Mrs. Astor went down in history for her famous balls hosting the elite 400, but have you
seen inside her vacation house?
Hi everyone ken here, welcome to this house.
Today we are exploring Beechwood in Newport Rhode Island.
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The story of Beechwood starts with Daniel Parish, a wealthy dry goods merchant who lived
in a mansion on fifth avenue.
When his uncle, Thomas Powell died, he inherited massive shares of stocks in railroads, factories,
and banks, which made him one of the wealthiest men of the time.
He brought in English Architect Calvert Vaux along with landscape designer Andrew Jackson
Downing to design a grand vacation house in Newport Rhode Island.
However, the house burned down just 3 short years later only to be replicated a little
closer to the shore.
The result was a 16,400 square foot Italianate style villa with 39 rooms.
It was constructed from brick and accented with brownstone quoins along its corners and
set below a low pitched slate roof.
Daniel enjoyed vacationing here for the rest of his life until 1880 when he passed away.
In 1881, Willam Backhouse Astor Junior and his wife Mrs. Astor were searching for a vacation
property when they were shown Beechwood.
They immediately saw the potential of the grand house, purchased it, and brought in
architect Richard Morris Hunt to complete a series of renovations to accommodate their
social club, the 400 aptly named by Mrs Astor’s close friends Ward McAllister as the only
400 people in New York suitable for a ballroom.
The renovations cost a staggering 2 million dollars, or the modern day equivalent of over
56 million dollars to complete.
The dining room was greatly expanded to be able to seat 200 dinner guests and a large
mirrored ballroom was added on to the house.
Complete with the finest gilting and furnished with antique chairs and sofas, it became the
epicenter for the social season during the 8 weeks per year Mrs Astor spent in the house.
The Drawing room, also referred to as the music room, was decorated in Parisian wallpaper
as a backdrop to socially positioned furniture to best accommodate intimate conversations.
Of the other expansions, a loggia wrapped around the ballroom on the exterior of the
house, overlooking the cliff walk and offering panoramic views of the ocean.
Mrs Astor continued to entertain at Beechwood for the rest of her life until her passing
in 1908.
Upon her death, her son John Jacob Astor the Fourth inherited the house.
He had the façade reworked with white stucco, divorced his wife ava, and married Madeleine
Force in the ballroom.
This was a scandalous event for the time as Madeleine was younger than John Jacob’s
youngest son at the age of only 18 years old.
They set off to celebrate their honeymoon where he would perish aboard the titanic,
offering his seat to aboard a lifeboat to women and children.
His newly wed and newly widowed wife survived and inherited a massive fortune from John
Jacob.
She returned to Beechwood where she had the entire third floor converted into a dressing
room and closet to store her collection of clothes and accessories.
During her honeymoon, she had become pregnant and soon gave birth to John Jacob Astor VI
aka "Jakey" who she raised in this house until her passing in 1940.
Vincent Astor, Jakey's older brother then sold the house and it changed hands many times
until it was purchased by Paul M Madden in 1981.
Madden completed a series of extensive renovations and opened Beechwood to the public as a private
history museum which even featured period actors reliving the gilded age in the house.
In 2010 Beechwood was sold one last time to Larry Ellison who later revealed plans to
further renovate the mansion and reopen it as a museum.
He reportedly spent over 100 million dollars acquiring neighboring homes to reassemble
the original 1881 estate to likeness of Richard Morris Hunt’s plans.
As of today, it is not yet open to the public, though an occupancy permit was filed before
the events of 2020.
Hopefully the plans are still in place to open it to the public, when or if it is, would
you visit?
Which room was your favorite, let me know down below in the comments section and while
you’re there make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode
of this house.
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