Another Vanderbilt Mansion?

 

Yep!  Another beautiful home that was built by a Vanderbilt.  The Breakers was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899).   The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a National Historic Landmark, a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District, now owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County.

 

The Breakers was built as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy United States Vanderbilt family. It is built in an Italian Renaissance style.  The 70-room mansion has a gross area of 125,339 square feet and 62,482 square feet of living area on five floors. The house was constructed between 1893 and 1895. The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates and the 30-foot-high walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high limestone-and-iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The footprint of the house covers approximately an acre of the 13-acre estate on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  Again, like The Biltmore, The Breakers is beautiful ...

 

The attention to detail on the exterior of the Mansion was remarkable.

 

 

 

 

 Then there were the outdoor patios and their exceptional decorative ceilings!

Wandering out to the 'backyard' ... how do you like the view?

 

And how about the back of the house .... ?

 And the side gate - matching the front gate of course.

 

 Ok, let's go inside this beautiful estate and imagine ourselves living in this lifestyle.  First the ground floor ...

 

 

 Then there was all the fine details ...

 

We were able to view the kitchen and then go to the second floor where we viewed a few bedrooms and baths.  Although the mansion has five floors we could not go beyond the second floor.  We read that the third floor contained many guest suites, the fourth and five floors were the servants quarters.

 



 Then there is still one more surprise!  To the side of the mansion is a lovely small house.  We thought it might be a guest house but we were very wrong!  It was actually a 'play house' for the Vanderbilt children ... so here are some pics of the 'play house'.

This was all lovely to look at but not really sure we would enjoy living in this life style.  After all, during this era the Biltmore's had to change clothes 4 to 6 times a day to be 'properly' dressed for the days activities!  Who wants to do that!!  And, it was really hard to heat the mansion and can you imagine trying to stay warm in the winter right there on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean ??? Burrrr!

Hope you enjoyed it though ... more to come soon!

 

Jan 🌷🌷🐾🐾