Day 15
Another rainy, cold day which leads us to indoor activities such as mansion hopping. First up is the Breakers, the “summer cottage” of Cornelius Vanderbilt, II. A massive 138,000 square feet of ornate beauty with a great hall 2 ½ stories tall. The most amazing thing to me is it was built in only 2 years with completion in 1895. Unfortunately for Cornelius, he had a stoke in 1896 and died in 1899 so his enjoyment of the Breakers was short. Next was brother William Vanderbilt’s Marble House with nearly every surface of marble, over 500,000 cubic feet of it. For lunch we headed to Long Wharf for lobster rolls virtually right off the boat at the Lobster Shack. The wharf was cold, windy and wet so we had our delicious lunch in the car. The afternoon was spent at the Chateau-Sur-Mer and the Elms, two more mansions preserved by the Preservation Society of Newport County. The conspicuous consumption of these mansions is beyond belief. And people think there is a wide gap today between the haves and the have nots! The “Gilded Age” (1865-1914) came to an end with the passage of the income tax in 1913. I guess that’s one good that came from this otherwise insidious tax. There are mansions just about everywhere even with about 20 demolished prior to preservation efforts.
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