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The Astors' Beechwood, Newport RI |
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In the palatial Bellevue Avenue residence called Beechwood, members of the Astor family enjoyed their summers. |
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The house of William B Astor at 580 Bellevue Ave was built in 1856. Beechwood was the family's "summer cottage" during the golden age of American tycoons. Unlike most other Newport mansions, Beechwood today is a living history museum, still alive with the sights, sounds and people of the golden age, as actors of the Beechwood Theater Company in period costumes portray characters who might have lived in such a summer cottage during Newport's gilded age. In other mansions you can see where the tycoons lived. In Beechwood, you can see how they lived—and who they were. The mansion offers a variety of daytime and evening programs, including the customary daytime tours by characters in costume, but also evening candlelight tours, musical concerts and salons. Want to live like an Astor, at least for a day? The mansion is available for rent for weddings and special parties. William B Astor, son of John Jacob Astor, took over his father's real estate and tea businesses, and took advantage of the burgeoning city of New York, growing along with it. When he died in 1875, his holdings included more than a thousand properties in New York estimated to be worth at least $100 million (equal to about $13 billion today). Astor's Beechwood Mansion
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Above, William B
Astor's Beechwood.
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