The Breakers stands as the undisputed monarch of Newport’s Gilded Age mansions. Built as a summer “cottage” for Cornelius Vanderbilt II between 1893 and 1895, this Italian Renaissance style palazzo by Richard Morris Hunt contains about seventy rooms and sits on roughly thirteen acres overlooking the Atlantic. Construction costs exceeded seven million dollars, an extraordinary sum for the era.
The Great Hall
Step inside and the Great Hall swallows you up. The room soars about fifty feet high and was modeled on an Italian open air courtyard. Light pours in from the upper levels, limestone walls carry plaques of rare marble, and sculpted figures above each doorway (think Dante, Galileo, Apollo, Mercury) signal that the Vanderbilts wanted to display brains as well as wealth.
To the left, the main staircase glides upward on shallow marble steps. Its railing is an intricate lattice of wrought iron trimmed with gilt bronze. It makes its point without any extra theatrics.
The Billiards Room
This first floor showpiece is sheathed in great slabs of Cipollino marble with rose alabaster arches, while mosaics of acorns (the Vanderbilt emblem) and billiard balls appear near the cornice. Marble mosaics cover the ceiling as well. At center stands the original table by William Baumgarten & Co. of New York.
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The Dining Room
At about two thousand four hundred square feet, this room ranks among the largest formal dining spaces in Newport. Twelve rose alabaster Corinthian columns support a colossal carved and gilded cornice. Overhead, a fresco shows Aurora bringing in the dawn. Two Baccarat crystal chandeliers, wired for both gas and early electricity, illuminate a carved oak table that seats up to thirty four. Gold leaf on the walls completes the spectacle.
The Music Room
Designed and fabricated in Paris by Jules Allard & Sons, then shipped and reassembled in Newport, the Music Room gleams with gilt and silver leaf coffers and a Campan marble fireplace. An elliptical frieze inscribed with composers’ names and musical terms circles the room, underscoring its role as a venue for recitals and dances.
The Library
Circassian walnut paneling stamped with gold wraps the walls, while a coffered ceiling adds to the richness. Above the wainscoting, green Spanish leather embossed with gold provides another layer of texture. The mantel came from a sixteenth century French château in Arnay le Duc, Burgundy, bringing authentic Old World pedigree to Cornelius Vanderbilt II’s private retreat.
The Lower Loggia
Opening toward the back lawn and Atlantic views, the Lower Loggia carries a barrel vaulted ceiling clad in thousands of marble tesserae. European mosaicists embedded dolphins, garlands, and the Vanderbilt acorn into the design, turning this transition space into a stone crafted garden pavilion.
The Upper Loggia
The Upper Loggia on the second floor functioned as the Vanderbilts’ summer sitting room. Opening east to the Atlantic, its operable glass doors let in morning light and ocean breezes. The walls are painted to resemble marble, and the ceiling is a trompe‑l’œil of striped awnings , an effect that makes the space feel like an outdoor terrace sheltered within the house.
The Kitchen
The Breakers’ main kitchen sits on the first floor in a separate north service wing, rather than in the basement as was common in many Gilded Age houses. This two‑story workspace, equipped with a Duparquet range and other cutting‑edge appliances of the 1890s, was connected to the dining room through a large butler’s pantry, an arrangement that likely shortened service runs and showcased the house’s behind‑the‑scenes efficiency as much as its public grandeur.
The Breakers reveals its extravagance in both structure and detail. Every room balances artistry with technology, reminding visitors that this “cottage” was as much an engineering achievement as it was a monument to wealth.
