The height of the Gilded Age was characterized by extreme opulence,
not to be outdone by the Vanderbilt Family. Hi everyone, Ken Here, Welcome to "ThisHouse"!
Today we are exploring the Vanderbilt Family’s Cottage, The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island.
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In 1843, Cornelius Vanderbilt the Second was born to the third generation of the
wealthy Vanderbilt Family. His grandfather, Commodore left him 5 million dollars and his
father William Henry Vanderbilt left him 70 million dollars, making his inherited
net worth the modern day equivalent of about 2.3 billion dollars. He, along with his wife,
Alice, began searching for the perfect place to build their summer cottage in to serve
as an escape from their Manhattan mansion. They came across a tract of land in Newport,
Rhode Island where a mansion known as the Breakers had just been lost to a devastating fire. In 1885,
they purchased the lot for 450,000 dollars, or the modern day equivalent of nearly 14 million dollars
and hired the Vanderbilt Family’s architect of choice, Richard Morris Hunt to design for them
what would become the largest house in Newport. Construction of the 70 room mansion began in 1893,
taking two years to finish. When it was completed, the foot print of the mansion consumed an entire
acre of the grounds it sat on, boasting 70 rooms spread out across 125,339 square feet.
It was designed in the beaux arts style, favoring themes from the renaissance revival style with
an elaborate cornice situated above quoins containing the façade of Indiana limestone blocks.
Approaching the house from the street,
you would pass through a 30 foot wrought iron gate flanked with limestone,
capping off the fence which surrounded the property on all sides, save the ocean front.
As you continue up the pea gravel drive,
the scale of the house becomes overwhelming with proportions to dwarf the human scale.
We will now pass below the port cochere,
ornamented with stone relief work and forming a groin vault leading towards the front door.
Entering the home, we arrive in the Great Hall measuring 50 by 50 feet with a ceiling height
of 50 feet. Marble pilasters framed oversized arch ways supporting columns above them towards
the ceiling with limestone statues to depict the greatest in each academic field, such as figures
of Galileo and Richard Morris Hunt to represent the achievements of science and architecture.
To one side, the bifurcated staircase sweeps through the
central archway with wrought iron balustrade curling along its rise.
Imaginative details can be found in every nook and cranny, with the area under the
stairs being occupied by a water feature. We can take a quick peek up the stairs before
exploring the rest of the house to see the details at the landing. Then we will look up
to see a dazzling array of colors refracting through the stained glass skylight overhead.
Now, let’s make our way back into the great hall and round the corner to explore the
dining room. At 2,400 square feet, the dining room stretches with a 34 seat mahogany table contained
by rose alabaster columns below a gilt cornice framing a mural of the Roman Goddess, Aurora.
Though, the family would eat in the Louis the 15th style breakfast room towards the front of
the house when they were not entertaining. This connected the house to the servants wing where
we can see a multi level butler’s pantry with a mezzanine connecting to the kitchen where meals
would be prepared for hundreds of guests at a time on a single, 21 foot long coal burning stove.
Enough of the behind the scenes views, let’s journey back into the main house
and cut across the dining room towards the back of the house to find the billiards room. Here,
mahogany furniture contrasts with the marble slab walls.
Now we will exit through the side to cut across the loggia towards the morning room,
facing east to allow the morning sun to flood the interior,
which was constructed in France before being shipped and reassembled on site.
We will now skirt by the great hall, separated by an arcade,
to pass by the oversized hearth which directly faces the great stairs and
continue forward to the Library, housing a 16th century French fireplace contrasting
with walnut wall panels inlaid with gold leaf below a coffered ceiling.
This joins to the music room, where a Campan Marble fireplace dominates one wall with a
blueish hue below a ceiling inlaid with gold and silver. Both Mr and Mrs Vanderbilt were
known to spend a lot of time in the music room playing the violin and piano together for fun.
This room opens towards a terrace framed by topiaries on the side of the house. We can follow
garden paths, meandering around the house to look back at its detailing on all sides, such as the
elaborately arcaded porches adorned in figurative relief work and paired with floral motifs.
We can follow grass paths between geometric flower gardens, stepping back to get a
better view of the side of the house. Expansive lawns stretched away from the
rear of the mansion, the main body of which was symmetrical with asymmetrical massing disappearing
behind monolithic wings. We can shuffle through the grass, making our way to the terrace,
to turn around and absorb the ocean views, as the tide breaks on the shores of The Breakers.
Mr. Vanderbilt enjoyed the house for only a few short years, dying from complications following a
stroke in 1899. Mrs Vanderbilt continued to enjoy the vacation property until her passing in 1934
when she willed the house to her daughter Gladys who leased, and eventually sold The Breakers,
to the Preservastion Society of Newport along with most of the mansion’s original furnishings.
The Breakers continues to be open to the public and serves as Rhode Island’s most popular tourist
attraction. If you have ever visited, I would love to hear about your experience down below in the
comments section. And while you’re there, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never
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