Transcript
Speaker: Hi everyone, happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker: We are taking this week off for the holiday, so we are bringing you an encore episode that I think you'll really enjoy if you haven't heard it before, or maybe even if you have.
Speaker: So without further ado, here are the Gilded Age mansions of Newport.
Speaker: The natural beauty of the ocean, the beaches and the rugged shore of Newport in Rhode Island makes this spot a perfect setting for the marble mansions and formal gardens.
Speaker: The handsome homes of the Astors, the Vanderbilts and the Belmonts.
Speaker: These families among others that have been in the public eye for generations dwell at Newport.
Speaker: Near the celebrated 8 mile cliff walk, a walk that guides the traveller to the best of beauty spots.
Speaker: The magnificent dwellings with their gardens running down to the sea.
Speaker: You feel that authenticity when you walk through the door of any of our houses.
Speaker: They're not manufactured to look like the colonial or guild of age.
Speaker: They are real.
Speaker: And I think that's what makes Newport really special.
Speaker: Hello, and welcome to Curious Objects and the Stories Behind Them, brought to you by the magazine Antiques.
Speaker: I'm Ben Miller, and our curious object, so to speak, isn't really an object at all.
Speaker: It's the town of Newport, Rhode Island.
Speaker: I'm going to take you on an adventure through the ambitious architecture, lavish interiors, and the very eccentric lives of the Newport elite.
Speaker: During this episode, you'll hear from official audio guides, docent-led tours, and even from some touring companions of mine.
Speaker: As always, there are pictures online at themagazineantiques.com slash podcast, and also on my Instagram at Objective Interest.
Speaker: Today's episode is sponsored by Freeman's, America's oldest auction house, located in Center City, Philadelphia.
Speaker: And we have another sponsor, Rinalda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Speaker: The Preservation Society of Newport County is a nonprofit which manages 11 historic properties and 88 acres of landscapes in Newport, Rhode Island.
Speaker: Their historic sites last year attracted over a million visitors.
Speaker: Of the properties under their care, the most well-known are those dating to the Gilded Age in the late 19th century when Newport became home, or at least a second home,
Speaker: to a prodigious array of American aristocracy.
Speaker: Astros and Vanderbilt summered here.
Speaker: Edith Wharton's 1921 novel, The Age of Innocence, paid tribute to it.
Speaker: And Newport was, for a time, synonymous with high society class and wealth.
Speaker: I'm speaking today with Trudy Cox, the CEO and Executive Director of the Preservation Society, as well as Ashley Householder, Curator of Exhibitions, and Jim Donahue, Curator of Historic Landscapes.
Speaker: Now, Trudy, I wanted to start with you.
Speaker: I mentioned the Vanderbilts, but who were some of the most prominent families?
Speaker: Well, certainly the Vanderbilt family and several branches of the Vanderbilt family who built the Elms and Marble House and Rough Point.
Speaker: You had the Berwyn family, Philadelphians, who ended up building the Elms.
Speaker: There was the Wetmore family that had been around for a good period of time, settled here in the 1850s and 60s, and then
Speaker: held onto the house that they built, Chateau-sur-Mer, for another 100 plus years, imagine.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: The collection of Kingscoat, which was a house built in the 1840s, much of that collection is 100% related to the house.
Speaker: So we're very fortunate that nothing really had to be brought in to furnish it.
Speaker: That's very unusual.
Speaker: So names like that.
Speaker: They were hiring the best architects in the world.
Speaker: and they were building the biggest summer cottages.
Speaker: Remember, they were only here for six to eight weeks every year, but they were building the biggest and the best, and they were trying to make the statement that this was the place to be.
Speaker: And frankly, it still is the place to be.
Speaker: Let's hop into Alva Vanderbilt's so-called cottage, Marble House.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Have you done these?
Speaker: I have not.
Speaker: Just press the tour button.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then you head down that way.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Welcome to Marble House, the summer house of William Kay and Alva Vanderbilt.
Speaker: Marble House is covered in marble inside and out.
Speaker: 500,000 cubic feet of marble, in fact.
Speaker: It was built between 1888 and 1892.
Speaker: When it opened, it was considered to be the most lavish house in America.
Speaker: And what happened during the Civil War?
Speaker: Well, what happened during the Civil War, it depends on where you were in this country.
Speaker: If you were a middle to upper class southerner, it was not unusual for you and your family to head to Europe, primarily Paris, and this is how Alva Vanderbilt got her start.
Speaker: Her family escaped
Speaker: to Europe, to Paris, and there as a young girl she learned everything French.
Speaker: She learned about French architecture, she learned the language, she learned the art, and when she and her family came back to the United States after the Civil War, in her mind was a French aesthetic.
Speaker: And so when she married William Vanderbilt and he gave her that magnificent gift of building a house for her 39th birthday, she hired Richard Morris Hunt and together
Speaker: they decided that they would model the house, marble house, after the Petit Trienon at Versailles.
Speaker: So many people from the south were heading to Europe and gaining their taste to bring it back to the United States.
Speaker: But can you tell me a little bit about, just sort of broadly speaking, what kind of objects did these families fill their homes with?
Speaker: So certainly, you know, the best of the best is what they bought.
Speaker: That's Ashley Householder, curator of exhibitions.
Speaker: The Wetmores certainly were world-class travelers and took an extended trip to Europe for a number of years.
Speaker: And they were great collectors, so they were buying the best that Europe had to offer in terms of porcelains and glassware.
Speaker: There's a Leon Marcotte suite of furniture at Chateau that we're very proud of.
Speaker: And was it all European or were there also American sources, Asian sources?
Speaker: Really European.
Speaker: I mean, they were emulating European royalty, so they would go on their grand tours and certainly bring back, again, the best of the market to showcase their wealth and to show...
Speaker: neighbors and friends that they were world travelers.
Speaker: So was there any thought to the fact that Newport was in fact this crucible of early American craftsmanship where some of the great early American decorative arts originated or did that enter into anyone's thinking?
Speaker: I think during the Gilded Age, it was a different aesthetic.
Speaker: They were building these enormous, gorgeous palaces, again, to emulate what was happening in Europe.
Speaker: So I do feel like at the time that the Vanderbilts and the Berwins were setting up shop, they were more interested in European decorative arts.
Speaker: Because that was an indication of class and style and sophistication.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Thank you so much for visiting.
Speaker: You can't even have a great use for your business.
Speaker: So hot takes, reactions, thoughts on the house, likes, dislikes, favorites, least favorites.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: It felt like a little bit homier.
Speaker: There's a lot of beautiful woodwork.
Speaker: Tomi is a relative term in this case.
Speaker: It's really hard for me to tell if these people are, like, what the character of the people are.
Speaker: Like, you walk into the rooms are so beautiful and pristine, but designed by someone else.
Speaker: And then you walk into something like, again, the dining room that looks terrifying.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: With all of the burgundy and leather.
Speaker: I was a little bummed that we couldn't see the kitchen.
Speaker: I really like seeing the kitchens and the bathrooms of all these places.
Speaker: and yeah.
Speaker: We've got a couple of bathrooms.
Speaker: I know, and I love the bathrooms.
Speaker: I think the toilets are the most fascinating thing.
Speaker: I just was looking at those wicker ones though, and I was like, oh my god, that looks so gross.
Speaker: Like, you could not clean that.
Speaker: It would just have poop particles everywhere.
Speaker: Well, I'm glad I got this all on tape.
Speaker: Ever wondered about the muses who inspired your favorite artists?
Speaker: Or how to start your collection of rare books?
Speaker: Freeman's, America's oldest auction house, has been telling the story of curious objects and collections since 1805.
Speaker: Discover Pennsylvania's craft legacy.
Speaker: Go behind the scenes at auctions and exhibitions.
Speaker: Learn the science behind colored diamonds.
Speaker: And find out who really owns graffiti.
Speaker: From modern masters to French furniture, Freeman's brings you the inside story, delivering the latest in art market news and events.
Speaker: I strongly recommend that you sign up for their bi-weekly newsletter, which you can do at their very spiffy website, freemansauction.com.
Speaker: The newsletter brings all of these stories and knowledge and more straight to your inbox.
Speaker: Visit Freeman's at freemansauction.com to learn more.
Speaker: Now, I have a personal interest in the aesthetic movement, and we actually handle silver from this period at the firm Shrubsall, where I'm director of research.
Speaker: So I was intrigued by the current exhibition at Newport Mansions curated by Ashley called Bohemian Beauty, the Aesthetic Movement, and Oscar Wilde's Newport.
Speaker: It's on display until November 4th, so you do still have time to go see it on the upper floor of Tessa Ulrich's mansion, Rosecliff.
Speaker: exhibition that's going on right now.
Speaker: So toward the end of the 19th century, this movement that we call the aesthetic movement took hold in America with influences from across Asia, with new ideas about
Speaker: incorporating nature into art, decorative arts, et cetera.
Speaker: Newport was no exception to the interest in this movement.
Speaker: And so I'm hoping you can tell me a little bit about what the aesthetic movement meant for Newport and how on earth that relates to Oscar Wilde.
Speaker: Yes, it's an interesting story.
Speaker: And the exhibition, you know, we're enjoying having it at Rose Cliff because it does incorporate three of our other properties.
Speaker: So we've discussed Chateau Cermere, Kingscote, and then the Isaac Bell House, which was built in 1893.
Speaker: So Chateau and Kingscote, as we discussed earlier, were these earlier properties, but then each family decided to make some renovations, add...
Speaker: whole other wings to the houses.
Speaker: So Kingscote, that happened in 1880, 81.
Speaker: Chateau was the late 70s.
Speaker: So again, these families had the opportunity to really incorporate any sort of furnishing plan or design or hire any architect that they wanted, and they chose to redesign them in the aesthetic style.
Speaker: And then the Oscar Wilde connection is really interesting because as you may know, he came on this great North American lecture tour in 1882.
Speaker: began in New York and was already the face of the British aesthetic movement by the time he came here.
Speaker: So welcome to Boquini Beauty.
Speaker: Yeah, I just want to take a ton of your time.
Speaker: Yeah, these are lenses from Ohio State.
Speaker: Ashley and I walked through the rooms of Rosecliff seeing beautifully handcrafted works of jewelry, furniture, silver, ceramics, alongside mementos of Oscar Wilde's visit to Newport in 1882.
Speaker: This was actually part of a national tour which took the 27-year-old Wilde across and around the country for 11 months.
Speaker: This is a pretty cool trail.
Speaker: Well, thank you.
Speaker: How well known was Oscar Wilde in America in 1882?
Speaker: Well, I think he was a poet back home and certainly hadn't written anything yet that we know him best for today.
Speaker: But he was a celebrity that people were curious about.
Speaker: So his fame had preceded him.
Speaker: And I think people came to hear him speak more to really catch a glimpse of him and to see what he was all about more than really hearing his
Speaker: thoughts on the decorative arts or the English Renaissance.
Speaker: Those were his two canned lectures when he came over.
Speaker: But what did he have to say about decorative arts?
Speaker: Well, we know there are these great accounts of his talk here in Newport.
Speaker: So he spoke at the Casino Theater on July 15th, and there are these wonderful newspaper accounts of who was in attendance, and certainly he was written about in every newspaper in every city in which he visited.
Speaker: Back home in Ireland, they were covering his tour.
Speaker: And he really was proselytizing for Americans to lead a more beautiful life and to surround themselves with beautiful objects.
Speaker: And he talked about seeing commuters in New York kind of beaten down on the train and not taking enough time out of their daily lives to enjoy beauty.
Speaker: I know nothing has changed, right?
Speaker: What would he say today?
Speaker: Good message, though.
Speaker: Good message.
Speaker: Yeah, well, and I'm sure that didn't fall on deaf ears in Newport.
Speaker: And the Vanderbilts came in late, Cornelius and Alice, Cornelius, who, of course, would go on to build the breakers.
Speaker: So I like to think that some of Oscar Wilde's message of aestheticism fell on his ears, inspired sort of his home decorating, yes.
Speaker: One thing Oscar Wilde would have found eminently familiar in Newport was the gardens, elaborate, expansive, manicured lawns in various styles, but certainly reminiscent of English country estates.
Speaker: No one knows more about these gardens than Jim Donoghue.
Speaker: Jim, we've talked about Newport as a place of refuge, and there's no refuge like the refuge of a curated garden.
Speaker: Tell me a little bit about the land that these homes were situated on and the significance of that.
Speaker: Well, much like their homes, the residents of the summer cottages extended their want for European environments out to their landscape.
Speaker: So we have landscapes that are very much like the Elms, which are a mix of Italian and French and all European styles mixed together, and they were meant to give instant heritage to the people who live there.
Speaker: Not every property we have is strictly neoclassic.
Speaker: Chateau Sommaire is picturesque in the English style.
Speaker: The Breakers is...
Speaker: a mixture of picturesque and neoclassical.
Speaker: So we have a range that represents how the landscape evolved from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so alongside the landscape design, there was actually some creative botany going on in the port.
Speaker: Quite a bit.
Speaker: You know, Quidnick Island from colonial days was known to be a great nursery area because the Gulf Stream comes close to the southern tip of the island.
Speaker: We have a very long growing season.
Speaker: I live north of here, and the growing season is much shorter than it is here.
Speaker: It's just always different, the weather here.
Speaker: So we had vineyards, we had nurseries from the 18th century.
Speaker: But during the Gilded Age, it really became a hub of plant collecting.
Speaker: During the 18th and 19th centuries, a lot of exploration went on in Asia, and new plants were shipped back.
Speaker: And all of our summer cottage residents were collecting plants just as they did artwork or china or anything else that they coveted.
Speaker: Tell me about George Bancroft and his roses.
Speaker: Well, how much time do you have?
Speaker: George Bancroft was truly a character.
Speaker: He was one of the premier historians of the 19th century.
Speaker: He wrote a 10 volume treatise on the history of the United States, but his avocation was really roses.
Speaker: And he picked up this hobby when he was in Europe as an ambassador.
Speaker: He was a very close friend of Kaiser Wilhelm, who was a maniacal sort of rose collector.
Speaker: And Kaiser Wilhelm gave him many roses to start.
Speaker: There was a bit of drama in Bancroft's life or around Bancroft's life.
Speaker: Well, there was in more than one way.
Speaker: I think you're probably referring to the American Beauty Rose or.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's a long story as well.
Speaker: For the longest time, we had attributed the American Beauty Rose to being discovered and or.
Speaker: bread at Rosecliff, which turns out not to be the case.
Speaker: It actually was a product of his Washington, D.C.
Speaker: gardener who had been given the challenge by Bancroft to come up with the first red hybrid perpetual rose that could be grown under glass because at that time you couldn't have roses in winter that were red.
Speaker: They just didn't exist.
Speaker: So Bancroft gave that challenge to his Washington, D.C.
Speaker: gardener, and somehow a French rose was renamed the American Beauty Rose and marketed as the American Beauty Rose.
Speaker: We don't know if it was mislabeled or his gardener was trying to pull a fast one, but in the end, when Bancroft died,
Speaker: The gardener had the four original American Beauty roses.
Speaker: They had not yet been commercially propagated.
Speaker: And one day his wife sold them for a pittance to a grower in Maryland without his knowledge.
Speaker: And he lost all rights to the American Beauty rose.
Speaker: He ended up on the streets.
Speaker: It was a really sad story.
Speaker: Okay, I promise I'll get away from Bancroft in just a second, but I also want to get into the sordid details of the Parkman murder.
Speaker: Oh, wow, how do you know that?
Speaker: We try to keep that a secret around here.
Speaker: I'm getting into dangerous territory here.
Speaker: Yes, this was a little grisly.
Speaker: This was a little grisly, and it wasn't... I knew, I had been looking at the Newport Atlas trying to figure out what the original layout of the Bancroft Rose Garden was.
Speaker: And in the 1876 Newport Atlas, it showed a plot of land in front of Rosecliff, fronting Bellevue Avenue, that said Eliza Parkman of Boston.
Speaker: No other women were listed on this deed, you know, these plots, and I thought that was interesting.
Speaker: But I also knew the name Parkman because of Francis Parkman, I thought, well, it can't be the same Parkman.
Speaker: So I started to read into it a little bit, and it turns out that Eliza Parkman was Francis Parkman's aunt by marriage.
Speaker: Francis Parkman was the premier Rosarian in the United States during the 19th century.
Speaker: He also was a Harvard historian like George Bancroft.
Speaker: They were colleagues.
Speaker: Bancroft was Parkman's mentor in many ways in terms of his history research.
Speaker: But Bancroft also promoted Parkman's research into roses.
Speaker: Parkman, to make a long story short, Parkman's uncle was a
Speaker: The victim of a notorious murder at the Harvard Medical School done by Professor Webster, who is a chemical or a chemist and chemical professor.
Speaker: Dr. Webster owed Mr. Parkman the elder about $4,000.
Speaker: It was money with interest.
Speaker: At that time, that would have equaled about $60,000 plus.
Speaker: Not nothing.
Speaker: Not nothing.
Speaker: So it was the day before Thanksgiving, 1849.
Speaker: Mr. Parkman went to see Mr. Webster and demand payment.
Speaker: Mr. Webster panicked and killed him and dismembered him and burned his body in the lab.
Speaker: Is that all?
Speaker: Is that all?
Speaker: His body was found in the privy of Harvard Medical School by the janitor.
Speaker: And the only way they were able to identify his body was by a pair of 19th century dentures.
Speaker: And this was the first American case that used forensic evidence to convict someone.
Speaker: Okay, so that story wasn't strictly about Newport, but I couldn't resist adding a wonderfully gruesome episode like that to the podcast.
Speaker: On that note, I want to take a minute, as I do every episode, to thank you very much for listening.
Speaker: If you like what you're hearing, spread the word.
Speaker: A great and easy way to do that is to leave a rating and a review on iTunes or tell a friend or a colleague about Curious Objects.
Speaker: As always, I love hearing your feedback.
Speaker: So please send me an email with your thoughts, comments, and suggestions to podcast at themagazineantiques.com or connect with me on Instagram at Objective Interest.
Speaker: Our second sponsor for this episode is Rinalda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Speaker: Rinalda House is more than just an elegant 1917 historic estate.
Speaker: It's also home to a compelling and surprisingly wide-ranging collection of fine and decorative arts.
Speaker: Now, if you listen to this podcast, you probably already like house museums.
Speaker: But, Reynold House goes beyond the typical displays of period furniture and old portraits.
Speaker: When you visit, you'll find thought-provoking objects like American artist Martin Johnson Heed's most famous orchid and hummingbird painting, tobacco baron R.J.
Speaker: Reynolds' mink coat, and century-old farm buildings now serving crepes and rosé.
Speaker: For any other museums out there listening, let me just say that this is a great idea.
Speaker: They also have a brand new app you can download called Rinalda Revealed, which takes you on a virtual tour of the museum and grounds.
Speaker: I downloaded that myself and had a lot of fun with it.
Speaker: I highly recommend checking it out at rinalda.org.
Speaker: And of course, planning your visit to the house in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Speaker: That's R-E-Y-N-O-L-D-A dot org.
Speaker: You've recently undertaken a restoration of the boiler room and the sort of the underbelly of the breakers.
Speaker: For any of the three of you, what did you discover during that restoration process?
Speaker: When the first breakers burned down and Cornelius Vanderbilt was planning the second breakers.
Speaker: This was in 1892, right?
Speaker: His main emphasis was, I am going to separate the boiler from the house.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: That was paramount in his planning for the building.
Speaker: And so the boiler room is 300 plus feet away under a cottage that for all intents and purposes is a cottage that hides a chimney from the boiler room.
Speaker: That's really what it is.
Speaker: It's at the front gates of the breakers.
Speaker: The boiler room was in very bad shape, really bad.
Speaker: It flooded all the time.
Speaker: every one of the beams was rusted out.
Speaker: But we thought it would be a pretty interesting room to see, an interesting story, and then we began to think, wouldn't it be fun to take people from the boiler room through that tunnel and then take them through the basement?
Speaker: Well, now we are under the main house.
Speaker: As we go through this basement, you'll notice every so often there'll be one of these stanchions.
Speaker: And that will tell you where you are in relationship to the actual rooms above.
Speaker: You know, when you think about it, how did, back in 1895, how did the heat get into all 70 rooms?
Speaker: How did you get water to all the bathrooms and the kitchen?
Speaker: How did the elevators work?
Speaker: It's an interesting technology story.
Speaker: I think it's so amusing that we found a letter that,
Speaker: Cornelius Vanderbilt wrote a letter to many of his friends saying, I've heard about this man named Thomas Edison, and I've heard about this new thing called electricity, and I think it might be valuable if we would all get together and meet with him and learn more.
Speaker: You scholars of electricity know that
Speaker: forth a little bit on how best to deliver electric power.
Speaker: And you might be surprised to know that in the beginning, most of the houses had both.
Speaker: Not only alternating current, but also direct current.
Speaker: Now, the infrastructure supporting the operation of these mansions wasn't just mechanical and technological.
Speaker: The most important support, of course, was the enormous staff dedicated to making each house and each party run smoothly.
Speaker: And any discussion of the Gilded Age has to acknowledge the chasm between the lifestyles of the elite and those of the people who served them.
Speaker: Not to mention the workforce whose labor built the wealth of these powerful families in the first place.
Speaker: It doesn't take too much imagination to find parallels between their economic times and ours.
Speaker: I want to talk a little bit about the social environment or the social and socioeconomic dynamic that's happening at this time.
Speaker: Because the Gilded Age was a period of civil unrest and strife and there were riots in New York and elsewhere.
Speaker: There were of course labor disputes leading to violent confrontations around the country.
Speaker: How did life in Newport relate to that struggle, that dynamic?
Speaker: I'll ask this to any of you who want to speak to that.
Speaker: Was Newport a refuge for the elite from that kind of difficulty, or did some of that seep in through the cracks here as well?
Speaker: It was absolutely a refuge, except for the fact that Mr. Berwind did face a strike by his staff at the Elms where they all walked out on him,
Speaker: because they were unhappy with the working conditions.
Speaker: Because imagine Newport during the height of summer, there was a lot of entertaining.
Speaker: Every night there was a party somewhere.
Speaker: Somebody was having a dinner.
Speaker: Somebody was having a dinner dance.
Speaker: Your whole day was filled with recreation from morning tennis to swims at Bailey's Beach to getting on a coach in the afternoon with four horses pulling you along.
Speaker: sort of showing off your wares, your best hats, whatever your, the best finery probably came from Europe.
Speaker: It must have been an exhausting period of time for those who were partaking, but also for those who were the workers.
Speaker: But in general, this was a place where you could get away from the world weary world and enjoy yourself, and that's how they were.
Speaker: That's how they were living their lives.
Speaker: That strike at the Elms didn't last for very long.
Speaker: He just brought in a whole new team of people and kept going on.
Speaker: Yeah, that was easy, huh?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And the other thing is that I think that from an economic perspective, these families were hiring a lot of local people for a fairly short period of time.
Speaker: So their work for the family, for
Speaker: maybe let's say two months at max, probably paid for the whole year.
Speaker: So I guess there was a weighing in the minds of people who were working for the families, even though yes, New York was a different place, and yes, Chicago was a different place, that I gotta sew while the sun is shining.
Speaker: This is when I'm going to make things good for my family for the rest of the year.
Speaker: So there may have been a dynamic amongst
Speaker: the workers here that said, we're just going to work and we're going to, if we're unhappy, so what?
Speaker: Well, that's one possibility.
Speaker: My friend Zach Mitchell had another theory.
Speaker: Once you specialize in being a Victorian butler, though, and you have like no other job opportunities, like where are you going to go?
Speaker: Judy, how is it that these great mansions have now come to be, many of them, museums rather than homes for today's 1% or.1%ers?
Speaker: The history of the organization and how we have acquired all 11 is really a fascinating one because it started in the 1940s when a colonial house down on the waterfront, Hunter House,
Speaker: was really in distress and the rumor around town was that the magnificent panels from the interior of the house were going to be taken out of the house
Speaker: and reinstalled at the Met.
Speaker: Some people say this story is not true.
Speaker: People from the Met say it's not true.
Speaker: We all say it is true.
Speaker: And so... Well, no one from the Met is here right now.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: And a group of people, primarily women, rose up and said, those panels are Newport's heritage.
Speaker: They don't belong anywhere else.
Speaker: And the way to save them is to save the house.
Speaker: And they went on a campaign.
Speaker: and bought the Hunter House.
Speaker: But the Hunter House at that point had no furniture and it also needed a tremendous amount of work.
Speaker: It really needed to be preserved.
Speaker: So the next campaign was to begin to restore the house.
Speaker: And of course there wasn't a whole lot of money around.
Speaker: So Catherine Warren, our founder, there she is over on that wall.
Speaker: Oh, over there.
Speaker: Yep, yep.
Speaker: She went on
Speaker: a campaign to get her friends interested in the colonial part of Newport and in the Hunter House specifically.
Speaker: And she entered into an agreement with her very good friend, Countess Sashaney, who owned the Breakers and who offered to open up the first floor of the Breakers to tours for a dollar.
Speaker: and the money raised from those tours, this is back in 1948, would be plowed into the restoration of Hunter House.
Speaker: What a phenomenal thing to do.
Speaker: Great act of philanthropy by the Vanderbilt family.
Speaker: She was a direct descendant, Countess.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Sashany.
Speaker: And so she's now living on the second and third floors, and her first floor is open up for tours.
Speaker: And that resulted in
Speaker: a lot of interest, I guess, in Newport in general.
Speaker: And then along in the early 1960s, Harold Vanderbilt bought from the Prince family Marble House.
Speaker: His family had lived in it previously, sold it to the princes.
Speaker: He bought it back and he gave it to the Preservation Society.
Speaker: And then Chateau-sur-Mer came along and other houses over the period of time.
Speaker: came along.
Speaker: Some of them were given to us, some of them were sold to us, and here we are today with 11 historic houses representing a range from the 1740s all the way through 1902.
Speaker: So every style of domestic American architecture is on view here in Newport, all within walking distance.
Speaker: I think what's so unique about Newport, as opposed to
Speaker: Sturbridge or Plymouth or Williamsburg, no disparagement meant here at all, but every single one of our houses is real.
Speaker: They are houses that were lived in and worked in and entertained in, and you feel that authenticity when you walk through the door of any of our houses.
Speaker: They are not manufactured to look like the colonial or guild of age.
Speaker: They are real.
Speaker: And I think that's what makes Newport really special.
Speaker: What have we missed?
Speaker: What should we cover that we haven't covered?
Speaker: Did we say everything that needs to be said?
Speaker: We could talk for hours.
Speaker: That's not a good question to ask us, Ben, because we really could talk for hours.
Speaker: Well, thank you, all of you, so much for joining me.
Speaker: This has been a real pleasure.
Speaker: Thank you, Ben.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: And thanks again to all of you for listening.
Speaker: I'd like to thank our sponsors once more, Freeman's Auction House and Rinalda House.
Speaker: And a huge thank you to the Preservation Society of Newport County for making this episode possible.
Speaker: Don't forget to send me your feedback at podcast at themagazineantiques.com.
Speaker: And don't forget to subscribe and rate Curious Objects on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker: Today's episode was edited and produced by Sammy Delati.
Speaker: Our music is by Trap Rabbit.
Speaker: And I'm your host, Ben Miller.
