The Breakers is the iconic gilded age mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. It was the Vanderbilt’s home. Expect to spend 1-2 hours there if you really want to take it in. There is an audio tour so no need to worry about reading up on it before. Everyone walks at their own pace in the mansion, there is also wheelchair access and it’s definitely photo friendly. It’s $15 per person winter pass (when we were there), and you can enter and tour as many mansions as you want! I would recommend walking shoes. There is a charming gift shop with Vanderbilt history as well as other trinkets and fiction novels set in the time of the gilded age. We drove up to Newport through Connecticut from New York, to spend a few days in this historical town on the seaside.
COST: $7 Million
The Breakers Stable & Carriage House is located approximately a half-mile west of the house, on Coggeshall Avenue. Completed in 1895, it is 100 feet deep and 150 feet wide, U-shaped with a carriage house in the center.
Scroll down for pictures of this marvelous mansion!
The Breakers is the grandest of Newport’s summer “cottages” and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America.Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central RailroadThe Commodore’s grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system in 1885, and purchased a wooden house called The Breakers in Newport during that same year.In 1893, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a villa to replace the earlier wood-framed house which was destroyed by fire the previous year.Hunt directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and TurinView of the ocean from the upper floorAllard and Sons of Paris assisted Hunt with furnishings and fixtures, Austro-American sculptor Karl Bitter designed relief sculpture, and Boston architect Ogden Codman decorated the family quarters.he Vanderbilts had seven children. Their youngest daughter, Gladys, who married Count Laszlo Szechenyi of Hungary, inherited the house on her mother’s death in 1934Mrs Vanderbilt’s roomExcited to go check out the mansions on Bellevue Avenue!A fresh Newport morning awaits usAn ardent supporter of The Preservation Society of Newport County, she opened The Breakers in 1948 to raise funds for the Society.In 1972, the Preservation Society purchased the house from her heirs. Today, the house is designated a National Historic Landmark.44 Ochre Point Avenue Newport, RI 02840A fountain at the base of the stairsRemarkable detail in the dining room….This house was the first to get electricity installedThe entranceThe entrance decorated at ChristmasOne of the children’s bedroomsApproaching The Breakers
