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The Breakers Mansion, Newport RI | |
| Certainly the most grandiose of Newport's mansions and most popular with visitors is The Breakers, an Italian Renaissance palace that is nothing short of sumptuous. | ||
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Cornelius Vanderbilt called for the finest marble, and he got it. The marble columns in the two-story-high Great Hall have capitals carved of alabaster. Priceless tapestries, fine mosaic work, irreplaceable paintings, and ornate furniture testify to the wealth of The Breakers' owners and their desire to flaunt it. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, who did a great many buildings in New England and particularly in Newport, the Breakers was built in only two years—hard to believe! The original cost was something like $11 million, equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars today. The Music Room was built and sumptuously decorated in real gold by artists and artisans in France, then disassembled, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, and reassembled here in Newport. The huge classical columns in the grand Dining Room are made of pure alabaster. Believe it or not, my favorite time to visit The Breakers is...at Christmas! Yes! The huge palazzo is sumptuously decorated with hundreds of poinsettias grown in the mansion's own greenhouses, and Victorian-style Christmas trees and wreaths. Performers fill the Great Hall with music, and you can wander at will, sip eggnog, and nibble Christmas cookies. No waiting in line to get in, either. More... Besides the mansion, there is a children's cottage on the grounds (included in the price of admission to the mansion). The Breakers carriage house and stables, built to hold Vanderbilt's luxurious coaches and fine horses, is a separate complex nearby. The Breakers
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Above, grandest of Newport's
palatial mansions, The Breakers of
Cornelius Vanderbilt.
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