In the autumn of 1885, Cornelius Vanderbilt II paid a little over $400,000 for a summer cottage in Newport, Rhode Island. The Queen Anne style house, built in 1878, was considered the “crown jewel” of Newport. It had been designed by the architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns for Pierre Lorillard IV, whose fortune came…
The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island: A Grand Tour of the Vanderbilts’ Italianate Summer Home
How Alva Vanderbilt’s Sumptuous Chateau Set the Bar for High Society Homes on Fifth Avenue, New York City
In 1843, young Richard Morris Hunt and family traveled from America to Europe, where he gained his formal education. Initially, Hunt pursued training in art, but at the encouragement of his family, he took up architecture. Hunt studied under Geneva architect Samuel Darier and later joined the Paris studio of architect Hector Lefuel. In Paris,…
Biltmore House: The Vanderbilts’ Magnificent Monument to America’s Gilded Age
George Washington Vanderbilt II, the youngest child of William Henry Vanderbilt, first visited the mountains of North Carolina at the age of 25. He fell in love with the highlands near Asheville and returned the following year, with his mother Maria Louisa Vanderbilt, to begin purchasing land for a country home. Maria Vanderbilt was seeking…
The Calm Coasts of Newport, Rhode Island
The mansion-lined streets of Newport, Rhode Island, form the type of imaginative scenery you’d expect to find if you were stuck inside a fairy tale, complete with a picturesque cliffside view of shimmering waters and majestic trees. The opulent mansions are vestiges of the Gilded Age, when many of America’s elite families built summer resorts…
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