New Port Rhode Island: Summer Cottages Built By The Industrialists Of The Gilded Age
Friday, November 27th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Rhode Island is home to some astonishing summer cottages. RI property management has lost many of these as they have become museums. During the passage of time property management RI has collected a million tales to tell. During America’s gilded age, the period between 1865 and 1901, robber barons dominated industry and the accumulation of wealth was often vaunted. One of the favorite ways of vaunting wealth was to purchases a summer home in New Port Rhode Island. These summer homes where enormous mansions that stated loud and clear that they were party of the well moneyed class. Some of these mansions has become part of the national imagination , seen as sets for several renowned films. While the Great Gatsby was set on Long Island, the 1974 film used the Mansions in New Port. A few of these buildings have interesting stories.
The Breakers is a so called cottage that the Vanderbilt’s built. The Vanderbilt family made their money in Steamships and Railroads. After the wooden house burnt to the ground in 1892 Cornelius Vanderbilt commissioned a cottage of 70 rooms. It has nearly 65,000 square feet of floor plan. Calling the building a cottage is a bit like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch, or referring to Everest as a mound. It was designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt. On entering the Great Hall, a statue of Hunt can be seen above one of the six doors surrounding the Great Hall. Hunt has some impressive statue friends as the other doors have above them Dante, Apollo, Galileo, and the artist that created the statues, Karl Bitter. The Breakers is furnished with period pieces. The Breakers represents the quintessential example of the Gilded Age lifestyle of the rich. New Port was the center of the affluent social class during the summer, and the Breakers was its beating heart. The mansion now belongs to the Preservation Society.
The Kingscote Mansion was one of the original so called summer cottages constructed. The style is Gothic Revival and is credited for bringing that style back. The mansion has arches, gothic towers, and ornate trim. It was perhaps one of the original cottages to encourage the gathering of the wealthy. The mansion is now open to the public.
Chateau-Sur-Mer is another mansion in the New Port Style, lavish and nothing close to subtle. Chateau-sur-Mer was perhaps the first Mansion to truly usher in the gilded age. It was constructed in 1851 and renovated by Richard Morris Hunt. Great events were always happening during the summer season with guests numbering in the thousands. For many years the mansion was without peer in size until the Vanderbilt’s arrived. Chateau-sur-Mer is a classic Victorian style mansion all the way down to the furniture, wall paper, stenciling and ceramics. The house belongs to the Preservation Society.
Theresa Fair Oelrich’s mansion, Rosecliff, was renowned for some of the very elaborate and lavish parties that she would host. Theresa loved Rosecliff to host magical dinners with entertainment. The mansion itself has been seen in popular culture as it has been the set such films as the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby, True Lies, The Betsey, and Amistad. All these stunning homes are now part of the Preservation Society and capture a specific time and place in American History.
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