door you are in the bedroom. The kitchen is next and then the living-room. There are no windows in the bedroom. The compensation is that the view from the living-room is very nice, right out to the harbor. We had a seagull who was always right outside our window. I took a lot of pictures of him as he strutted his stuff.

In spite of its awkward design I really loved this place. Everything was in beautiful repair. The bed was comfortable and the bedding was luxurious, much more so than any others timeshare resort I have stayed at. There was lots of storage in the bedroom and plenty of lighting. We had a TV in the bedroom as well as a telephone.

The kitchen was pretty basic. There was a two burners range top, a microwave and a refrigerator. There was also a toaster and a coffeepot. There was several bags from the resort with little gifts and also coffee and tea. The cupboards were well stocked with any plates, glasses and cooking utensils that you may need.

The living room is very comfortable. It was a large sleeper sofa, a TV, great lighting and a telephone. There is also a dining area in the living room. The coffee table became my traveling office. The outside wall is almost all windows.

The best room in the house however is the bathroom. It has the biggest Jacuzzi tub I have ever seen, except for mine at home. This one has steps that you have to walk up to climb in. It was very nice and very clean. Our room was cleaned daily and our supplies were replenished.

I was very happy with everything about the Inn on the Wharf. We were asked to attend a very brief and very low pressure sales pitch for which we received $50 worth of dining coupons. I felt it was certainly worth while. But mostly what this resort has is location. It is right in the middle of everything.

This is that very rare creature, a mansion without a gift shop, I know, a shocking statement but true. If any of the houses could be said to feel like a cottage, Chateau Sur Mer has perhaps the most likeable atmosphere. This is a house where you can almost imagine yourself living. It has a warm and lived in feel that is very obviously missing in the other mansions. (Belcourt excluded.)

This was not my first visit here but it was the first time I made the Wetmore connection. The Wetmore family can trace their hometown roots to my hometown. I knew that there was a street called Wetmore Place in Middletown but I never put two and two together until we were waiting for our tour to begin and I was looking at a genealogy chart on the wall.

Chateau Sur Mer (House on the Sea) must be visited on a guided tour, we along with another couple made up our tour and our guide was Barbara Caldwell. The original house was built by Seth Bradford between 1851-52 for William Wetmore. Mr. Wetmore made his money in the China trade. Constructed of granite from Fall River in the Italianate style it was the grandest house in Newport. In 1856 he hosted a grand party, 3,000 were invited and the President of the United States received one of the invitations.

George Peabody Wetmore hired architect Richard Hunt to update the mansion and the High Victorian French Chateau design was created. The Wetmore’s took a decade long European honeymoon while the update was going on. Hunt experimented on this home using Eastlake style for the Great Hall and Arts and Crafts style in the tiles of the fireplaces. In the gentlemen’s library the ceiling is coffered and the fireplace is carved wood done in the Renaissance style. Never has such a mixture of styles made such a lovely whole. The stunning stairway is one of the finest Hunt ever created and he payed visual tricks to make the 45 foot central hall appear taller. Until 1894 it was year round home.

Most of the furniture is not original to the house but the Library Table I. It now belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is on loan at Chateau Sur Mer. There is a fine collection of Rose Medallion china, Amari, Rose Canton and Rose Mandarin on display. William Morris and Eastlake created the Wallpaper for Mrs. Wetmore’s bedroom.

Everything is in a very grand style and yet not overwhelming, okay I personally don’t have Carrera Marble fireplaces but I would like them.

Unfortunately the Wetmore daughters did an update of their own and a great deal of the wonderful designs were covered by oil-based paint. The Preservation Society has made it their purpose to restore these areas to the 1870's. The house remained in the family into the 1960's and most of the fine paintings were bequeathed to Yale University.

Guided tours of Redwood Library are offered Monday-Friday at 10:30am. We were guided by Elaine. She is an employee of the library and extremely knowledgeable. The tours are free but as you leave the library there is a box for donations and they are greatly appreciated.
Designed by the first American architect, Peter Harrison at the behest of Abraham Redwood, The Redwood is the oldest lending library in continuous use in America. What I found amazing is that the exterior of the original library is made of wood. Peter Harrison is known for this style of splinter finish. It looks like stone from a distance and it was the first neoclassical building in America. Thomas Jefferson visited here and it is believed that he took his inspiration of the building in Washington, D.C. from the style of the Redwood Library.

The library started with a core of 750 titles comprising 1400 volumes. Newport was occupied by the British during the Revolutionary War and only about 50% of the volumes survived this occupation. Over the years the library has acquired about 40% of them back, if not the original books the same year of printing and edition. They are able to do this because they have the original invoice for the purchase of the books and original inventory lists. They even have Peter Harrison’s original plans for the building.

Least you think that this is a Library stuck in the past, you need to visit the current stacks. They operate with a button and are state of the art.

The original library is now what is called the Harrison Room. About a 100 years younger is the reading room. It has wonderful lighting and comfortable chairs and a table full of the latest magazines. It is a room you can picture yourself getting comfortable in.

A 1940's addition holds the art gallery, which is why this is also an Atheneum. It isn’t the only place to see art though, there are two early Gilbert Stuart portraits of Mr. & Mrs. Bannister above the door in the Harrison Room. He was a teen when he did them and when you compare them to his later portraits you will see how much he has matured. His self portrait in the style of Rembrandt is quite lovely.

In the gallery is a large sculpture called the dying Gaul which has been at Chateau sur Mer for many years but now has returned to its home at the Library. There are also two works by Gilbert Stuart’s daughter. The Library has never purchased any works of art they have all been received as bequests.

Today you will find a gem of American architecture as well as an amazing amount of historic documents and furniture. The oldest Windsor chairs in the United States belong to the Redwood Library and until recent times were being used. Having just opened after a major restoration and renovation, the library certainly looks ready to survive another 260 years. 

I have to admit that of all the Newport Mansions, Rosecliff is my favorite. The grand stair case is magnificent, certainly designed to impress. Modeled after the Grand Trianon at Versailles by architect Stanford White, this summer cottage took more than four years to build at a cost of $2.5 million.

First I have to say that you visit the first floor of the house on a guided tour and our guide stunk. I have never seen a more bored and disinterested guide in my life. Luckily the rooms themselves are so outstanding that you can’t help but be awed.

Tessie Oelrich was a first generation aristocrat. Her father James Graham Fair was an Irish immigrant who was a mining engineer. Her mother Virginia Rooney was the daughter of a hotel owner from California. He and three partners began mining in West Nevada and struck silver. Their find was the Comstock Lode. The mine yielded more than one half billion dollars worth of silver before it dried up. James parlayed his wealth into a career in Washington as a Senator, though he was seldom in attendance. His wife divorced him in 1883 and she lived with the children in San Francisco. Tessie was the debutante of the year when she came out. In 1890 when she married Hermann Oelrichs her father gave her a wedding gift of $1,000,00.

Even before her marriage, Tessie was used to summering in Newport and she was very much a part of the New York Social Set. Hermann was well liked and affable but much preferred the social life of the west coast. I guess you can see who won that battle just by looking at Rosecliff. Tessie was a force to be reckoned with even as a young girl.

The fact that she was a perfectionist is still evident at Rosecliff today. The house is exquisite. There is no ballroom that can compare not even Alma’s at the Breakers. This room alone should have you running to Rosecliff. Measuring eighty by forty it has doors that open to the exterior gardens on one side and the ocean terrace on the other. A painting by Watteau graces the space above the fireplace.

The closest most of us will ever get to feeling like one of the elite is to climb this stairway to the upper floors. Here we are allowed to wander pretty much at will through the beautiful bedrooms and the exhibits that line the center of the upper hallway. The rooms are pretty but nothing too extraordinary.

The House stayed in the family until 1941. The J. Edgar Monroe family summered here for twenty-five years prior to giving the house and it’s furnishings to the Preservation Society in 1971.

Green Animals is a small county estate located on Narragansett Bay. Beyond all the amazing topiaries, it is a lovely location with wonderful views. Children of all ages will find it an amazing place to visit.

In 1872 Thomas Brayton purchased the house and seven acres as a summer home. He hired Joseph Carreiro and began to plan and then execute the formal garden and most of the topiary. Joseph was a very imaginative and talented superintendent and passed his position to his son-in law George Mendonca. Between the two they served here for eighty years. Alice Brayton, Thomas’ daughter was a horticulturist in her own right and from 1940-1972 made her home here year-round.

You begin your visit in what looks like it might have been a potting shed. You will receive a map of the property showing where the topiaries are. We made quite a game of it, seeing if we could find and identify the topiary without the map. The map was the final judge of who was correct.

We began our visit by doing a self tour of the house. It is not a mansion in the Newport style but feels much more a family home where you can imagine yourself living. The house was built in 1860 and most of the furniture in the house belonged to the Brayton family.

Children will especially enjoy a visit to the second floor. There is an antique toy collection that spreads through several rooms. We found the toy soldiers of particular interest. They had British soldiers fighting against Zulu warriors, Egyptians and even some Crusaders. Another display is of antique banks. One is even shaped like a bank. Girls won’t feel left out. There are doll houses, furniture and dishes.

Once in the garden you will be charmed by the elephant, the Teddy Bears, a camel and a lion. These are just a few of the more than 80 pieces of topiary that dot the garden. The animals are formed from California privet and yew. The geometric designs are formed from English boxwood and Japanese Boxwood.

Because we visited in early April it was very quiet here but it also was a bit sparse on greenery. The dogwoods were just coming into bloom and the tulips were just passed. In the warmer months there are roses, grape arbors, berries, and parental beds. I can imagine it would be very colorful.

There are several different tours that can be taken at Belcourt Castle. I had previously taken the very enjoyable Candlelight Tour and when I saw that the ‘Spirits of Belcourt" would be offered on Thursday evenings during April, guided by Mrs. Harle Tinney, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see the beautiful and interesting house again.

Tours begin at 5pm and the doors open at 4:45. The tours are $15 per person and must be booked ahead. This can be done on their website or on the phone. You can pay when you arrive. There were only about 10 of us at first when Mrs. Tinney introduced herself and led us into the dining room, we were however soon joined by a whole bus load of young people. We were now a very large group and sometimes it became a little difficult to see Mrs. Tinney who is quite petit.

I have to say that having Mrs. Tinney is the perfect tour guide. Actually she came here originally as an 18-year-old tour guide and a love match ensued between her and the son of the house Donald. Together with his parents they are the driving force of the restoration of Belcourt and it is their collection of fine antiques that fills the rooms.

It is these very antiques that are the source of the many incidents of haunting that have occurred at Belcourt. I certainly don’t want to give away any of the secrets of the tour so I will just say that the energy of the living sometimes follows the objects that they owned even after death. We are thoroughly entertained by the stories of occurrences that happened to not only Mrs. Tinney but many other family members, employees, and guests.

I will share one story about how the rumors of the haunting of Belcourt began. Many years ago, before the Tinney’s owned Belcourt there was a lone caretaker who was responsible for keeping vandals and locals from breaking into the house. Since it was a very large job for one man, he came up with the idea of a while sheet, a flashlight and a broom. He would take the light and attach it to the broom while moving with the white sheet on through the musician’s gallery. It was enough to keep the youngsters of Newport away from the house. Many years later one of the guests on a tour remembered being scared out of his mind by the ghost in the musician’s gallery.

The tour is scheduled to take one hour but ours took closer to two and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves old mansions and also enjoys a good ghost story.

If you can only take one tour while you are in Newport, make it this one. This is the only one that will take you where the family would never have gone, through the world of the servants. This is a very popular tour and you will need a reservation to take it. Even in April we had to wait so I suggest that you come here first and sign up for one of the tours. You can then either take the self guides tour of the house or go to one of the other houses.

The tour begins outside in front of the house. We then walk around to the side and enter the house as the servants would have. We learn that the house was named for the elm trees that used to fill the yard. Dutch Elm diseases took care of that so today there are no Elms.

What we are going to see on this tour is how the hostesses of the Gilded Age made entertainment look effortless. The work took place out of the sight of the guests. With the help of call boxes, laundry rooms, large state of the art kitchens, butlers pantries to die for and even a coal tunnel with it’s own coal car the servants were able to keep everything running smoothly.

We begin by going down into the bowels of the house to see where the furnaces and the coal bin. The laundry and the drying room was next, I had to smile because I guess the Berwind’s couldn’t have their laundry drying out in the backyard for their neighbors to see. Three people worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep up with all the laundry. In Newport, 2500 residents worked as servants, 43 of them worked here at the Elms. 27 of them were outside servants, Mr Berwind found any footprints in his white stone walkways to be unacceptable. The servants had to follow behind any quests who took a walk and get rid of any trace of their walk.

There is an ice box room with a big oak ice box. This was the pastry chefs domain. The chefs that the Berwind’s hired were trained by Escoffier and earn salaries that were astronomical even in 1900.

We climbed up three flights of stairs to the servants bedrooms. Some of them are set up as they would have looked. Most of them are shared rooms. There is of course a call box on this floor. Twenty two people shared the 14 rooms and three bathrooms.

Now for the best part, we get to walk out onto the roof. We get a beautiful view of the grounds and some of the surrounding homes. This is a one of a kind opportunity.

We end down in the kitchen and then off to the gift shop.

The Elms was the most modern of the Newport Mansion, it was one of the first all electric houses in Newport. It was designed by Horace Trumbauer for coal baron Edward Berwind. It is a copy of the chateau d’Asnieres in France. It cost 1.2 million to build. It was the Brewind coal that fueled the Vanderbilt trains and ships.

Inside the mansion you see the work of the designer Jules Allard. The house is visited on a headphone tour. There is a basic tour and then if you want more details they are also available. One of the first extra tours has to deal with some Sevres china in an orange Turkish pattern.

The conservatory is beautiful, with a white marble floor and is the most casual of the first floor rooms. It was here that Miss Julia Berwind would serve her "White Ladies" a drink made from lemon juice, orange liquor, lots of gin and egg whites.

The gardens at the Elms took a staff of ten men to maintain. There were red carpets that were fitted into the garden paths so that the ladies wouldn’t ruin their dresses. The ballroom is the center of the house. The House was warmed with a grand party on September 7, 1901. Four hundred people filled the house including Ethel Barrymore and Alice Roosevelt.

The dining room is amazing. The meals would have been a combination of local and french cuisine. Dining was a very formal affair. Everything was regulated. How long you should talk to each of your dining partners, never put our knife in your mouth, never seat your guests next to each other too often during the season. Be sure to check out the chandelier in this room it has beautiful flower shades on the lights.

We walked up the gorgeous stairs to the second floor, if you are not able to do stairs there is an elevator. There are seven bedrooms on the second floor. In the hallway there are cases filled with embroidered satin pillows that were made for the pavilion that was set up along the Rhine to honor the arrival of Marie Antoinette in April 1770.

Miss Julia Berwind used the Van Allen room as her private bedroom. During the season a women needed to have morning dresses, luncheon dresses, tea dresses, outing dresses and evening dresses. One afternoon a week they had to be at home to visitors. If someone left their card then you were required to return the visit. It was all very formal. One season of entertainment required up to forty servants and cost as much as $300,000 for six to eight weeks. Of course this was in the days before there was an income tax and you got to keep all the money you earned.

All at least an hour for your visit and plan to take the rooftop and behind the scenes tour as well.

Designed by Richard Morris Hunt for Cornelius Vanderbilt II The Breakers is the apex of the Gilded Age in Newport. 138,000 square feet of opulence, designed in the Italianate style of Palladio. The house is built around an interior courtyard which being New England is enclosed. The ceiling has a cloud mural to give the impression of being outside.

The house must be visited on a tour. Our tour had 32 people which is, I believe, the maximum allowed. Tours are held on the hour and you can sit through a 30 minute video on the homes owned by the Newport County Preservation Society while you wait. Our tour lasted approx 50 minutes. We were on the 1pm tour. Our docent Donato met us in the Grand Hall and introduced us to the Vanderbilt family. Over our tour he told may interesting anecdote. One of my favorites was about Alfred Vanderbilt who was booked to travel back to the states on the Titanic but was not able to make the trip , he re-booked and sailed on the Lusitania. Call it fate.

Cornelius II commissioned the house in 1893. He enjoyed it for only three years before suffering the paralytic stroke that would lead to his death. We walked up the grand staircase, inspired by the one in the Paris Opera House, to the second floor, ( if you aren’t able to manage the stairs there is an elevator). We visit Mr Vanderbilt’s bedroom and then Mrs. Vanderbilt’s and while they were lovely the really interesting room was the bathroom that they shared. It has a Carara marble bathtub with elaborate carving and a faucet that can serve up hot or cold fresh or salt water. And it had what every person who spent several hours in the saddle wanted a Sitzbath to soak your butt in before having to sit through an hours long dinner.

Since it was April the double loggia were covered by plywood paneling but the beautiful view and the open feeling is still there. In the lower loggia the ceiling is all mosaic and is exquisite. We walked from one magnificent room to another. The dining room has a table that seats 34, is 38 by 42 and has a 45 foot ceiling. In comparison the morning room which seats only 16 seems intimate.

I loved the wonderful Campagna marble fireplace and alabaster walls of the game room, I think it is my favorite room. The last Vanderbilt to live in the house was Gladys Countess Szechenyi. It was her children and grandchildren who turned it into a home, riding their tricycles in the great hall and riding the silver platter down the grand staircase.

You can’t help stopping in the gift store. It is made up of at least five rooms with an eclectic array of offerings. Before you leave take the time to walk the grounds and appreciate the view that the Vanderbilt’s enjoyed. Parking is across the street from the mansion.

If any of the mansions epitomizes the Gilded Age of Newport’s wealth, it is Marble House. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt for William and Alva Vanderbilt, this cottage is modeled after the Petit Trianon at Versailles. This house is visited with a self guided headphone tour. There are numbered plaques in the rooms, you can hear just the basic numbers or if you want to know more there are additional items you can listen to.

The 50 room "cottage" took three years to build at a cost of $11,000,000. They used 500 cubic feet of marble in the construction. Marble was shipped into Newport from Europe and housed in special sheds. The building was the talk of Newport and fences had to be built to keep people from seeing it as it was being constructed. Workers were forbidden to talk about the part they were working on. The Vanderbilt’s planned to have a grand unveiling of their magnificent new home. William gave Marble House to Alva as a Birthday present and she worked closely with Richard Hunt on all the details of the House.

One look at the Grand Salon at Marble House and you will understand why it was called the "Gilded Age." Gold, gold, everywhere you look more gold. Is there such a thing as too much gold? This room certainly pushes the envelope. Even where there isn’t gold, the mirrors reflect gold. All the gilding was applied by hand and in some places you can still see wood grain through. It certainly was meant to impress, and it does in a Victorian overdone kind of way. A bit over the top as far as I’m concerned.

Like most of the "Cottagers" the Vanderbilt’s only spent six or seven weeks a year at Marble House. During that time they entertained and were entertained by the cream of society. All this was to one end to make sure that their children married into the best families. For Alva that meant gaining a title for her daughter Consuelo. She chose the 9th Duke of Marlborough. Consuelo didn’t love him and didn’t want to marry him but her mother forced her. The Duke didn’t love Consuelo either but he needed her father’s money, so a deal was arranged. The Vanderbilt’s threw a party to entertain the Duke on August 25, 1895. Three hundred guests, three bands of music ending at 5am, according to Alva ‘A perfect night." One has to wonder what Consuelo’s take on the same night was.

One room you must see is the Gothic Room. It is dark, with stained glass. Alva had the room built in Paris, dismantled and rebuilt at Marble House.

Alva was active in the suffragette movement, her wealth helped to fund it. She divorced William in 1896 and soon married his friend Oliver Belmont. She moved to Belcourt Castle but she retained ownership of Marble House. She sold it to Frederick Prince in 1932 and his family summered here for 30 years. The Preservation Society obtained the House in 1963.