Day 06: Providence - Newport day trip

Today's day trip was to Newport, RI. Now I'll be honest and admit that my only knowledge of Newport was based on growing up in Australia in the late 70's and 80's; and particularly in 1983 when Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand for the Royal Perth Yacht Club, was the first successful challenger in 132 years to win the America's Cup Yachting Regatta from the New York Yacht Club, which sails out of Newport, RI

View from the car window of the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge

Our little day trip was going to concentrate on the Newport Mansions - preserved historic properties that trace Newport architectural heritage. All up we visited five of the historic houses.

We started at "THE ELMS" - the summer residence of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind of Philadelphia and New York. Mr. Berwind made his fortune in the Pennsylvania coal industry.  The house was modeled after the mid-18th century French chateau d'Asnieres (c.1750) outside Paris; and construction was completed in 1901 at a cost reported at approximately $1.4 million.

Next up "CHATEAU-SUR-MER" - completed in 1852 it was built in an Italianate-style villa for China trade merchant William Shepard Wetmore. Mr. Wetmore died in 1862, leaving the bulk of his fortune to his son, George Peabody Wetmore, who in later life had a distinguished political career as Governor of Rhode Island and as United States Senator.  In the 1870's the house was remodeled and redecorated in the Second Empire French style.

Then it was on to "ROSECLIFF" - commissioned by Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs in 1899, the house was modeled after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat of French kings at Versailles. The house was completed in 1902, at a reported cost of $2.5 million. Scenes from several films have been shot on location at here, including The Great Gatsby, True Lies, Amistad and 27 Dresses.

Our second last location was the "MARBLE HOUSE" - built between 1888 and 1892 as the summer house for Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt. The house was inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles, with a reported cost in contemporary press accounts of $11 million, of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble. Upon its completion, Mr. Vanderbilt gave the house to his wife Alva as a 39th birthday present.  They subsequently divorced in 1895 and Alva remarried.  Following the death of her second husband in 1908, she reopend Marble House and added a Chinese Tea House on its seaside cliffs, where she hosted rallies for women's suffrage.

Our final house for the day was "THE BREAKERS" (sadly by the time we arrived it was already dark so we missed out on seeing the spectacular facade in its fully glory as well as the impressive cliff top views) - the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central Railroad.  In 1885 he purchased a wooden house called "The Breakers". In 1893, a villa was commissioned to replace the earlier wood-framed house which was destroyed by fire the previous year. An international team of craftsmen and artisans created a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin.

It's hard to believe that many of these spectacular were only used for 6-8 weeks during summer. 

After leaving Newport, we then headed to the Providence airport to pick up Katya (K).