Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island

 Marble House

 The front doors were enormous!

 Dining Room ceiling detail

 Dining Room

 Dining Room the chairs weighed about 80lbs and required a butler to help you get seated

 Dining Room ceiling

 Marble Hallway

 The study was a reasonable size

 Ceiling detail in the study

 Looking from the main hallway back toward the front doors

 This is the ceiling in the medieval room that was brought from Europe

 Detail of the stained glass in the medieval room

 The same view with different light filter on the camera

 Parlor ceiling detail

 Parlor

 Upstairs sitting room

 This is the daughters room. Her mother raised her to become European royalty. She eventually married into European aristocracy

 This is the daughter after she married in her crown

 The guest room. This room hosted a single guest since the house was built. The future son-inlaw (European Royalty) stayed here when he came to propose marriage to the daughter.

 This is the accompanying sitting room for the guest room

 These two rooms were for the two sons in the family. Observe that they are not nearly as elaborate as their sister's room.

Marble House- This house was built after Mr. Vanderbilt agreed to have the deed placed solely in his wife's name. She divorced him a few years later. She was the first woman to marry a Vanderbilt of this generation and the first to divorce. She heavily supported the right for women to vote and looking at the decoration of the rooms of her children it is interesting that the daughter was treated to a nicer décor. The daughter was also carefully groomed as a child and was forced to wear contraptions that would make her back straight. It is safe to say that Mrs. Vanderbilt was determined that her daughter was going to become European royalty in order to legitimize the Vanderbilt name in society. All of her work paid off her daughter married and moved to Europe.
It is interesting that Mrs. Vanderbilt remarried after her divorce and used Marble house as a closet of sorts to store her clothing and other items. During that period Marble house was used as the laundry facility for the family since the equipment was far superior to the house that her second husband owned.
Although this house was pretty and unique, I couldn't help feeling that I was in a mausoleum with so much marble everywhere. The hallway in particular felt very mausoleum like.

Newport, Rhode island

We took a one day excursion over to Newport, Rhode Island one day to see the houses of the gilded age along the coast. We visited two of the houses, The Breakers built by Cornelius Vanderbilt, II and Marble House which was built for Mr and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt. The two houses were built by brothers, but the outcome was completely different. The Breakers was constructed over a two year period to replace a previous house that had burned unexpectedly. Marble house was patterned after the palaces in France and was intended by Mrs. Vanderbilt to encourage the families acceptance into the high society of Europe. The plan worked for her daughter became a countess and lived in Europe.

The architecture in Newport was absolutely beautiful and many of the homes are being maintained by a local preservation society. It was interesting that these houses were considered summer cottages and were occupied six to eight weeks out of the year. The breakers without a doubt is the most magnificent of the two homes and inspires the feeling of an Italian villa

The Breakers

 This is the enormous entry gate to the house

 After entering the gate this is the view of the house

 This is one of four chandeliers in the entrance hall which had a ceiling painted to look like the sky

 This is a painting of Mr Vanderbilt who owned the house

 This is a stained glassed ceiling that was repurposed in the house. It was originally in the Vanderbilt's mansion in New York city, but was removed during a remodel and then installed when the Breaker was built

 This is one of the most ornate dining room ceilings I have ever seen.

 Detail of the ceiling in the Dining Room

 this is a detail on the wall above door or window

 This massive fireplace was at one end of the dining room

 Full view of the dining room

 This chandelier was huge, but it was not alone it had a twin right beside it

 Detail of the wall and ceiling in the dining room

 Another detail of the ceiling in the dining room

 This is looking out on the covered portion of the terrace, notice the ornately decorated ceiling

 Another view from the covered terrace

 This is the ceiling in the entrance hall which was designed to feel like a courtyard in an Italian villa

 This portrait of Mrs. Vanderbilt is the focal point of the main staircase and was absolutely beautiful

 This is the ceiling in what I call the silver room

 This is a detail of the walls in this room. It was thought that they were made of silver, but it never tarnished. After investigation by curators it was discovered that they are made of platinum which is an equally expensive metal

 The silver room

 This view brings a little bit of the ceiling into the picture. It was an awesome room and would make a great place for a morning cup of coffee and a newspaper. I doubt that the Vanderbilts ever used the room in that way, but it is a nice thoughtT

 This was Daryl's favorite room in the public areas of the house. It is the music room and was exquisite

 This was a sitting room in a rich green color

 This was a dark room, but it had a comfortable at home feel like a home office or study. It would be easy to imagine Mr. Vanderbilt in this room.

 Another view of the music room. Mr Vanderbilt played the violin and Mrs. Vanderbilt played the piano

 Views of the entry hall. It was set up  for a concert with a temporary stage in front of the staircase with two grand pianos. It would have been a grand experience to have witnessed a concert in this house.

 This was the Vanderbilt's bathroom on the second floor

 This bedroom was absolutely beautiful and was designed for an heiress. Gertrude Vanderbilt was 19 years old when the house was completed and this was her bedroom.

 This is a portrait of Gertude Vanderbilt. She would later marry into the Whitney family and go on to become a famous sculptor and found the Whitney museum of Art in New York City.

This is the upstairs covered balcony

 The view of the Atlantic ocean from the balcony

 The chairs are pushed to the side because of the tourists in the house, but it was not difficult to imagine what it would

 this view would be awesome all day long

 Notice the rooms have numbers on the door

 This is a bedroom and bath on the second floor

 the view over the grand staircase

 The kitchen was huge!

 Christa's mother Glynda and Christa beside the Breakers

 The flowers were so colorful and pretty

 This is the back terrace that faces the ocean.

 Detail of the "V" for Vanderbilt in the frieze of the house

Distant view of the frieze with the "V" in it

The Breakers is an amazing house and was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt who designed most of the homes that the Vanderbilt's were to build during the gilded age.