Drive Report: None - Cheesy Tourist Day #2 in the Newport area.
The third son (George Washington) was working on the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC at the same time Breakers was under construction here in Newport. Amazing. We toured it some years ago on the way back from the East coast. So, with these two tours today, we've hit the trifecta of the Vanderbilt brother's mansions. Check that one off the bucket list...
Let’s get right to it.
This would be The Marble House. Marble from all over the world was used in its construction. They even developed a method to take a slab of marble and cut it down the middle so that the two slabs could be opened like pages of a book - referred to as "bookmatching". The two "pages" then have mirror images of the grain in the stone. Apparently this was an expensive and time consuming process, and it was used extensively throughout the mansion. Cost in the 1890s when constructed - 11 million.
The dining room. Lots of gold gilding in this room. The chairs (without arms) weighed in at 75 pounds and were gold gilt. The family ate lunch here every day. Mrs. Vanderbilt speaking to the children only in French, which was their first language.
Check out the stone work on this mantle. It reminded us of the work we saw on churches in Europe when we were there for our 35th anniversary.
This chandelier hung in the main entry. Note the mural on the ceiling above. Again - gold gilding.
This would be Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom. It was the largest in the house. But then, when Mr. Vanderbilt presented her with the plan for the mansion for her 39th birthday, she said she would only undertake the project if it were given to her outright rather than be in his name. Mr. Vanderbilt agreed. Three years after its completion, she divorced him (quite the scandal at the time) and a year later married his best friend - who had the mansion down the block.
This was Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom - in keeping with the custom of separate bedrooms for married couples at the time.
This was the only guest bedroom in the house.
The kitchen stove - all cast iron. The family was in the mansion for about 6 weeks every summer. During that time, the stove required 30 tons of coal to keep everyone fat and happy.
A couple of other side notes to The Marble House. The Vanderbilt's only daughter, Consuelo, had a rather opulent bedroom as well. But according to her, she was allowed none of her personal effects in the room. It had to remain as decorated by her mother. She said she herself felt like a project her Mother had constructed to her own liking (paraphrased). By contrast, the two Vanderbilt sons of this union had very pedestrian rooms. They were small, lacking anything remotely resembling opulence, at the end of a short narrow hallway and right next to the servant's stairwell. Susan and I were both struck by the contrast between the rooms. Frankly, we both thought Mrs. Vanderbilt sounded like quite a piece of work.
Then, after a lunch that was too expensive and lacking in taste at the Chinese Tea House on the grounds of The Marble House it was on to Breakers. Yes - that's right. A Chinese tea house. Mrs. Vanderbilt had it constructed near the shore and only used in one year before she divorced and remarried. BTW - she kept The Marble House after the divorce and left all her clothes there since her new husband was a horse guy and she didn't want her clothes to smell of horses. Her new husband? Mr. Belmont. Think Belmont Stakes - part of the Triple Crown of horse racing. Yeah - they started it.
Anyway - back to Breakers...
This is it from the front. A generally more impressive residence, at least in my estimation, than The Marble House. Cost when constructed in the 1890s - 8 million.
And for that 8 million, this Vanderbilt family got a main entry that takes your breath away.
This may give a better sense of scale - looking down from the second floor balcony. Yes - we may be 40 feet up, but we're still on the second floor.
This is the dining room at Breakers. Check out those chandeliers. Electricity being an upstart, and somewhat unreliable at the time, Mr. Vanderbilt had these made to work as either gas lamps or electric lamps. As opposed to Mrs Vanderbilt (his sister-in-law) handling construction matters in The Marble House, Mr. Vanderbilt handled those chores during construction of Breakers.
A room for the guys - right off the main entry. The reader will note that The Marble House lacked any such amenity.
This would be the music room in Breakers. The grand piano (which is barely visible over my left shoulder) was original to the house and dates to the 1820s. I wanted to pound out chopsticks, but Susan didn't think the other guests or the staff were prepared for my style. Oh - the nifty earmuffs we're wearing are those "walking tour" things all the mansions are using these days.
A fireplace with a gold gilt mirror above.
And check out this fireplace. It came from a 17th century French Chateau. The bottom of the mantle is 6'3". I could walk under that thing with 3" to spare. My Lord - it must be 10' wide.
This was Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom on the second floor. Note that the bedrooms at Breakers are far less opulent. The designer of the family spaces at Breakers was different than the one retained for The Marble House and had a different perspective. That's Susan walking out the door. She was all upset because she had to make the bed. Apparently guests aren't allowed to nap in the Vanderbilt mansion? How was I s'posed to know? BTW - they have some cranky docents here.
Mr. Vanderbilt's bathroom. Check out that tub. It was carved from a single piece of marble and was so thick that before Mr. Vanderbilt could deign to bathe in it, it had to be filled with hot water three times to sufficiently warm the marble, thus sparing his tender bottom from the cold. The Accounting Department here at The Thin Blue Ride would never approve such an expenditure. Certainly not the tub - and likely not the three fillings of hot water.
The back veranda just off the second floor. With no A/C at the time, these big open spaces under shade accompanied by large windows (behind me in the pic) were vital to making interior spaces livable in the summer when the families were here.
The kitchen at Breakers. Since the Vanderbilt's first mansion on the property burned down - necessitating the construction of Breakers - Mr. Vanderbilt was very cautious when it came to the kitchen. Note the hood over the oven on the wall.
The butler's pantry where the family's dishes and china were kept. The silver was locked up at night in a safe. Interestingly, the silver also traveled with the family.
Susan and I standing on the back "patio" of Breakers.
The view from the lawn behind Breakers. This lawn was large enough to build our house there twice over and still have room to spare.
After all that "mansioning" I needed some food. Beings we're this close to the ocean and that I love clam chowder, we hit a place one of our tour guides said had the best clam chowder in New England. After eating this, I don't know that I'd disagree. The name of the place? The Black Pearl. Sounds piratey. Everybody knows that pirates have the best clam chowder.
Till next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment