Located in the coastal town of Newport, the opulent mansions were once a summer playground for the obscenely rich, who did their best to outdo one another in home building and partying.
The Gilded Age
The mansions in Newport are not the first Gilded Age homes we’ve visited. We’ve toured the Biltmore in North Carolina and Hearst Castle in California. Both are grand, ostentatious, and very beautiful. We’ve also visited the former Gilded Age enclave of Jekyll Island, a well-preserved island retreat of cottages off the coast of Georgia.
These mansions, along with dozens more throughout the country, were built between the end of the Civil War and the early 1900s. The rapid expansion of railroads, along with the phenomenal growth of the oil, steel, and tobacco industries, made a small group of businessmen extraordinarily wealthy. A lack of government regulation allowed the powerful to squash competition, creating monopolies. And no personal income tax enabled the rich to become richer, while the poor became poorer.
Just a little over-the-top, don’t you think? The dining room in The Breakers mansion, Newport.
Although the term “Gilded Age” sounds elegant, it was coined by Mark Twain as a satirical reference to the corruption and poverty that lay beneath the era’s sparkling facade. I’ve heard it said that we’re currently living in Gilded Age 2.0. Although there aren’t mansions being built to quite the same level of extravagance, there certainly are similarities, including gross inequality in wealth distribution and the influence of corporate money in politics.
The Cliff Walk
It’s easy to understand why so many Gilded Age tycoons built their mansions in Newport. The rugged shoreline, vast blue expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, and cool breezes create an idyllic setting for a summer home. Most of the Newport elite came from New York City, and the coast was a welcome escape from the sweltering city.
The Cliff Walk
The Newport Cliff Walk, a 3.5-mile trail (7 miles round-trip), is unique in that it’s a National Recreation Trail in a National Historic District. The trail meanders past eleven Gilded Age mansions. But…you can’t get close up views of many of the mansions. Access is blocked by imposing stone and wrought iron fences. Nonetheless, the trail is a fun adventure along a picturesque path that hugs the cliff.
Sections of the trail are really rocky
Distant views of the mansions along the Cliff Walk
Tall fences prevent up-close views of the mansions
There’s an interesting tunnel on the trail
Rich People Outdoing Other Rich People
The nouveau riche believed they were the nobility of America, and they did their best to create castles similar to those they had seen in their European tours. They copied European architecture, decorated their mansions with furniture imported from Europe, dressed in the latest European fashions, and hosted elaborate social events. A competition to one-up each other ensued that lasted for decades.
You have to hand it to them. They really did a remarkable job of building their castles, down to the tiniest details. The mansions truly do rival anything I’ve seen in Europe. And since I think royalty in general is a ridiculous concept, I don’t really find the Gilded Age mansions in the U.S. any more egregious than castles elsewhere in the world.
The Breakers
Touring The Breakers
Eric decided he didn’t need to see another Gilded Age mansion, but I definitely needed to see a couple of them. I will rarely pass up an opportunity to visit a significant historical building, and I love critiquing the decor, LOL. The mansions are managed by the Newport Preservation Society, and tickets are required for touring the homes.
The most famous Cliff Walk mansion is The Breakers. Built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the Italian Renaissance-style home is the largest (140,000 square feet!) and most lavish of all of the Newport mansions. It looks like a cross between a palace and a cathedral, with glittering chandeliers, carved and painted ceilings, heavy velvet draperies, and ornate furniture.
The Great Hall, with 50 foot ceilings
The Music Room
The Billiards Room
Every square inch of ceiling is heavily decorated in the dining room
Every single surface of every single thing is decorated, and then gilded. There is no rest for the eyes. Except perhaps for the kitchen. I liked the simplicity of the kitchen and the dozens of copper pots hanging from the ceiling.
The kitchen in The Breakers. I thought it was the most attractive room in the mansion.
Touring Rosecliff
Rosecliff, another Gilded Age mansion, was built by a silver heiress and inspired by the Palace of Versailles. Compared to The Breakers, Rosecliff is a simple mansion of only 65,000 square feet. (Can you imagine?)
Rosecliff Mansion
Staircase in the entry hall of Rosecliff
The ballroom, with the ceiling painted to look like the sky
The euphoria of the Gilded Age didn’t last for long. The introduction of income tax and estate taxes combined with difficulties in finding servants made it impossible for the wealthy to continue to live with such blatant extravagance. The vast majority of Gilded Age mansions are no longer used as family homes, and few are still owned by the original families. Some fell to the wrecking ball, while others reopened as museums, including most of the mansions in Newport.
Biking The South Country Bike Path
With only two full days in Rhode Island, our only other activity was biking the William C. O’Neill Bike Path (also known as the South Country Bike Path), just a few miles from where we were staying at Fishermen’s Memorial State Park.
At the end of October, it was chilly…but not for the runners
The bike path passes through the Great Marsh
Where We Stayed
We were in Rhode Island the last week in October, and Fishermen’s Memorial State Park wasn’t looking too scenic, with no leaves on the trees and bleak days. I’m sure it’s much more attractive in other seasons. But we were happy with our stay in an electric and water site. The campground was peaceful, cell service was good, and it was well-located for what we wanted to do. Not sure if we’ll make it back to Rhode Island, but if we do, we would stay there again.
Fishermen’s Memorial State Park
WOW! Love your new home!
Ha Ha!
😂😂 Thanks, Bob…we’ve been hard at work on the renovations! Glad you like what we’ve done with the place, LOL.
Plus ça change, plus la méme chose. Now the nouveau riche can fly into outer space, and dominate our lives in very different ways.
It looks like Eric is riding on the left. Is this a holdover from British rule?
Blessings to you both.
Sheila, that is so true…the more things change, the more they stay the same. (And I love that you wrote it in French. :-)) Seems like the uber-wealthy can find all kinds of insane ways to spend money, doesn’t it?
You are very observant…Eric is riding on the left, but that’s only because a pack of runners was coming his way. Love to you and Bruce. We miss you two!
It’s probably a nod in the right direction that that level of over-the-top extravagant housing didn’t last long. Not that extreme wealth doesn’t still exist…..maybe less gilded ornamentation :-) Thanks for taking me along on your tours, it really is fascinating to me to see what people thought was tasteful. The ceilings are incredible art. I agree their choice of location is hard to beat. I love that coastline!
Jodee, touring those Gilded Age mansions really made me think about how the extremely wealthy spend money today. Wild extravagance obviously still runs rampant, just perhaps not with quite so much gilding. Even though I would never want to live in one of those mansions, I find the architecture and the attention to detail fascinating. And the location, as you said, is fabulous!
I went to see my niece in Rhode Island Sept 2019. We went to Newport and saw all of those houses. We didn’t go in them, so you helped me to see what they did look like Thank you. Very beautiful.
I’m so glad I could show you a bit of the interior of the mansions, Christine. They really are beautiful, in a very extravagant way. How interesting that you were in Rhode Island in September 2019. We were there just a month after you! I hope you’re doing well.
I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like to live in one of those ostentatious mansions! Can you imagine their power bill!!
Haha!!! I hadn’t even thought about the electric bill, Janna. It must be ridiculous! I like cozy spaces, so I would NOT be happy rattling around in one of those enormous mansions.
Wowza, so over the top! But always interesting to see how the ultra rich live(d).
LOL! Wowza is right, Lisa. Even though I’m appalled by the way the wealthy flaunted their riches, I’m also interested in the architecture of the wanna-be castles of the Gilded Age. If you ever get the chance to visit, Hearst Castle isn’t too far from you, and I think it’s my favorite of all.
Good point about castles and egregiousness, on both sides of the pond. As for comparisons between their Gilded Age and ours, wouldn’t “Of Velvet Drapes and Penis Rockets” be a great title? 😊 Also, enjoyed the shoutout to that bike trail—it’s one of our faves!
LOL!! There’s another book for you to write, Gretchen! It is just insane to think of the myriad ways that the extremely rich choose to spend their wealth. It often seems to be so extravagant, and so wasteful. As far as the concept of royalty…that is just ridiculous, in my opinion.
How cool that you know about that bike trail! You seem to know about all of the places we’ve visited on the East Coast!
Sounds to me like we are in another guilded age for sure with no end in sight, where a handful are obscenely wealthy with little government regulation if any and pay no taxes. Makes smoke come out of my ears.
I once lived in Newport in a boarding house just off the Cliff Walk. It was wonderful. I had a resident’s pass to the mansions and could go any time but I likeed the cliff walk and the constantly available fresh lobster best of all. I don’t remember the tunnel but then this was in the late 60’s. I wondered then and I wonder now how they manage to have enough money for the upkeep on those mansions and their grounds. David and I stayed in Fishermen’s when I took him there to see where I’d lived prior to meeting him.
I agree with you, Sherry. This definitely seems to be Gilded Age 2.0. I understand that some people have an incredible talent for making money, and I think they should be able to enjoy their riches. But it is NOT okay for them to evade paying taxes, when all the rest of us pay taxes.
How interesting that you lived in Newport! You must have visited all of the mansions, but of course you liked the Cliff Walk best of all. It’s a beautiful walk.
There is a walkway similar to the Cliff Walk on the Island of Palm Beach. It’s a beautiful waterfront walkway that stretches several miles, and the landward side is almost completely made up of solid walls, with a few wrought iron fences in between covered by hedges. There’s no chance at all of seeing the homes. I assume the idea was imported from Newport.
Speaking of importing ideas, I find it so interesting that all these captains of industry copied European styling so slavishly. Did they copy English or French or German business models? No. Did they copy European technology? For the most part, no. Yet in matters of style the most successful Americans couldn’t imagine that there could be new American forms of architecture and decorative arts. It’s a strange sort of cultural self-deprecation. Maybe I feel a little bit sorry for these lost souls who had no independent taste?
Great photos! and humor as always :) Yeah, it’s all a bit over the top, and if I lived in these gilded places, I’d hang out in the kitchen.
Me, too, Teri! I like small, cozy, spaces and would not have been comfortable at all in those cavernous gilded rooms. I always seem to like the kitchens best in these mansions. I wouldn’t mind having a personal chef, but I would hang out in the kitchen with the chef, LOL.
That’s an interesting question, Shannon. As far as business and technology, the U.S. was obviously far ahead of the rest of the world. I wonder what it would have looked like if they had come up with alternative ways of presenting themselves as royalty? I don’t feel sorry for them one bit, LOL. (Although you make a good point about feeling compassion for those lost souls.) They had way too much money and not enough sense. The whole idea of royalty has always been absurd to me. Still, I want to know what it would have looked like had they been more creative…
Holy moly! I’ve visited Hearst Castle and viewed the Biltmore from afar, but I’ve never seen the mansions along the coast of RI, so thanks for the tour. We certainly are in Gilded Age 2.0 and, I’m afraid there is no remedy… at least right now. Business regulations and fair taxation have somehow become anti-American. The bike trail looks delightful… I love those sculptures.
Janis, I loved Hearst Castle. I think the architecture is beautiful, and perfectly suited to the California Coast. The mosaic swimming pool there is extraordinary! It’s still my favorite of all of the Gilded Age mansions we’ve visited.
It seems there are many of us in agreement that we’re in a Gilded Age 2.0. I have no issue with people who are good at making money enjoying their money, but the gross inequities in our society are not okay. The wealthy need to pay their taxes, for starters. That would go a long way toward making things more equitable.
The cliff walk is beautiful and a neat way to experience Newport’s gorgeous coastline. I’ve enjoyed it multiple times. I have not, however, gone inside these mansions, so thank you for the tour.
Speaking of which, the chandelier in the dining room at the Breakers probably weighs more than my house.
These people were ridiculous. And the similarly situated modern versions of these people are also ridiculous. To think of all the things they could spend their money on…
I do love the staircase railing at Rosecliff though. I approve of that expenditure. :)
Laura, I didn’t know you had walked the Cliff Walk! I’m glad I could show you the over-the-top inside of a couple of the mansions. Honestly, I would go back and tour more of them, because I love critiquing interior design, LOL. The chandeliers are extraordinary, and I think they’re quite beautiful, even though I have absolutely no place for a chandelier like that. Now that you mention it, I wonder how much those things weigh? Makes me think twice about standing underneath one.
Yes, those people were ridiculous. And so are the modern versions who spend their fortunes on trying to out-do one another, including stupid space missions.
We did the Cliff Walk in 2001 when we visited Rhode Island and really enjoyed the hike along the waterfront but didn’t go into any of the mansions. The photos remind me of some of the grand estates in Europe and the Ottoman Era palaces in Turkey. (That trip will be forever linked in my mind with 9/11 as our aircraft flew by the twin towers on the 10th, the pilot dipping the plane’s wings to give us a glimpse of the towers as the sunset painted them gold.)
Oh, Erin, what a memory you have of the Twin Towers on September 10th! That is a beautiful and poignant remembrance.
The interiors of the Gilded Age mansions remind me of estates that I’ve seen in Europe. So interesting that they also remind you of the Ottoman Era palaces in Turkey. The European estates obviously must have been influenced by the palaces in Turkey. And then the Gilded Age mansions were influenced by the European estates…I like seeing the connections.
Laurel, if you liked the kitchen in the Breakers the best, then your sense of style obviously doesn’t tend toward Early Snob. The only reason the kitchen was not lavishly decorated was probably because the owners never set foot in there. No reason to waste money on the servants, right?
Thanks for the tip on Fishermen’s Memorial. When I was doing some research on Rhode Island a couple of years ago, it looked like slim pickens in the choice of State Parks.
Mary, my style most definitely would not be approved by the Gilded Age snobs, LOL. I think you’re absolutely right…the kitchen was merely the place for the servants. But I think it was one of the most appealing rooms in the mansion! I thought the same thing when we toured the Biltmore.
Fishermen’s Memorial is a wonderful state park, and it’s in a great location for exploring Newport and also Narragansett. You would enjoy the bike trail!
Laurel,
I couldn’t imagine owning one of those mansions, nor would I want to. I wouldn’t mind renting one for a weekend keg party featuring Toby Keith, Brooks and Dunn, and Reba to show those snobs what fun was all about.
Your pictures of the interiors are fascinating, and I loved the tunnel picture. Have a great weekend! Joe
Haha!! I hope we’re invited to your party, Joe. Many years ago—back in 1987—I went to the Newport Folk Festival and had a fabulous time. So hey, why not a country music fest in one of the mansions?
I really liked that tunnel photo, too. It was hard to take photos of the interiors of the mansions because I don’t have a super wide-angle lens, but I’m glad I could show you a bit of the layout so that you can plan the kegger, LOL.
Loved seeing the inside of those homes without having to do the tours. Thanks, Laurel. We were in Newport back in 2015 I think on a New England Cruise. Had a day to walk the Cliff Walk and view those mansions from the other side of the fence. I remember being aghast at the huge display of over the top wealth. I think there is more of that on the east coast than we are used to seeing out west. Here, the vast wealth is hidden in places like Bozeman, or Aspen, or hidden hills of the Central California coast. Or who knows where else that I haven’t explored yet…but somehow Newport really struck me like the castles in Europe as you said. Looking forward to how you visit Boston in an RV!
Sue, it does seem like the East Coast has an abundance of Gilded Age mansions and enclaves. But one of the most fabulous that we’ve visited (and yes, it truly was fabulous) was Hearst Castle in San Simeon. There was something about it that didn’t feel ridiculous to me. I found it really beautiful, although of course, it was excessive, just like all of those places are excessive. Seriously, who needs 165 rooms? Nobody.
We had a perfect location for visiting Boston!
If you get the opportunity to watch The Gilded Age on HBO max it is quite good. The kitchen here and the one on the show look very similar as well as the ballroom.
Karen, we don’t have HBO, but I’m thinking of signing up just so we can watch The Gilded Age. You are VERY observant…the show was filmed in Newport because the mansions there are intact. Many of the Gilded Age mansions in New York City (where the show takes place) have been demolished. I’m glad to hear from you, and hope you’re doing well.
Lucky you. Thanks for taking me along.
K~
Thanks for traveling along with us, Kathryn. I would love to return for another trip to New England!
You certainly managed to see and do quite a lot for only two days. Love the hike along the rocks and water. Great photo of you and Eric in the tunnel:) I’m with Eric on seeing more mansions. Glad you enjoyed the toured.
Pam, you would have enjoyed the 7-mile hike along the cliff trail. No elevation gain, but plenty of rock scrambling in places to keep it interesting! I might have seen enough Gilded Age mansions now, but who knows what will happen the next time I have one right in front of me? I love architecture and critiquing interior design, LOL.
Always an interesting thought about need vs. greed and, really, if either of those things exist at all. Matters of degree, to be sure.
While I don’t often indulge in tours of such places, I, too, like to see them. Whatever else folks think about them, they are stunning, and when I imagine myself living in one, it seems like it would be peaceful somehow. I guess a life of such “leisure” would be peaceful, wouldn’t it? Who hasn’t imagined a life in which all the hard stuff is done for you, leaving you to all the enjoyable pasttimes? A perpetual childhood. Would I be satisfied with that for long? Probably not, ha! But it’s a fun daydream sometimes.
Joodie, I’ve wondered what it would be like to live a life of such leisure, too—where every possible need is attended to. I would not like living in a household full of servants (that would just feel WEIRD!). But I wouldn’t mind having a cook, haha!! I love good food and figuring out new recipes, but day-to-day cooking, not so much. It’s a good thing Eric likes to cook. :-))