Of all the great summer cottages and palazzos of Newport, Marble House is easily the most opulent, states Newport Mansions, a book by the Newport preservation society. The home took nearly four years and a reported $11 million to build. Like the name states, Marble House was built of 500,000 cubic feet of white marble and is home to a collection of priceless artifacts, such as an 18th-century French Gobelins tapestry. After the completion of the home, Hunt’s creation was celebrated as a classical masterpiece that set the precedent for Gilded Age mansions to come. No expense was spared, and everything throughout the house was done on the grandest of scales, with Pietro da Cortona style murals, a Rococo-style library, and a dining room surrounded by carved gilt wall allegorical panels.
From the Gilded Age to now, Marble House was home to many grand balls, suffragist meetings, and different families before being purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1963. Money for the purchase came from Harold S. Vanderbilt. Since then, the home has played a role as the backdrop for many scenes in Julian Fellowes’ HBO series The Gilded Age.
The Breakers
If there was ever a home to evoke real estate envy, it would be The Breakers. The grandiose, four-story mansion is the star of Bellevue Avenue. It was constructed over the course of two years, from 1893 to 1895, for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, one of the richest men in America. Being a millionaire, Cornelius spared no expense when it came to the construction of his summer home. He commissioned the family architect, Richard Morris Hunt, to design a classic Italian palazzo-style home complete with the finest American and European craftsmanship and expansive views of the sea. To ensure the home’s legacy and endurance, Hunt designed The Breakers using steel, brick, and limestone instead of wood. Classical Roman influences are seen throughout the exterior of the Italian Renaissance-style home, which was inspired by the palaces of Turin and Genoa, according to the book Newport Mansions. To evoke the feeling of being in Tuscany, the exterior of The Breakers was outfitted with columns and arches, while the interior was built around an awe-inspiring Great Hall, which was inspired by the open-air courtyards of Italy. Throughout the mansion, one can find 48 bedrooms, 27 fireplaces, and modern technology like electricity and gas—both novelties during the Gilded Age. But the lavishness doesn’t stop there. When touring the home, one can observe Baccarat crystal chandeliers, Louis XVI wall paneling, 17th-century Flemish tapestries, and an ornate music room that was constructed by Allard & Sons in France, disassembled, shipped to the United States, then reassembled.