The Breakers is one of several mansions of the Gilded Age on Ochre Point Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. The grandest of summer “cottages,” The Breakers symbolizes the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial prominence at the turn of America’s twentieth century. Open to the public year round, the
70-room Italian Renaissance style palazzo, inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin, formally awaits your grand entrance into a bygone era.

Newport, Rhode Island’s Bellevue Avenue is studded with opulent jewels—“in a manor of speaking”! Signs point to the mansions’ secluded whereabouts along the main fare and side streets to the sparkle of: The Breakers, Chateau-sur-Mer, The Elms, Green Animals Topiary Garden, Hunter House, Isaac Bell House, Kingscote, Marble House, and Rosecliff.

A native Rhode Islander who has made her grand entrance in all of them, The Breakers remains my favorite. The largest summer “cottage” along the Atlantic is the most-visited attraction in Rhode Island, with approximately 300,000 visitors annually.

An edifice of such magnitude needs an introduction for one to better appreciate the grandeur from which it sprung—the Gilded Age. This term referenced the process of “gilding,” intent on ridiculing ostentation adopted by filthy rich industrialists and financiers such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, lumped with other wealthy entrepreneurs accused of cheating commoners to make their money.

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) established the family fortune in steamships and the New York Central Railroad, pivotal to the industrial growth of the nation during the late 19th century.

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 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 Turin.

The Vanderbilts had seven children. Their youngest daughter, Gladys, who married Count Laszlo Szechenyi of Hungary, inherited the house after her mother's death in 1934. In 1948, she leased the high-maintenance property to the non-profit Preservation Society of Newport County for $1 a year. The Society bought the Breakers outright in 1972 for $365,000. The agreement with the Society allows family descendants to continue to live on the third floor, not open to the public, and hidden from the tourists who explore the rooms below.

A preliminary breakdown of The Breakers:

The mansion on Ochre Point Avenue which cost more than $7 million to build during its construction from 1893-1895, has approximately 65,000 feet of living space. The edge of the 13-acre estate affords one a breathtaking view of the Atlantic whose waves break against the sea cliffs. One enters the property through sculpted wrought iron gates, part of a 12-foot high limestone-and-iron fence which borders the property on all but the ocean side.

Since Cornelius Vanderbilt II stipulated his home be as fireproof as possible, the structure of the building consists of steel trusses and no wooden parts. The furnace is situated away from the house. The interior is accented with marble imported from Italy and Africa, plus rare woods and mosaics from countries around the world.

The library mantel was purchased from a chateau in France. The Gold Room was originally constructed in France, disassembled, shipped in airtight cases, and re-assembled in place in Newport. The baths have faucets for hot and cold fresh and salt water. This always impressed me!

Open for tourists year round, this 70-room Italian Renaissance style palazzo enables one to step into the opulence of high society at the turn of the twentieth century. Slip on the headphones and tour this magnificent mansion from a bygone era at your own leisurely pace.