Newport, R.I.

We were at a campground in West Kingston, to get to Newport, we had to cross 2 huge bridges, the first one went to Conanicut Island.

And the second went off the island and to Newport.

This is looking down from the bridge to Newport.

There was a cruise ship in the harbor, it looks like a toy on the railing.

The first mansion we visited was The Breakers.

It was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt as a summer home.  Last March we visited Biltmore Estates in North Carolina which was built by his brother George Vanderbilt.

Can you picture the horse drawn carriages coming down the drive, going under this entrance and letting Victorian era people out?  The third floor contained 30 bedrooms for staff.  The house was lived in until 1934 when Mrs. Vanderbilt died at the age of 89.  Her daughter Gladys then leased it to the Preservation Society of Newport County.  Her daughter Sylvia ultimately sold it to the Society in 1972 but it was left that the third floor would always be private.  Some of Cornelius's great grand children still summer there.

This was the view from the back terrace.

And this is the back door that looks out to the ocean.

This was a children's play house on the property.

The next mansion was Kingscote.  As you've probably figured out by now, inside pictures were not allowed, but if you go to the links, you'll see some along with the mansion's history.

This is what used to be the carriage house and stable.

The next one was Chateau-sur-Mer, which means Castle by the Ocean.  This was one of the few used as a year round home.

All of these houses had one of these entrances for the horses and carriage to drop off guests.

This was the arch at the exit.

 

 This was another interesting mansion, but not on our tour, so we just stopped long enough to take a picture.

The next one we visited was The Elms.  This was designed to copy a chateau in France for coal baron Edward Julius Berwind. 

The era when people could afford these huge summer homes was before income taxes.  There were either rich or poor people and not much in the middle.

Look at how huge this tree was on the property.  It's a European Copper Beech.  It is 50-60' tall and has a spread of 35-45 feet.  These mansions all had rare trees and bushes.

The back gardens, gazeebos and carriage house all looked awesome.

This was from way in the back by the carriage house, you can see the house way in the center.

The gazeebos were at either end of this wall.

This is the back of the house.

I loved this bench, I can see the ladies in their long dresses getting some fresh air waiting for their drivers to get the carriage.

I love the story of Rosecliff.  An Irish immigrant, James Graham Fair, went to California during the Gold Rush.  He and his partner found the largest ever silver mine and became millioaires.  His daughter bought a wooden cottage in Newport and when she got married she decided to make it larger while she and her husband were in Europe.  She was so anxious to have her first party that even though the house wasn't finished, she covered the unfinished portions with lots of flowers and had her party.  That door on the left is through the dining room, behind which there's a billiard room. The kitchens were usually in the basement, they had pantries next to the kitchen for the butler and servers to serve from. I often felt like I was playing Clue going through these houses.

That section in the middle was totally ballroom.  It measured 40x80, the largest ballroom in any of these mansions.  Several movies were filmed here, or parts of them, the latest being "27 Dresses".

This is a view of the back, the yard goes right up to the water.

We saw several private homes from the back yard.

See the rooftop in the middle?  That's The Breakers.

I also caught this, my favorite picture.  See the dogs playing on the edge of the water?  We watched them chase each other in and out of the water, I think the light one is a golden and the black one is a lab.

This is the side.

Don found this pet gravesight.

 We didn't visit the Marble House since it was built by the same people as The Breakers and the Biltmore House.  This was owned by a third Vanderbilt brother, William.  After a while it gets a little redundant.  This one was built of 500,000 cubic feet of marble.