The Towers is a historic structure located at 35 Ocean Road in Narragansett, Rhode Island, USA. It is the only remnant of the Narragansett Pier Casino built in the 1880s. On November 25, 1969, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
History (1883–1900)
The Narragansett Pier Casino was the center of social life in Narragansett during the late 19th century. The Narragansett Pier Casino rivaled the Newport Casino’s popularity as a resort for the social elite until it burned to the ground in 1900.
Built between 1883–1886, the Narragansett Pier Casino was a fine example of Victorian Shingle style architecture (a variation of Queen Anne style architecture in the United States), designed by McKim, Mead, and White. The Casino offered a variety of sports, including boating, tennis, billiards, bowling, cards, and shooting, restaurants, stores, reading rooms, a theater, a bandstand, a ballroom, and a beautiful beach.
The Narragansett Pier Casino thrived during the Gilded Age until it burned down during the Great Fire of September 12, 1900. That day, a fire broke out in the neighboring Rockingham Hotel. The flames spread quickly to the Casino, leaving only the granite walls of The Towers standing. More recently Hurricane Sandy has uncovered the foundation and part of the old boardwalk belonging to the old casino that had been buried by sand.
Recent history
Today, having survived a number of fires, nor'easters, and hurricanes, the Narragansett Towers are the only remaining part of the original Narragansett Pier Casino. One of the most recognizable landmarks in Narragansett, The Towers currently hosts weddings, dances, dinners, plays, and fashion shows. Its location, adjacent to Narragansett town beach, makes it an ideal venue for social events.

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Hazard Castle 1846-1849, 1884: This is a large, rambling, 2½-story stone dwelling with gable-roofed ells, conical-roofed polygonal towers, and a square, stone tower with battered walls and a battlemented parapet, It is set on more than 38 acres on Ocean Road. The building was begun in 1846 as the main house for Joseph Peace Hazard’s Seaside Farm and was supposedly modeled after an abbey which Hazard had seen in England. The tower, which is 105 feet tall, is an important local landmark, dedicated to the memory of Hazard’s ancestors. It was completed in 1884.
The property was purchased by the Providence Catholic Diocese from the Hazard family in 1951.
Hazard was a spiritualist and originally planned the tower as a platform from which he could more easily communicate with the spirit world. Hazard’s Castle was apparently altered in the early 20th century by the addition of some Tudor-style elements. The structure now houses Middlebridge School, a private boarding school for children with learning difficulties. A large, two-story, flat-roofed brick wing has been added to the south side.
Several other structures including a barn, a quaint brick garage, and shingled residence housing two guest apartments also are on the property. Adjacent to the Castle is a 21,000-square-foot retreat center with a full cafeteria, meeting space and chapel, which served for years as the home of the Our Lady of Peace Spiritual Center. This part of the property was sold in 2014 to Teach a Man to Fish Foundation, a nonprofit based in Orange, Calif. Specimen trees planted in a grid formation, stone walls, and meadows complement the pastoral setting.
http://www.pierwalkingtours.org/
“Hazard Castle” is considered one of the most significant historic buildings in seaside Narragansett. Joseph Peace Hazard began construction of this distinctive stone structure in 1846. The Hazard family was among the early settlers of Rhode Island and was involved in the textile manufacturing trade. Joseph Peace Hazard was one of the first to see the potential of nearby Narragansett Pier as a popular resort.
Purchased by the Catholic Diocese from the Hazard family in 1951, the property has most recently been home to the Our Lady of Peace Spiritual Center.
The new owners, Middlebridge School, plan on using the property as their main campus in the near future. Middlebridge School is a coeducational boarding and day high school program for students 13 to 19 with learning differences.
https://www.christiesrealestate.com/

Hazard Castle

Dunmere is a historic estate at 560 Ocean Road in Narragansett, Rhode Island.
The estate, which originally included a 3+1⁄2-story Queen Anne/Stick style residence, gatehouse, and other buildings, was designed by John M. Merrick and was built in 1883. Dunmere was commissioned by Robert G. Dun (of Dun and Bradstreet fame) and served as his summer home until his death. It consisted of 13 acres (5.3 ha) with 500 feet (150 m) of ocean frontage. Major buildings included the main home, located close to the ocean, The Gardener's Cottage, located atop the hill, overlooking the property, the stable and the impressive stone archway, traversing Dunmere's entrance gates. In addition to a mosaic swimming pool and vast gardens, Dunmere featured a pond on the waterfront, man-made from an unsightly swamp at the same location. Following a massive and all-engulfing fire of the main house, the property has since been split into three residential properties. Only the Gardener's Cottage and entrance gates remain standing today.
The Dunmere gardener's cottage, gate and garden are the principal landscape elements and entrance features of Dunmere, a thirteen-acre estate that remain today. The unique entry, a rough stone masonry arch with turret and wrought iron gates, is situated slightly east of Ocean Road on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Above and to its south stands the Dunmere gardener's cottage, a picturesque granite masonry building with Romanesque and Queen Anne features. This sits high on a large stone outcropping about 150 feet from Ocean Road. Narragansett Bay is 600 feet to the east of the building.These structures are part of a larger designed landscape that includes garden terraces, fountains, an artificial lake, two gazebos, a stone-arched bridge, stone retaining walls and a shingled stable block. They were part of a landscape that once included a 3/4-stoiy Eastlake and Queen Anne shingled and clapboard mansion, a large greenhouse complex, and a billiard room and bowling alley. Unfortunately, these elements of the landscape have either been demolished or destroyed by fire. The carriage house, now located on a separate lot, has been converted into a residence. Principal features of the designed garden, however, survive as character-defining landscape features of the nominated property. The flower gardens on the upper terrace were laid out in a formal plan with intersecting paths and stairways to the lower terraces. A Victorian star-shaped flower bed was once located on the lower terrace, now replaced with lawn. A small ornamental stone bridge gives access to the granite ledges along the shoreline. Some of these features appear to have been added or updated after 1900, although the principal design features from the late 1880s remain, including the stone boundary walls.
An iron fishing stand used by Dun for bass fishing once stood at the water edge, and remnants of the iron support base still remain. A service/recreation complex of greenhouses, billiard room and bowling alley stood on the north side of the garden terrace along with the carriage house and stable block, behind a stone retaining wall. This wall forms the northern boundary of the property.
The large entrance gate to the estate is an elliptical, rough-cut granite arch with a small turret on the south side. On the north side of the gate, massive blocks of rough-cut, randomly coursed granite extend outward from a large natural granite outcrop to form the arch. On the opposite (south) side is a thirty-four foot tower. The uppermost level of the tower is corbeled. Above the corbeling of the tower are wooden brackets which support the rafters of the tower's conical roof. Originally, the roof was red terracotta tile, but at some unknown time these were replaced with wood shingles. Granite steps spiral around the exterior of the tower ending in a walkway across the arch to the granite ledge on the other side. Originally, there were pairs of gargoyles with wrought iron lanterns hanging from their mouths in the arches on each side. Within the wrought iron work of the large, hinged gates is the name of the estate, "Dunmere," in decorative script. Very little of the ironwork has deteriorated, and the condition of the gate and arch is good.
The gardener's cottage, as it was historically known, is a complexly massed, granite masonry and wood frame building with three major components. The original part of the building is a forty-three-foot, conical-roof tower of modified cylindrical, bottle-like form, constructed in 1883 as the estate's water tower. In 1889, a substantial dwelling for the gardener was added onto the east side of the water tower. This alteration corresponds with the expansion of the estate gardens at the same time and the relocation and reconstruction of several other estate outbuildings, including the greenhouses and carriage house. The dwelling addition is placed with its long axis running east-west. It is generally cruciform in plan, with compact wings covered by hip roofs anchored by a massive, granite central chimney. The roofs over the north, east, and south wings rise at similar pitch, meeting the central chimney at the same level. The hip roof over the west wing, connecting to the water tower, has a lower pitch and originally had a flat-deck widow's walk surrounded by a balustrade (now gone).
The house's basically simple overall form is elaborated by different configurations of the wings and the various bays, towers, oriels, and subsidiary cross gables added to it. Fourteen granite steps, carved in a shelf of exposed ledge in the 1880s, lead upward to the primary entrance to the gardener's cottage from the garden terraces below. At the top of this hewn staircase is a series of cobblestone terraces.
The building's towers and the main portion of the house are a mixture of rough-cut, rock-faced, pink and gray granite that is both regularly and irregularly coursed. Mortar joints are beaded. All of the windows have heavy granite sills and lintels. The battered base of the former water tower is granite. As the tower rises, it changes from masonry to shingled wooden construction at the roof line of the attached central block of the cottage. This change is marked by a corbel line in the masonry. The top of the tower had Romanesque arch openings with turned railings on the inside, below which was a double belt course of fish-scale shingles. Old photographs show the tower originally had a bell-shaped roof with a double gable balcony in the Eastlake style attached to the second story. The balcony was incorporated into the roof line of the gardener's cottage when it was built in 1889. It is not known when it was completely removed.
Originally, a large, circular windmill was located on top of the tower roof to draw water from a well 180 feet below ground up to a cistern located in the second story of the tower. The water was gravity-fed from this location to the greenhouses, main house, carriage house and fountains below. The windmill was rebuilt after the 1938 hurricane, but when it was blown down again in the 1954 hurricane, it was not replaced.
The asymmetrical front (south) elevation of the gardener's cottage, facing the garden, has a projecting wing with rounded corners near the center, a cylindrical tower at each end, and a large, rounded arch for the front entranceway located between the front (south) wing and water (west) tower. An oriel window above the entrance is built of rough faced granite. The base of the oriel window is also the keystone for the entrance arch. To the right of the door, within the arch, is a Romanesque double-hung window with a fleur-de-lis design. Both the rounded arch of the window and the sill are granite. On the first floor of the front wing are three pairs of triple-sash windows with Queen Anne details. Above, the second floor includes a projecting gable containing a triplet of double-hung, Queen Anne style windows, flanked by two, tiny, square, single-sash windows on each side. There is a corbel cornice along much of the roofline on this facade, and on the east tower as well.
The surviving elements of the estate were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Dunmere

Belcourt is a former summer cottage designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Construction was begun in 1891 and completed in 1894, and it was intended to be used for only six to eight weeks of the year. Belcourt was designed in a multitude of European styles and periods; it features a heavy emphasis on French Renaissance and Gothic decor, with further borrowings from German, English, and Italian design. In the Gilded Age, the castle was noted for its extensive stables and carriage areas, which were incorporated into the main structure.
The Tinney Family, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, bought Belcourt in 1956 for $25,000. In addition to changing the name from Belcourt to Belcourt Castle, the Tinneys filled the castle with their own collection of antiques and reproductions. Included are a coronation coach, which son Donald made, and a 1701 copy of a Hyacinthe Rigaud portrait of Louis XIV, which hung in the Green Room in the Palace of the Tuileries. The centerpiece of the Tinney additions was an enormous Imperial Russian-style chandelier, which holds 13,000 rock crystal prisms and 105 lights. The chandelier hangs a few feet above the rose marble mosaic floor of the banquet hall.
At the time that Belcourt was purchased in 1956, the Tinney family comprised Harold Tinney, his wife Ruth Tinney, their son Donald Tinney, and Ruth's aunt Nellie Fuller (a descendant of Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller). In 1960, Donald Tinney married Harle Hanson, who had been at Belcourt to work as a tour guide. Harle Tinney was the only surviving member of the family when Belcourt was sold in 2012.
Other artifacts within Belcourt included an immense collection of Persian rugs, French royal art and furnishings, Oriental art and furnishings, and numerous religious objets d'art.
Changes at Belcourt have been numerous in the years following 1956, when the Tinney family moved in. They raised the ceiling of the Organ Loft 11 feet (3.4 m) to accommodate a 26-rank tracker organ. Between 1966 and 1970, when the coronation coach was being built, an old kitchen area became a coach hall. In 1969, the open loggia became a French salon. In 1975, they transformed the north-west reception room into a chapel with the addition of German Renaissance stained glass. In the early 1980s, the Tinneys built gate piers on Bellevue Avenue and installed gates that they had acquired from the Taylor estate in Portsmouth. The overthrow was altered to make the gates the tallest of any estate entrance in Newport.
In 1983, robbers attempted a million-dollar heist of Belcourt's antiques. Police recovered many artifacts but not a 14-pound silver reliquary containing a relic from the third century.
The lawns contain many sculptural pieces in bronze, terra cotta, marble and stone. Depicting scenes from mythology, nymphs and cherubs, the collection is an informal contrast to the strong and robust lines of the French-style château. The driveways and pathways are lined with lush arborvitae, planted by the Tinneys a few years after they moved into Belcourt.
Belcourt is the third largest mansion in Newport, after The Breakers and Ochre Court. The castle has been the subject of an ongoing restoration project spanning from the beginning of the Tinney family's occupation of the castle up to and including the present day.
On May 26, 2009, it was reported that the then-owner of Belcourt, Harle Tinney, had put the residence up for sale. The home was put on the market for $US 7.2 million. As of June 2011, the price had been reduced twice to $US 5.1 million and then to $US 3.9 million. Subsequently, it was taken off of the market and re-listed for sale in two parcels totaling $US 4.625 million. Tinney said she was ready to part with the home after her husband's death in 2006.
On November 12, 2012, Belcourt was purchased by Carolyn Rafaelian, owner of the Cranston, Rhode Island-based company Alex and Ani, for $3.6 million. Rafaelian is currently restoring and renovating the mansion, which she reopened in summer 2014 as a tour house, art gallery, and event space under the business name Belcourt of Newport. Rafaelian reports she has already spent $5 million on renovations, including $3 million for a new roof.
Belcourt as a museu
Belcourt was open to the public as a museum of antiquities and architectural and social history. Of the 60 rooms at Belcourt, over a dozen were viewable on tour. A visit to the castle included viewings of an English library (added in 1910 by John Russell Pope; the ceiling is a replica of the one in Haddon Hall's Long Gallery), a banquet hall, a chapel, two of three grand halls, a music room, an Empire-style dining room, a French gothic-style ballroom, two principal bedrooms, a loggia and a gallery. All of the rooms are furnished with pieces from the Tinney family collections. The first tours of Belcourt were given in 1957 and, ever since then, the castle has been a fixture on Bellevue Avenue. The collections included furnishings, art and artifacts from 33 European and Asian countries and 37 other Newport mansions. The Tinney family's enormous collection earned Belcourt a notable status within Newport's thriving tourism industry. Belcourt was also the only mansion in Newport that was both open to the public and had a private owner in residence. Harle Tinney frequently guided tours through her home and was often present to greet visitors when she was in residence.
Materials
Belcourt's distinctive exterior appearance was achieved through the use of brick and Westerly granite to frame the windows, doors and fields of stucco. The roof is sheathed in Pennsylvania slate and is pierced by numerous ox-eye (elliptical) dormer windows. The interior, completed by 300 imported artisans, was created of carved oak with oak and mosaic marble floors. The numerous decorative ceilings were finished with sculpted and molded plaster and carved woods such as chestnut. The walls are finished with canvas paintings, carved oak, imported paneling and pure silk damasks. The numerous exterior railings and gates are composed of wrought iron and bronze, featuring a shell motif and the monogram "OB." The foundations are stone, brick and poured concrete with thick brick walls supporting enormous roof timbers and steel I-beams.

Belcourt Castle

Seaview Terrace, also known as the Carey Mansion, is a privately owned mansion located in Newport, Rhode Island. It was designed in the French Renaissance Revival Châteauesque style and completed in 1925. It was the last of the great "Summer Cottages" constructed and is the fifth-largest of Newport's mansions, after The Breakers, Ochre Court, Belcourt Castle, and Rough Point. The television show Dark Shadows used its exterior as the fictional Collinwood Mansion. Part of the main house and some of the outbuildings were leased to Salve Regina University until recently.
History
From the 1850s to the early 20th century, fashionable wealthy families built elaborate mansions in Newport to be used for entertaining during the summer season.
Seaview Terrace
In 1907, whiskey millionaire Edson Bradley built a French-Gothic mansion on the south side of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. It covered more than half a city block, and included a Gothic chapel with seating for 150, a large ballroom, an art gallery, and a 500-seat theatre — 90 feet by 120 feet, and several stories tall, completed in 1911—known as Aladdin's Palace.
In 1923, Bradley began disassembling his Washington, D.C. mansion and relocating it to a Newport property at Ruggles and Wetmore avenues. Sea View, the 1885 Elizabethan-Revival mansion already on the site, was incorporated into the design, and lent its name to the new chateau. Work on the exterior continued for two years, and required the use of many railroad cars and trucks. Rooms that had been imported intact from France and installed in Washington, D.C. 20 years earlier were moved again and reassembled in Newport, and the new building was constructed around them. When the interiors were completed in 1925, there were 17 rooms on the first floor, 25 on the second, and 12 on the third. It is believed to have been one of the largest buildings to be moved in this manner.
Seaview Terrace cost over $2,000,000 to build. The main house featured turrets, stained-glass windows, high arching doorways and, in keeping with its seaside location, shell motifs. The American League of Architects awarded Bradley's architect, Howard Greenley, a 1928 medal for the chateau.
Bradley's wife, Julia Williams Bradley, died in August 1929, and her funeral was held in the house's chapel. Edson Bradley spent five more summers at the mansion before his death in 1935.
The Bradleys' daughter, Julie Bradley Shipman, took over the estate and lived there until 1941. Her husband, the Right Reverend Herbert Shipman, Episcopal Bishop of New York, died in 1930. She vacated the house after a dispute with the City over non-payment of three years back taxes. During World War II, the house was used by the U.S. Army as officers' quarters. In 1949 the property was sold for only $8,000.
Private schools
In 1950, the property became an exclusive all-girl summer boarding school, and was renamed "Burnham-by-the-Sea". The house was owned and the summer school run by Mr. and Mrs. George Waldo Emerson. During the academic year, Mrs. Emerson was a headmistress for the Mary Burnham School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts.
In 1968, the Mary Burnham School merged with the Stoneleigh Prospect Hill School to become the Stoneleigh-Burnham School, but the summer school continued to be run by the Emersons until they sold Seaview Terrace. During the regular school year, the school operated as Newport School for Girls. In 1971 and 1972, Seaview Terrace also was home for The New School, grades 2 through 8. Headmaster for the New School was Fr. Toller Cranston.
Filming
From 1966 to 1971, the Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows used Burnham-by-the-Sea as the exterior set for the fictional Collinwood Mansion, which in turn inspired the depiction of the Kingston Mansion in the "What the Hex is Going On?" episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
During the summer of 1973 the movie The Great Gatsby was filmed next door. All the children at the school, who had a 9 pm curfew, spent the evenings listening to the filming of the cars driving up and down the old Oelrichs property, Rosecliff.
Carey Mansion
In 1974, Millicent and Martin T. Carey of New York, purchased the mansion. Being one of the largest of Newport's mansions, the Careys were faced with large costs for upkeep. The main house and gatehouse were leased to Salve Regina University, which renamed it the Carey Mansion. The former stables were also leased as a dormitory for Salve Regina, which renamed it Seaview. The mansion's Drawing Room, used by the university for performances and practice, was renamed Cecilia Hall, for the patron saint of music (Saint Cecilia). During the 1980s Seaview Terrace housed the American syndicate of The America's Cup.
On August 31, 2009, Salve Regina University terminated the lease with the Carey family. The Careys' daughter, Denise Anne Carey, an architect from New York, currently lives there.
The Syfy network featured the mansion in the first season, second episode of its paranormal reality show Stranded on March 6, 2013. Seaview Terrace was featured on Travel Channels, Ghost Nation, on October 31st 2020.
Seaview Terrace is privately owned and is not open for tours or tourist visits.
Features
Whispering gallery
Cecilia Hall features a whispering gallery, an elliptical room reminiscent of Saint Paul's Cathedral, in which a person standing at one of the foci can hear the slightest whisper uttered at the other.
Stained glass
The Flagellation (circa 1544–47) was an early-Renaissance stained-glass window designed for Milan Cathedral. It was part of a series portraying the Passion of Christ, and believed to have been made in the workshop of Currado Mochis da Colonia. The window was bought by Edson Bradley for the house when it was located on Dupont Circle, and may have once been owned by Stanford White.
Estey organ
Carey Mansion's pipe organ, Opus 2140, was made by Jacob Estey of Estey Organ Company, Brattleboro, Vermont. It has a Tremolo Electric Detached Console Automatic Player which includes Great pipes, Swell, and multiple pedals. It is no longer operational, and the console is missing.
Hedge
Carey Mansion has never throughout its history had any sort of rigid fencing or wall surrounding the property. There are two main gateposts, but around the rest of the property a decorative hedge is used, rather unsuccessfully, to keep people away, making it the largest of its kind in Newport with such a characteristic.

Carey Mansion

The Breakers is a Gilded Age mansion located at 44 Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island. It was built between 1893 and 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family. The 70-room mansion, with a gross area of 125,339 square feet (11,644.4 m2) and 62,482 square feet (5,804.8 m2) of living area on five floors, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Renaissance Revival style; the interior decor was by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman Jr. The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates, and the 30-foot-high (9.1 m) walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high (3.7 m) limestone-and-iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The footprint of the house covers approximately 1 acre (4,000 m2) or 43,000 square feet of the 14 acres (5.7 ha) estate on the cliffs overlooking Easton Bay of the Atlantic Ocean.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994. It is also a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District. The property is owned and operated by the Newport Preservation Society as a museum and is open for visits all year.
History
Cornelius Vanderbilt II purchased the grounds in 1885 for $450,000 ($13 million today). The previous mansion on the property was owned by Pierre Lorillard IV; it burned on November 25, 1892 and Vanderbilt commissioned famed architect Richard Morris Hunt to rebuild it in splendor. Vanderbilt insisted that the building be made as fireproof as possible, so the structure of the building used steel trusses and no wooden parts. He even required that the boiler be located away from the house in an underground space below the front lawn.
The designers created an interior using marble imported from Italy and Africa, and rare woods and mosaics from countries around the world. It also included architectural elements purchased from chateaux in France, such as the library mantel. Expansion was finally finished in 1892.
The Breakers is the architectural and social archetype of the "Gilded Age," a period when members of the Vanderbilt family were among the major industrialists of America. It was the largest, most opulent house in the Newport area upon its completion in 1895.
Vanderbilt died from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a stroke in 1899 at age 55, leaving The Breakers to his wife Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt. She outlived him by 35 years and died at the age of 89 in 1934. She left The Breakers to her youngest daughter Countess Gladys Széchenyi (1886–1965), essentially because Gladys lacked American property; in addition, none of her other children were interested in the property, while Gladys had always loved the estate.
In 1948, Gladys leased the high-maintenance property to The Preservation Society of Newport County for $1 per year. The Preservation Society bought The Breakers and approximately 90% of its furnishings in 1972 for $365,000 ($2.3 million today) from Countess Sylvia Szapary, Gladys' daughter, although the agreement granted her life tenancy. Upon her death in 1998, The Preservation Society agreed to allow the family to continue to live on the third floor, which is not open to the public.
It is now the most-visited attraction in Rhode Island, with approximately 450,000 visitors annually as of 2017.
Gardens
The pea-gravel driveway is lined with maturing pin oaks and red maples. The trees of The Breakers' grounds act as screens that increase the sense of distance between The Breakers and its Newport neighbors. Among the more unusual imported trees are two examples of the Blue Atlas Cedar, a native of North Africa. Clipped hedges of Japanese yew and Pfitzer juniper line the tree-shaded footpaths that meander about the grounds. Informal plantings of arbor vitae, taxus, Chinese juniper, and dwarf hemlock provide attractive foregrounds for the walls that enclose the formally landscaped terrace. The grounds also contain several varieties of other rare trees, copper and weeping beeches. These were hand-selected by Ernest W. Bowditch, a landscape architect and civil engineer based in the Boston area. Bowditch's original pattern for the south parterre garden was determined from old photographs and laid out in pink and white alyssum and blue ageratum. The wide borders paralleling the wrought iron fence are planted with rhododendrons, mountain laurel, dogwoods, and many other flowering shrubs that effectively screen the grounds from street traffic and give visitors a feeling of seclusion.
Layout
Basement
- Laundry
- Staff's restrooms
First floor
- Entrance foyer
- Gentlemen's reception room
- Ladies' reception room
- Great hall (50 ft (15 m) × 50 ft (15 m) × 50 ft (15 m)) – Over each of the six doors that lead from the Great Hall are limestone figure groups celebrating humanity's progress in art, science, and industry: Galileo, representing science; Dante, representing literature; Apollo, representing the arts; Mercury, representing speed and commerce; Richard Morris Hunt, representing architecture; and Karl Bitter, representing sculpture.
- Main staircase
- Arcade
- Library – The library has coffered ceilings painted with a dolphin, symbolic of the sea and hospitality, supported by Circassian walnut paneling impressed with gold leaf in the form of a leather-bound book. Between the ceiling and the gold paneling lies green Spanish leather embossed with gold, which continues into the library from the alcove where the inhabitants played cards. Inside the central library rest two busts; the bronze bust depicts William Henry Vanderbilt II, the oldest child of Cornelius II and Alice, who died of typhoid at the age of 21 while attending Yale University. There is now a library at Yale dedicated to William Henry Vanderbilt II. The second bust, in marble, is of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. The fireplace, taken from a 16th-century French chateau (Arnay-le-Duc, Burgundy), bears the inscription "I laugh at great wealth, and never miss it; nothing but wisdom matters in the end."
- Music room – The room's open interior was used for recitals and dances. Its woodwork and furnishings were designed by Richard Van der Boyen and implemented by Jules Allard and Sons. The room has a gilt coffered ceiling lined with silver and gold, as well as an elliptical ceiling molding which bears the inscription in French of song, music, harmony and melody. Around the edge are the names of well-known composers. The fireplace is of Campan marble and the tables were designed to match. Mr. Vanderbilt was known to play the violin and Mrs. Vanderbilt the piano, which is a Second Empire French mahogany ormolu mounted piano.
- Morning room – This room, a communal sitting room facing east to admit the morning sun, was used throughout the day, and was designed by the French company head Jules Allard. Placed around the room are platinum-leafed panels illustrated with 8 of the 9 muses. All interior woodwork and furnishings were designed and constructed in France, then shipped to America before assembly.
- Lower loggia
- Billiards room – This room, in the style of ancient Rome, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and shows his competence in stone works. The great slabs of Cippolino marble from Italy form the walls, while rose alabaster arches provide contrast. Throughout the room there is an assortment of semi-precious stones, forming mosaics of acorns (the Vanderbilt family emblem, intended to show strength and longevity) and billiards balls on the top walls. The Renaissance style mahogany furniture provides further contrast with that of the colored marble.
- Dining room – The 2,400 sq ft (220 m2) dining room is the house's grandest room and has 12 freestanding rose alabaster Corinthian columns supporting a colossal carved and gilt cornice. Rich in allegory, this room serves as an exemplar of what 19th-century technology could do with Roman ideas and 18th-century inspiration. On the ceiling, the goddess Aurora is depicted bringing in the dawn on a four-horse chariot as Greek figures pose majestically. A 16th-century style table of carved oak seats up to 34. Two Baccarat crystal chandeliers light the room with either gas or electricity, and 18, 22 or 24 carat gold gilt adheres to the wall through rabbit skin glue.
- Breakfast room – The breakfast room, with its modified Louis XV style paneling and furnishings, was used for family morning meals. The furnishings, colors and gilt, although still extravagant in their use, contrast with the dining room's more lavish decoration.
- Pantry – A central dumbwaiter serves to bring additional china and glassware down from the mezzanine level. The pantry was also used for the storage of the family's table silver; this was brought with the family when they traveled, and stored in a steel vault. An intercom system allows the butler to direct the necessary servants to their needed locations, and each number on the caller corresponds to a number on a room.
- Kitchen – The kitchen, unlike others in the time period, was situated on the first floor away from the main house to prevent the possibility of fires and cooking smells reaching the main parts of the house. The well-ventilated room supports a 21 ft (6.4 m) cast iron stove, which heats up as a single element through a coal burning stove. The work table is made of zinc, a metal which served as the forerunner to stainless steel; in front of it is a marble mortar used to crush various ingredients. Ice cut from the local ponds kept the side rooms cool where food was stored, and facilitated a colder room for the assembling of confections. The kitchen and baking pantry each have one dumbwaiter that travels to the basement level where groceries were delivered and refuse removed.
Second floor
- Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom – As with the rest of the second floor, Ogden Codman designed this room, choosing Louis XIV Style. The bed is made of carved walnut finish and the mantel is of rouge royal marble, which hosts a large mirror above to bring more light into the room. There lies much memorabilia of family and friends, though Cornelius Vanderbilt II lived only a year at the Breakers in good health, before dying the following year, 1899, of a stroke.
- Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom – Designed as a perfect oval, Alice Vanderbilt's room accommodates multiple doors, though they are cut into the wall to leave an undisturbed picture of geometric perfection, that connect the bedrooms. Alice had four closets to allow for her possible seven clothing changes per day, and a pager to administer and relegate family needs to the servants. This room also served as her study and had many bookshelves. Additionally, there are discreetly designed corridors that permitted female servants to maintain the laundry and costume needs of the family in a seemingly invisible fashion.
- Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt's bedroom – Gertrude, daughter of Cornelius II and Alice, was a less conforming character who wished to be loved for her personality rather than her wealth and family, and later found her match in Harry Payne Whitney, and became an artist. Around the room there lie multiple pieces of her art work, including "The Engineer", which was inspired by her brother during World War I, "Laborer", and another that commemorates the American Expeditionary Force of World War I. She moved into The Breakers when she was 19. Above her bed is a portrait by Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta of Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt at 5 years old, and beside that, to the left of the bed, is a sketch of her as a young woman.
- Upper loggia – Serving as an informal living room, the upper loggia faces east, and opens to the Atlantic. During the summer, when needed, the glass doors overlooking the great hall could be opened to allow a breezeway. The walls are painted marble, and the ceiling is designed to depict three canopies that cover the sky. The lawn, designed by James and Ernest Bowdwitch, hosted many parties and was well kept by a gardening staff of 20, who also introduced and maintained various non-indigenous trees.
- Guest bedroom – This room exemplifies the Louis XVI style through furniture, woodwork and light fixtures, with Neoclassical style abounding in the interior. The wall paneling has never been retouched, though the rest of the room has been restored by the preservation society.
- Countess Szechenyi's bedroom – Designed by Ogden Codman in 18th-century simple elegance style, this room features an ivory and cream-colored design.
There are also two other rooms located on the second floor, possibly a nursery and a nanny's bedroom.
Third floor
The third floor contains eight bedrooms and a sitting room decorated in Louis XVI style walnut paneling by Ogden Codman. The north wing of the third-floor quarters were reserved for domestic servants. Using ceilings nearly 18-foot-high (5.5 m) high, Richard Morris Hunt created two separate third floors to allow a mass aggregation of servant bed chambers. This was because of the configuration of the house, built in Italian Renaissance style, which included a pitched roof. Flat-roofed French classical houses built in the area at the time allowed a concealed wing for staff, whereas the Breakers' design did not permit this feature.
A total of 30 bedrooms are located in the two third-floor staff quarters. Three additional bedrooms for the butler, chef, and visiting valet are located on the mezzanine "entresol" floor, located between the first and second floor just to the rear of the main kitchen.
Attic floor
The attic floor contained more staff quarters, general storage areas, and the innovative cisterns. One smaller cistern supplied hydraulic pressure for the 1895 Otis elevator, still functioning in the house even though the house was wired for electricity in 1933. Two larger cisterns supplied fresh and salt water to the many bathrooms in the house.
Over the grand staircase is a stained glass skylight designed by artist John La Farge. Originally installed in the Vanderbilts' 1 West 57th Street (New York City) townhouse dining room, the skylight was removed in 1894 during an expansion of the house.
Materials
Foundation: brick, concrete, and limestone
Trusses: steel
Walls: Indiana limestone
Roof: red terra cotta tile
Wall panels: platinum leaf (eight reliefs of mythological figures only)
Other: marble (plaques), wrought iron (gates and fences)
The architect
The Breakers is also a definitive expression of Beaux-Arts architecture in American domestic design by one of the country's most influential architects Richard Morris Hunt. The Breakers was Hunt's final project; it is also one of his few surviving works and is valuable for its rarity as well as its architectural excellence. The Breakers made Hunt the "dean of American architecture", as he was called by his contemporaries,and helped define the era in American life that Hunt helped to shape.
New welcome center controversy
A debate developed when The Preservation Society of Newport County made plans to build a new welcome center within the property's garden. The Newport Zoning Board approved the welcome center in January 2015. On January 9, 2017, the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled that the Newport Zoning Board of Review was the correct body to determine the permissibility of the project. The Welcome Center opened on June 14, 2018.

The Breakers

Completed in 1892, for Ogden Goelet (1846-1897) and his wife Mary Rita Wilson (1855-1929). Ochre Court was built to outshine the Petit Chateau in Manhattan, and in turn, the Vanderbilts built Marble House, also in Newport, to outshine Ochre Court. It ranks among the most spectacular of Newport's Gilded Age chateaux and is also one of the Largest Houses in the United States: Ochre Court covers 44,229 square feet which makes it fractionally larger than the Vanderbilt Mansion at Hyde Park and Boldt Castle too. Since 1934, Ochre Court has been the heart of Salve Regina University and visitors are welcome to take tours on class days. In the movie True Lies (1994) its exterior was used to portray the Swiss château in the opening scene.
After the Astors, the Goelets were the second largest landowners in New York City. Their family fortune was established during the American Revolution and when Ogden and his brother, Robert, came into its possession one hundred years later (1879), it had grown to some $40 million, principally imbedded in Manhattan real estate and railroad bonds. Unlike preceding generations of the Goelet family who had gained a reputation for extreme miserliness, Ogden and his brother spared themselves no luxuries and Ochre Court is as good an example as any of their willingness to spend, dazzle, and impress.
In 1881, Ogden Goelet purchased Edgewater on the cliffs of Newport for $90,000 from Joseph Frederic Kernochan (1842-1929). Even before any money had changed hands, Ogden had already had architectural plans drawn up quietly for what he envisioned in its place. Nonetheless, he summered with his family at Edgewater for a further six seasons before work started on its grand transformation. In 1887, he purchased an adjoining parcel of land for his stables from George Peabody Wetmore (1846-1921), Governor of Rhode Island, and that year finally announced that he intended to pull down Edgewater.
Rich Rivalries
Quite unabashedly, the Goelets hired Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895), setting out to build a larger, more lavish version of Hunt's Petit Chateau in Manhattan, only recently erected for William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849-1920) and his first wife, the indomitable Alva. This not-so-thinly-veiled societal challenge was met with a quick response: within months, the Vanderbilts re-hired Hunt and started work on Marble House, also in Newport, in what was almost certainly a direct bid to now outdo the Goelet's château!
Hunt started work on both mansions in 1888, and both were completed in 1892. Whereas Alva went to great pains to keep Marble House hidden from prying eyes, the Goelets built theirs in full view and they must have taken some satisfaction when the local newspapers predicted that theirs would be the, "grandest of all the Newport manors, complete with a splendid garden and a great square portico". It was certainly grand: Ochre Court has 50-rooms, covers 44,229 square feet and cost an eye-watering $4.5 million.
The Chateau
Ochre Court is built of white Caen limestone and is punctuated with high slate roofs and gables in the Gothic style of 16th century France. Its rows of mullioned windows are identical copies of those found at the Château de Blois and others to a lesser extent were influenced by the Palais de Jacques Coeur. The grounds were laid out by the Olmsted Brothers, with formal perennial gardens and paths shaded by mature specimen trees that included the towering copper beeches.
Looking seaward, the chateau has a double projecting terrace that opens up onto the lawn and two stone galleries with elaborately carved stone railings. The central room of Ochre Court is the Great Hall which rises up three stories high and is heavily influenced by the design styles of the French Renaissance: intricately carved wooden arches fringed with gilt lead up to the domed ceiling mural that crowns the vast space. 
The principal reception rooms radiate off from the hall and each of them incorporate varying styles: the Tudor study is decorated with murals reminiscent of Holbein the Younger; one wall of the dining room was draped in a vast Gobelin tapestry; there was a Louis XV breakfast room; and, the ballroom was of German Rococo, though with the use of a great many mirrors it also resembled rooms found at the Palais de Versailles.
The richness and fine detail of the decorations are prevalent throughout with an array of classical ceiling paintings depicting mythical tales; a profusion of carved fleurs-de-lys representing the Goelet's French heritage; and, an extensive collection of antiques imported principally from France and Germany that include vast fireplaces, marble statues, stained glass windows and, of course, the furnishings. All this was lit up with its own electricity generator - one of the first of its kind in Newport.
During the typical 8-week summer season at Newport, Ochre Court required 27 house servants; eight coachmen and grooms; and, twelve gardeners. When Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich (1877-1943) of Russia stayed as a guest at Ochre Court in the 1890s, he was heard to exclaim, "I have never dreamt of such luxury as I have seen in Newport!"
The Duchess' Wedding
Only five years after Ochre Court was finished, Ogden Goelet was accidentally run down by a car during the Cowes Regatta on the Isle of Wight. His distraught widow upped and left for Europe with their two children and only returned to the States three years later.  That season (1900), she came back to Newport and re-opened Ochre Court to host the coming out/debutante ball of her only daughter, Mary Goelet (1878-1937).
In 1903, all eyes of Newport's fashionable society once again turned to Ochre Court when Mary's wedding reception was held here following her marriage to Henry Innes-Ker (1876-1932), 8th Duke of Roxburghe. The $8 million dowry she took back with her to Floors Castle was given a further $20 million boost after her mother's death in 1929.
Robert Wilson Goelet
In 1904, Mrs Goelet gave Ochre Court to her only son, Robert Wilson Goelet (1880-1966) as a wedding present for him and his first wife, the comparatively poor but well-connected, exceptionally beautiful and artistically talented Marie Elsie Whelan (1880-1959), of Philadelphia. The marriage lasted just ten years. After their divorce, she fled from Newport with her new husband, the sculptor-cum-playboy Henry Clews Jr. (1876-1937), taking up residence at the Château de La Napoule on the French Riviera.
His Russian "Princess"
As the First World War continued to rumble on in a bloody stalemate across the north of Europe, Robert's ex-wife left for a life of idle pleasure in the South of France, while Robert headed to Northern France as a Captain to fight in the trenches. While on leave in Paris, he met another beauty, the married Fernanda Riabouchinsky (1885-1982) whose background was as dubious as that of her husband's empty claim to be a Russian Prince.
The Riabouchinskys came to the United States soon after 1918 and so ensued a scandalous year: Fernanda, still married to her 'Prince', was now frequently seen out in public with Robert, bedecked in ever-increasing displays of sparkling jewellery. Tongues wagged even more when Robert was seen in angry remonstrations with Fernanda's now bankrupt 'prince', and they went into a frenzy when it was heard that Fernanda might star in a movie wearing next to nothing! In 1919, Fernanda obtained a divorce from her husband before Robert whisked her off to Paris where they were discretely married.
Robert's mother was beside herself with anger. She refused to acknowledge her Russian daughter-in-law, let alone the marriage, and couldn't even bring herself to be on the same continent as the newly-weds, removing instead to Floors Castle with her daughter.
Undeterred, Robert and Fernanda returned to the States and attempted to carry on as usual. They opened Ochre Court for the season and sent out invitations... only to be met with embarrassing results. In return, the few invitations that came through the door at Ochre Court were addressed only to Mr Goelet, never "... and Mrs Goelet". Even from the remote moors of Scotland, Robert's redoubtable mother maintained her considerable reputation as one of the leading hostesses in America and she made it very clear that anyone who recognized her son's new wife would be snubbed for life. Only her own sister, Grace, who'd previously eloped with Cornelius Vanderbilt III (1873-1942), dared defy her.
Home is where the Heart is...
Robert and Fernanda retreated back to Paris where they had a son, but she quickly tired of the struggle to achieve social prominence and fell in love with a man far removed from the world she'd been living in. Robert cut his losses and they divorced in 1924. The following year, he was married for a third time, but this time to a Newport girl, Roberta Willard (1893-1949), and with this happy news his mother finally returned to the States.
The End of the Era
By the Second World War, Robert and Roberta were finding the cost of opening Ochre Court for the eight week summer season a serious financial burden. For several years, they rented smaller properties in Newport before eventually buying Champ Soleil that required a mere five servants as opposed to the thirty needed at Ochre Court.
But, disposing of Ochre Court had not been easy: the real estate market was on its knees, so there was no hope of selling Robert's relic of better times. He offered it first to his youngest daughter, Mary Eleanor Goelet, who was then studying at Vassar College, but it was not practical for her and she turned down her father's generous offer. Then, in the knowledge that the United Nations was looking for a new home, Goelet proposed donating Ochre Court for that purpose, but the competition was stiff and his offer was politely declined. In 1947, he at last found a willing recipient in the Sisters of Mercy.
Salve Regina University
In 1934, the Sisters had established Salve Regina University, but they were lacking a building to house their project. Delighted with the acquisition of Ochre Court, the Sisters hired a special architect to carefully reconfigure the chateau so as not to spoil its magnificent interior, and classes were first held here by the end of the year. 
Today, their campus covers some 60-acres and is comprised of almost a dozen historic buildings in the area, but Ochre Court remains very much the heart of the university. During class days, visitors are welcome to the building and a great many make the detour off the Cliff Walk to enjoy its grounds. In 2000, Ochre Court was added to the Save America's Treasures program, led by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
https://househistree.com/

Ochre Court

Malbone is the oldest mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. The original mid-18th century estate was the country residence of Col. Godfrey Malbone of Virginia and Connecticut. The main house burned down during a dinner party in 1766 and the remaining structure sat dormant for many years until New York lawyer Jonathan Prescott Hall built a new roughly 5,800 sq ft (540 m2) castellated residence directly on top of the old ivy-covered ruins.
History
Located on Malbone Road, the estate has a history dating to the mid-18th century, but the present main house was built in 1848-49. The estate once served as the country residence of Colonel Godfrey Malbone (1695–1768) of Virginia and Connecticut. Colonel Malbone made his fortune as a shipping merchant and slave trader, becoming one of the wealthiest men in Newport during the 1740s through privateering and the triangle trade. Malbone's 1741 mansion was designed by Richard Munday, a noted colonial architect who also designed Newport landmarks Trinity Church and the Old Colony House. The mansion was so grand that it was widely considered the finest house in all of the American colonies. 
Future President George Washington boarded and dined at Malbone in February 1756 when he visited Col. Malbone, who was Washington's friend dating back to Malbone's childhood in Virginia. In 1766, during the course of a gala dinner party, a kitchen fire reduced the house to a pile of sandstone rubble. By several accounts, Colonel Malbone, seeing no reason why the party should be interrupted, ordered dinner to be served outside, proclaiming, "By God, if I must lose my house, I shall not lose my dinner!"
From 1766, the year of the fire, until the 1840s, the ruins of Malbone's estate was a popular attraction among Newporters.
1840s mansion
In 1848 a new mansion was built directly on top of the old ivy-covered ruins by Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan Prescott Hall. Hall was an eminent New York lawyer and direct descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The Halls commissioned Alexander Jackson Davis, a notable 19th-century New York architect, to design a house of pink Connecticut sandstone in the popular Gothic revival style of the time, incorporating some original elements such as the porte-cochere from the previous home. Hall, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, died in September 1862. In 1875, the house's interiors were remodeled under the supervision of noted local architect Dudley Newton who added a "massive carved oak staircase." The mansion remained in the same family for over 130 years, serving as the summer "cottage" of the Morris-Bedlow family (including Lewis Gouverneur Morris), a prominent family from New York who held positions of social and political prominence in America and Newport in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Malbone Estate had some of the most prominent formal gardens in America during the 18th and 19th centuries. The gardens were originally established by Col. Malbone to the south of the house because it was from this direction that visitors and merchants from Newport town would approach the estate. Prescott Hall renovated these gardens from 1848-1850, expanding them to 17 acres and enlisting Andrew Jackson Downing, the leading landscape designer of the mid-18th century and an advocate of architectural philosophy. Downing partnered with Calvert Vaux to design the White House grounds and National Mall, collaborated with Frederick Law Olmsted to design Central Park, and is widely regarded as the "Father of American Landscape Architecture." The Malbone Gardens have been recently restored with an emphasis on the brick pathways lined by boxwoods, the central stone waterway, four prominent weeping willows, and the carriage path lined by beech trees, all remnants of Downing's original 1848 design.
Current ownership
The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The grounds of the estate "contain the largest collection of European beech trees in North America."
The Morris family bequeathed Malbone to the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1978, who sold the estate to Patricia and Philip Archer Thomas in 1980. Around 1994, the 17 acres (6.9 ha) Malbone estate was acquired by James Leach, who hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg there in 2004. In 2013, Leach listed the estate for sale for $2.2 million dollars, and it was purchased by the Brede Family of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The mansion remains a private residence to this day, the only Newport Mansion not open to tours or the public.