The Breakers
We live in a very different world than that of the Vanderbilts. The Gilded Age was a time in the U.S. before income taxes. Say what you want about the under-taxing of the Romneys of the world, but there was no income tax whatsoever for the turn-of-the-20th century Astors. The Newport Mansions are a time capsule from this era.
When I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, I had two visceral reactions: the first was pity, thinking the city deserved better than its inhabitants. My second reaction was loathing, realizing that it was the excesses of empire that had caused the problems that Russia still deals with today.
In Newport, though, I didn’t have the same reaction that I did to The Hermitage. These were families who worked hard and didn’t have a government that reined them in. They used their power and wealth not only to create massive, museum-like estates, such as The Elms, Marble House and The Breakers (the three mansions that were open during the time of year that I visited), but also to enact some social change. Alva Vanderbilt-Belmont used Marble House as a staging ground for the suffragette movement that eventually brought women the vote.
Marble House
If you go to Newport in low season and only have the three above-mentioned mansions open, I would recommend visiting them in the order listed, as it will go from impressive to most impressive.
The Elms was a property of the Berwinds, who made their money through PA coal. The latter two are Vanderbilt properties, with The Breakers being the grandest of the three ‘cottages’ that I visited. When you visit, don’t be shocked if you find them ostentatious. After all, they are mansions. Such displays of wealth are not for everyone, but if you keep it in context and appreciate the properties and artwork for what they are, you should be able to be as impressed as I was.
I lived in Rhode Island for 2 years. Loved living there and visited the mansions a few times a year. Hard to image such grandeur!
I’ve never been in them. :(