The Breakers: touring the most opulent mansion in Newport, RI

While exploring the Cliff Walk in Newport, RI, we detoured for a couple of hours to tour one Gilded Age mansion, known as the Breakers. The Breakers is one of the most opulent mansions on the Cliff Walk. At over 125,000 square feet with 70 rooms, architect Richard Morris Hunt designed this Italian Renaissance masterpiece for Cornelius Vanderbilt II. The Vanderbilt’s were one of the greatest railroad empires of the Gilded Age.

Original Breakers vacation home

The current  mansion is not the original Breakers home to sit on this site. The original house, built in 1878, was a simple wood-frame and shingle house belonging to tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard. Vanderbilt purchased the house in 1885, and a faulty furnace caused the home to burn to the ground in 1892. A rendering of the original Breakers is maintained in the current mansion.

Vanderbilt, known as the Commodore, did not want his new home to suffer the same fate, especially considering it cost over 12 million dollars to build. So, Vanderbilt ordered the heating plant installed away from the house, in the basement of the gatekeepers cottage. A large underground tunnel connected the heating plant to the house, with pipes that carried hot water to heat the house in the winter and preserve the artwork in the mansion.

Visiting the Breakers

Today, the Breakers is owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County, who acquired it in 1972 for $399,997.  They offer self-guided audio tours via a mobile app The gift shop also has an amazing book, A Guidebook to the Newport Mansions, that details many of the rooms in the Breakers. I highly recommend purchasing the book ahead of time so you can refer to it while touring the mansion. We just used the audio tour, but reading the book afterwards, I wish I had the book with me as I walked through the rooms. In May 2021, we paid a $24 per adult admittance fee. 

We expected the mansion to be overwhelmingly opulent, but we were gawking just walking the grounds of the property, before we even entered the mansion. The ornate iron gates, huge iron lanterns, intricate fountains, and manicured lawns hinted at the opulence we would find inside. The views from the double arched loggia on the east façade, overlooking the ocean, are reminiscent of Italian villas on the Mediterranean. The lower loggia has a mosaic ceiling of 1-inch tiles laid out in a beautiful design. Looking up at the tile work, you can just imagine how long it took the tradesmen to meticulously install all of those small tiles precisely.

Inside the mansion

We entered the Breakers into the Great Hall and followed the audio tour from the app. 

The Dining Room contains Baccarat crystal wall sconces and chandeliers, alabaster rose-colored columns, and gold leaf accents. The lighting can be run by either electricity or gas. 

Back in the Great Hall, a fountain is tucked under a staircase. This alcove is designed to look like an underwater grotto, with a carved limestone ceiling. We would have missed so many details had it not been for the audio tour. For example, the fireplace alcove in the Great Hall displays a classic medallion, but look closely at the cherubs above the doorway. The cherub on the left has an anchor in his hand, and a steam locomotive. The cherub on the right holds a sledgehammer and a railroad spike. These symbols represent the Vanderbilt steamship and railroad empire.

Throughout the house, we saw the symbol of the Vanderbilt family – four acorns, representing strength and long life. Dolphins, an ancient symbol of hospitality, were also prevalent, particularly in the Billiards Room, which boasted yellow alabaster marble walls from Switzerland and Tiffany wall sconces. Each room was more grand as the previous. The Morning Room contains silver wall panels depicting muses. At first it was thought the wall panels contained silver leaf, but it turned out to be platinum leaf. The Music Room has French music terms on the ceiling. The Library walls and cabinets are made from Circassian walnut, sourced from the borderlands of Russian and Turkey, with gold leaf pressed into the wood to look like a hand-tooled leather book. 

Bathrooms and Bedrooms

In addition to all of the public rooms, the Breakers has 20 bathrooms. In one, we saw an enormous bathtub, carved from a single block of marble. According to the audio tour, the cold marble is so thick, the tub had to be filled and drained several times before it was warm enough to get in. The tub also had 4 spigots – you had a choice of hot freshwater or saltwater, and cold freshwater or saltwater. The bathroom also contained a sitz bath – essentially, a bath you sit in like a chair, intended to relieve aches and pains after horseback riding.

We also toured several bedrooms. The most interesting feature I saw in the bedrooms was in Mrs. Vanderbilt’s room (yes, husband and wife had separate bedchambers). Next to the bed was a row of buttons on the wall (behind the telephone). Purportedly, these call buttons were used to summon servants.

Kitchen and pantry

Finally, we toured the enormous kitchen. A Cast iron coal and wood-burning stove stretches over 21 feet, with an enormous griddle. Next to the kitchen is a two-story butlers pantry, where all of the china and glassware was stored, including a large wall safe for the silver. 

It was a lot of fun to tour the mansion and see how the rich lived back in the Gilded Age. Just imagine living in a place like that!  If we had more time, we would tour a couple more mansions, all owned by the Preservation Society. Unfortunately, we only had time for one. After touring the Breakers, we resumed our exploration of the Cliff Walk. Check out the rest of the mansions along the Cliff Walk!