What is the most extravagant gift you can imagine?
Maybe it’s a luxury car or a tropical vacation? Hi everyone ken here, welcome to this house.
Today we are unwrapping the history of the most opulent gift, Marble House. Make sure
to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode of this house.
William Vanderbilt wanted to surprise his wife, Alva with a birthday present she would
never forget. So in 1888, he met with architect Richard Morris Hunt to begin planning a surprise
vacation home for her. Quickly, however, Alva became involved in the planning of the house.
They purchased a lot over 4 acres large in Newport, rhode island to begin construction. Alva
became obsessed with keeping the house a secret so that she could unveil it in a grand party. She
had a large fence constructed, blocking the view from the road and hired only Chinese workers who
did not speak English. Her reasoning for this was that they would not be able to tell anyone about
the project they were working on because not many people spoke mandarin in Newport at this time.
Overall, the house cost a whopping 11 million dollars to build,
or the modern day equivalent of about 343 million dollars with nearly one fifth of
the budget being devoted solely to marble, hence the name it would receive, Marble House.
4 years after construction had started, the 50 room beaux arts style mansion was finished.
Alva threw a huge ball with guests to arrive just after sunset. As people arrived,
they found the gate was shut and it was getting to dark out to see. Alva gave
her servants a signal and suddenly the entire house was illuminated as the gates swung open.
For the first time, the house was now visible to the public.
The beaux arts style mansion was clad in marble with solid marble columns and pilasters
set in neat intervals below a corresponding balustrade concealing the third floor.
Passing between the massive columns, you would enter the home through wrought iron doors,
arriving in the grand hall. A giant plaster medallion was set in the ceiling hovering
over the marble floors and walls. From here, you could circulate about the interior of the home
with a long gallery connecting the wings from one end and a grand stair case set to
the side. The marble stairs floated upwards, wrapped with gilted banisters. Rounded windows
punctured the stone walls below an elaborate frieze wrapping towards a celestial mural.
At the top, columns surrounded the landing with tapestries hung on the walls behind them.
By 1895, Alva had already divorced William and remarried,
but she returned to Marble House to host her daughter’s coming out party in the ballroom
which sat opposite from the stairs. She had a large fountain constructed in the center of the
room and released 300 live humming birds to flutter above the heads of her guests.
From here we can travel to the dining room in the back of the house. Rose colored marble was
used to decorate the walls, composing the pilasters and window surrounds with gilted
capitols upon which rested the frieze. The ceiling played host to an elaborate display
of craftsmanship surrounding a central mural. To give you and idea of the scale of this room,
the dining room table stretched 34 feet long. The New York Times reported, “ The grand portico
was a blaze of light and dozens of liveried attendants were on hand to assist and escort
the guests from carriage to cloakroom and finally to the tables with their gold-plated cutlery.”
Cutting across the gallery backed to the entrance hall we will arrive in the gothic library.
A large stone fireplace stretched from floor to ceiling with relief work depicting people
transforming into spires as the design directed the eye up towards the elaborate ceiling
with twisting coffers carved from stone appearing nearly organic in appearance
soaring above stained glass windows which flooded the room with spotted colors.
Upstairs, Alva’s bedroom was decorated with busy patterns competing with floral motifs
run in the plaster work and millwork. As time went on, she spent less and less time living
here because she had moved to Belcourt to be with her new husband, however, she would still
use the house primarily as a closet to store her clothes. She was known to wear up to six
different outfits per day and kept staff busy washing her clothes full time in the house.
As Alva grew older, she became more interested in politics,
choosing to spear head the women’s suffrage movement. In 1908, she moved back to Marble
House and opened it to the public to raise money for her cause. She charged 5 dollars per ticket,
or the modern day equivalent of about 160 dollars to view the interior of the home,
making sure to keep the price point high enough to not receive commoners.
She hosted several fundraising events in the following years, but perhaps none were more
spectacular than the Chinese Ball she hosted in 1914. She hired Richard Morris Hunt’s sons,
Richard and Joseph to design a Chinese tea house at the edge of her property’s cliffs.
The hunt’s drew from 12th century sung dynasty era architecture for inspiration to create an
amalgamation of Asian architecture featuring a Shinto gate guarded by stone dogs leading
towards a rectangular pagoda with octagonal windows offering glimpses towards the sea.
Though Alva loved her Marble House, she chose to live out the rest of her life first in her
other mansion, Beacon Towers, and then in France with her daughter Consuelo.
As the great depression raged on, she sold the house in 1932 for just 1 dollar
and all the contents of the home for 99,999 dollars, properly avoiding taxes. The Prince
family moved in and enjoyed it as a family home, participating in sports such as tennis and polo.
When Mr Prince died, he willed the home to his son Frederick opened the home for the first time
to the public so that the Preservation Society of Newport County could host the Tiffany Ball,
an early preservation fundraiser for protecting Newport’s architecture. This event attracted
famous figures such as JFK and Gladys Vanderbilt. A few Years later, Frederick passed away and
Alva’s son Harold Vanderbilt purchased it. He collaborated with the Prince Family to donate not
only the house, but the all of its furnishings to the Preservation society of Newport County.
Since 1964, it has been open to the public for tours and has served as
the backdrop for several movies including The 1974 Great Gatsby, the 1994 True Lies,
and as recently as 2012 Victoria’s Secret used the house as backdrop for commercials.
Thankfully, this house, unlike so many others that we have seen,
has been saved. Which room was your favorite? If you’ve ever visited, make sure to
let me know how you enjoyed your tour 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.
I would also like to take a moment to say a special thank you to our this house supporters
whose names you can see on screen right now. If you would like to see your name on this screen
please consider joining our membership program today. I’ll see you next time on this house!