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THANKSGIVING THROWBACK: The House that Vanderbilt—Gilded Age Mansions of Newport, RI
21 Plays2 years ago
In this special throwback episode of Curious Objects, Ben Miller takes listeners on a virtual tour of the suite of beaux-arts abodes built for the Vanderbilts, Oelrichs, Astors, and Berwinds by the likes of Richard Morris Hunt and Stanford White. These houses—referred to as “cottages” by their nouveau riche owners—have been lovingly maintained by the Preservation Society of Newport County. The organization’s CEO and executive director Trudy Coxe, curator of exhibitions Ashley Householder, and curator of historic landscapes and horticulture Jim Donahue give Ben the lowdown on the almost three hundred years of architectural history preserved here . . . and, of course, the strife and scandal that stalked the lives of the houses’ owners (spoiler: murder and rosarian shenanigans abound).
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Transcript
Introduction and Encore Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi everyone, happy Thanksgiving.
00:00:02
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.
00:00:12
Speaker
So without further ado, here are the Gilded Age mansions of Newport.
00:00:18
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.
00:00:28
Speaker
The handsome homes of the Astors, the Vanderbilts and the Belmonts.
00:00:33
Speaker
These families among others that have been in the public eye for generations dwell at Newport.
00:00:38
Speaker
Near the celebrated 8 mile cliff walk, a walk that guides the traveller to the best of beauty spots.
00:00:44
Speaker
The magnificent dwellings with their gardens running down to the sea.
00:00:54
Speaker
You feel that authenticity when you walk through the door of any of our houses.
00:01:05
Speaker
They're not manufactured to look like the colonial or guild of age.
00:01:10
Speaker
They are real.
00:01:12
Speaker
And I think that's what makes Newport really special.
Introduction to 'Curious Objects' and Newport Focus
00:01:15
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Curious Objects and the Stories Behind Them, brought to you by the magazine Antiques.
00:01:20
Speaker
I'm Ben Miller, and our curious object, so to speak, isn't really an object at all.
00:01:25
Speaker
It's the town of Newport, Rhode Island.
00:01:27
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.
00:01:35
Speaker
During this episode, you'll hear from official audio guides, docent-led tours, and even from some touring companions of mine.
00:01:42
Speaker
As always, there are pictures online at themagazineantiques.com slash podcast, and also on my Instagram at Objective Interest.
00:01:50
Speaker
Today's episode is sponsored by Freeman's, America's oldest auction house, located in Center City, Philadelphia.
00:01:57
Speaker
And we have another sponsor, Rinalda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
00:02:09
Speaker
The Preservation Society of Newport County is a nonprofit which manages 11 historic properties and 88 acres of landscapes in Newport, Rhode Island.
00:02:19
Speaker
Their historic sites last year attracted over a million visitors.
00:02:23
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,
00:02:31
Speaker
to a prodigious array of American aristocracy.
00:02:35
Speaker
Astros and Vanderbilt summered here.
00:02:37
Speaker
Edith Wharton's 1921 novel, The Age of Innocence, paid tribute to it.
00:02:41
Speaker
And Newport was, for a time, synonymous with high society class and wealth.
The Architectural Grandeur of Newport's Elite
00:02:46
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.
00:03:00
Speaker
Now, Trudy, I wanted to start with you.
00:03:02
Speaker
I mentioned the Vanderbilts, but who were some of the most prominent families?
00:03:05
Speaker
Well, certainly the Vanderbilt family and several branches of the Vanderbilt family who built the Elms and Marble House and Rough Point.
00:03:15
Speaker
You had the Berwyn family, Philadelphians, who ended up building the Elms.
00:03:21
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
00:03:30
Speaker
held onto the house that they built, Chateau-sur-Mer, for another 100 plus years, imagine.
00:03:35
Speaker
Really?
00:03:37
Speaker
The collection of Kingscoat, which was a house built in the 1840s, much of that collection is 100% related to the house.
00:03:46
Speaker
So we're very fortunate that nothing really had to be brought in to furnish it.
00:03:52
Speaker
That's very unusual.
00:03:53
Speaker
So names like that.
00:03:56
Speaker
They were hiring the best architects in the world.
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Speaker
and they were building the biggest summer cottages.
00:04:02
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.
00:04:13
Speaker
And frankly, it still is the place to be.
00:04:16
Speaker
Let's hop into Alva Vanderbilt's so-called cottage, Marble House.
00:04:21
Speaker
No.
00:04:22
Speaker
Have you done these?
00:04:23
Speaker
I have not.
00:04:24
Speaker
Just press the tour button.
00:04:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:28
Speaker
And then you head down that way.
00:04:31
Speaker
Great.
00:04:34
Speaker
Welcome to Marble House, the summer house of William Kay and Alva Vanderbilt.
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Speaker
Marble House is covered in marble inside and out.
00:04:43
Speaker
500,000 cubic feet of marble, in fact.
00:04:48
Speaker
It was built between 1888 and 1892.
00:04:50
Speaker
When it opened, it was considered to be the most lavish house in America.
00:04:56
Speaker
And what happened during the Civil War?
00:04:59
Speaker
Well, what happened during the Civil War, it depends on where you were in this country.
00:05:03
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.
00:05:16
Speaker
Her family escaped
00:05:18
Speaker
to Europe, to Paris, and there as a young girl she learned everything French.
00:05:24
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.
00:05:36
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
00:05:48
Speaker
they decided that they would model the house, marble house, after the Petit Trienon at Versailles.
00:05:56
Speaker
So many people from the south were heading to Europe and gaining their taste to bring it back to the United States.
00:06:05
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?
00:06:15
Speaker
So certainly, you know, the best of the best is what they bought.
00:06:19
Speaker
That's Ashley Householder, curator of exhibitions.
00:06:22
Speaker
The Wetmores certainly were world-class travelers and took an extended trip to Europe for a number of years.
00:06:30
Speaker
And they were great collectors, so they were buying the best that Europe had to offer in terms of porcelains and glassware.
00:06:42
Speaker
There's a Leon Marcotte suite of furniture at Chateau that we're very proud of.
00:06:46
Speaker
And was it all European or were there also American sources, Asian sources?
00:06:53
Speaker
Really European.
00:06:54
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...
00:07:06
Speaker
neighbors and friends that they were world travelers.
00:07:09
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?
00:07:22
Speaker
I think during the Gilded Age, it was a different aesthetic.
00:07:25
Speaker
They were building these enormous, gorgeous palaces, again, to emulate what was happening in Europe.
00:07:32
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.
00:07:39
Speaker
Because that was an indication of class and style and sophistication.
00:07:44
Speaker
That's right.
00:07:47
Speaker
Thank you so much for visiting.
00:07:49
Speaker
You can't even have a great use for your business.
00:07:57
Speaker
So hot takes, reactions, thoughts on the house, likes, dislikes, favorites, least favorites.
00:08:04
Speaker
I like it.
00:08:05
Speaker
It felt like a little bit homier.
00:08:06
Speaker
There's a lot of beautiful woodwork.
00:08:08
Speaker
Tomi is a relative term in this case.
00:08:10
Speaker
It's really hard for me to tell if these people are, like, what the character of the people are.
00:08:15
Speaker
Like, you walk into the rooms are so beautiful and pristine, but designed by someone else.
00:08:22
Speaker
And then you walk into something like, again, the dining room that looks terrifying.
00:08:27
Speaker
Right.
00:08:28
Speaker
With all of the burgundy and leather.
00:08:30
Speaker
I was a little bummed that we couldn't see the kitchen.
00:08:33
Speaker
I really like seeing the kitchens and the bathrooms of all these places.
00:08:38
Speaker
and yeah.
00:08:40
Speaker
We've got a couple of bathrooms.
00:08:41
Speaker
I know, and I love the bathrooms.
00:08:43
Speaker
I think the toilets are the most fascinating thing.
00:08:46
Speaker
I just was looking at those wicker ones though, and I was like, oh my god, that looks so gross.
00:08:50
Speaker
Like, you could not clean that.
00:08:52
Speaker
It would just have poop particles everywhere.
00:08:56
Speaker
Well, I'm glad I got this all on tape.
00:09:08
Speaker
Ever wondered about the muses who inspired your favorite artists?
00:09:11
Speaker
Or how to start your collection of rare books?
00:09:15
Speaker
Freeman's, America's oldest auction house, has been telling the story of curious objects and collections since 1805.
00:09:21
Speaker
Discover Pennsylvania's craft legacy.
00:09:24
Speaker
Go behind the scenes at auctions and exhibitions.
00:09:26
Speaker
Learn the science behind colored diamonds.
00:09:28
Speaker
And find out who really owns graffiti.
00:09:31
Speaker
From modern masters to French furniture, Freeman's brings you the inside story, delivering the latest in art market news and events.
00:09:39
Speaker
I strongly recommend that you sign up for their bi-weekly newsletter, which you can do at their very spiffy website, freemansauction.com.
00:09:47
Speaker
The newsletter brings all of these stories and knowledge and more straight to your inbox.
00:09:52
Speaker
Visit Freeman's at freemansauction.com to learn more.
Influence of Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement
00:10:00
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.
00:10:07
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.
00:10:16
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.
00:10:24
Speaker
exhibition that's going on right now.
00:10:26
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
00:10:40
Speaker
incorporating nature into art, decorative arts, et cetera.
00:10:45
Speaker
Newport was no exception to the interest in this movement.
00:10:49
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.
00:10:58
Speaker
Yes, it's an interesting story.
00:11:01
Speaker
And the exhibition, you know, we're enjoying having it at Rose Cliff because it does incorporate three of our other properties.
00:11:08
Speaker
So we've discussed Chateau Cermere, Kingscote, and then the Isaac Bell House, which was built in 1893.
00:11:15
Speaker
So Chateau and Kingscote, as we discussed earlier, were these earlier properties, but then each family decided to make some renovations, add...
00:11:25
Speaker
whole other wings to the houses.
00:11:27
Speaker
So Kingscote, that happened in 1880, 81.
00:11:31
Speaker
Chateau was the late 70s.
00:11:33
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.
00:11:44
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.
00:11:53
Speaker
began in New York and was already the face of the British aesthetic movement by the time he came here.
00:11:59
Speaker
So welcome to Boquini Beauty.
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, I just want to take a ton of your time.
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, these are lenses from Ohio State.
00:12:09
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.
00:12:18
Speaker
This was actually part of a national tour which took the 27-year-old Wilde across and around the country for 11 months.
00:12:26
Speaker
This is a pretty cool trail.
00:12:27
Speaker
Well, thank you.
00:12:29
Speaker
How well known was Oscar Wilde in America in 1882?
00:12:32
Speaker
Well, I think he was a poet back home and certainly hadn't written anything yet that we know him best for today.
00:12:40
Speaker
But he was a celebrity that people were curious about.
00:12:43
Speaker
So his fame had preceded him.
00:12:45
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
00:12:54
Speaker
thoughts on the decorative arts or the English Renaissance.
00:12:58
Speaker
Those were his two canned lectures when he came over.
00:13:01
Speaker
But what did he have to say about decorative arts?
00:13:04
Speaker
Well, we know there are these great accounts of his talk here in Newport.
00:13:08
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.
00:13:20
Speaker
Back home in Ireland, they were covering his tour.
00:13:23
Speaker
And he really was proselytizing for Americans to lead a more beautiful life and to surround themselves with beautiful objects.
00:13:32
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.
00:13:42
Speaker
I know nothing has changed, right?
00:13:44
Speaker
What would he say today?
00:13:46
Speaker
Good message, though.
00:13:48
Speaker
Good message.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah, well, and I'm sure that didn't fall on deaf ears in Newport.
00:13:54
Speaker
And the Vanderbilts came in late, Cornelius and Alice, Cornelius, who, of course, would go on to build the breakers.
00:14:00
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.
00:14:10
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.
00:14:21
Speaker
No one knows more about these gardens than Jim Donoghue.
00:14:24
Speaker
Jim, we've talked about Newport as a place of refuge, and there's no refuge like the refuge of a curated garden.
00:14:34
Speaker
Tell me a little bit about the land that these homes were situated on and the significance of that.
00:14:40
Speaker
Well, much like their homes, the residents of the summer cottages extended their want for European environments out to their landscape.
00:14:49
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.
00:15:01
Speaker
Not every property we have is strictly neoclassic.
00:15:04
Speaker
Chateau Sommaire is picturesque in the English style.
00:15:08
Speaker
The Breakers is...
00:15:09
Speaker
a mixture of picturesque and neoclassical.
00:15:12
Speaker
So we have a range that represents how the landscape evolved from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century.
00:15:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:19
Speaker
And so alongside the landscape design, there was actually some creative botany going on in the port.
00:15:27
Speaker
Quite a bit.
00:15:28
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.
00:15:38
Speaker
We have a very long growing season.
00:15:40
Speaker
I live north of here, and the growing season is much shorter than it is here.
00:15:43
Speaker
It's just always different, the weather here.
00:15:45
Speaker
So we had vineyards, we had nurseries from the 18th century.
00:15:49
Speaker
But during the Gilded Age, it really became a hub of plant collecting.
00:15:53
Speaker
During the 18th and 19th centuries, a lot of exploration went on in Asia, and new plants were shipped back.
00:15:59
Speaker
And all of our summer cottage residents were collecting plants just as they did artwork or china or anything else that they coveted.
00:16:08
Speaker
Tell me about George Bancroft and his roses.
00:16:12
Speaker
Well, how much time do you have?
00:16:15
Speaker
George Bancroft was truly a character.
00:16:17
Speaker
He was one of the premier historians of the 19th century.
00:16:21
Speaker
He wrote a 10 volume treatise on the history of the United States, but his avocation was really roses.
00:16:27
Speaker
And he picked up this hobby when he was in Europe as an ambassador.
00:16:30
Speaker
He was a very close friend of Kaiser Wilhelm, who was a maniacal sort of rose collector.
00:16:36
Speaker
And Kaiser Wilhelm gave him many roses to start.
00:16:38
Speaker
There was a bit of drama in Bancroft's life or around Bancroft's life.
00:16:45
Speaker
Well, there was in more than one way.
00:16:48
Speaker
I think you're probably referring to the American Beauty Rose or.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:51
Speaker
So that's a long story as well.
00:16:53
Speaker
For the longest time, we had attributed the American Beauty Rose to being discovered and or.
00:16:58
Speaker
bread at Rosecliff, which turns out not to be the case.
00:17:01
Speaker
It actually was a product of his Washington, D.C.
00:17:04
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.
00:17:15
Speaker
They just didn't exist.
00:17:16
Speaker
So Bancroft gave that challenge to his Washington, D.C.
00:17:20
Speaker
gardener, and somehow a French rose was renamed the American Beauty Rose and marketed as the American Beauty Rose.
00:17:27
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,
00:17:35
Speaker
The gardener had the four original American Beauty roses.
00:17:39
Speaker
They had not yet been commercially propagated.
00:17:43
Speaker
And one day his wife sold them for a pittance to a grower in Maryland without his knowledge.
00:17:49
Speaker
And he lost all rights to the American Beauty rose.
00:17:52
Speaker
He ended up on the streets.
00:17:55
Speaker
It was a really sad story.
The Parkman Murder Case
00:17:57
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.
00:18:05
Speaker
Oh, wow, how do you know that?
00:18:07
Speaker
We try to keep that a secret around here.
00:18:10
Speaker
I'm getting into dangerous territory here.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yes, this was a little grisly.
00:18:15
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.
00:18:24
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.
00:18:34
Speaker
No other women were listed on this deed, you know, these plots, and I thought that was interesting.
00:18:38
Speaker
But I also knew the name Parkman because of Francis Parkman, I thought, well, it can't be the same Parkman.
00:18:43
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.
00:18:51
Speaker
Francis Parkman was the premier Rosarian in the United States during the 19th century.
00:18:56
Speaker
He also was a Harvard historian like George Bancroft.
00:19:00
Speaker
They were colleagues.
00:19:02
Speaker
Bancroft was Parkman's mentor in many ways in terms of his history research.
00:19:08
Speaker
But Bancroft also promoted Parkman's research into roses.
00:19:14
Speaker
Parkman, to make a long story short, Parkman's uncle was a
00:19:19
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.
00:19:30
Speaker
Dr. Webster owed Mr. Parkman the elder about $4,000.
00:19:35
Speaker
It was money with interest.
00:19:36
Speaker
At that time, that would have equaled about $60,000 plus.
00:19:38
Speaker
Not nothing.
00:19:40
Speaker
Not nothing.
00:19:41
Speaker
So it was the day before Thanksgiving, 1849.
00:19:46
Speaker
Mr. Parkman went to see Mr. Webster and demand payment.
00:19:50
Speaker
Mr. Webster panicked and killed him and dismembered him and burned his body in the lab.
00:19:56
Speaker
Is that all?
00:19:57
Speaker
Is that all?
00:19:58
Speaker
His body was found in the privy of Harvard Medical School by the janitor.
00:20:02
Speaker
And the only way they were able to identify his body was by a pair of 19th century dentures.
00:20:09
Speaker
And this was the first American case that used forensic evidence to convict someone.
00:20:13
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.
00:20:21
Speaker
On that note, I want to take a minute, as I do every episode, to thank you very much for listening.
00:20:26
Speaker
If you like what you're hearing, spread the word.
00:20:29
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.
00:20:36
Speaker
As always, I love hearing your feedback.
00:20:38
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.
00:20:51
Speaker
Our second sponsor for this episode is Rinalda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
00:20:58
Speaker
Rinalda House is more than just an elegant 1917 historic estate.
00:21:03
Speaker
It's also home to a compelling and surprisingly wide-ranging collection of fine and decorative arts.
00:21:08
Speaker
Now, if you listen to this podcast, you probably already like house museums.
00:21:12
Speaker
But, Reynold House goes beyond the typical displays of period furniture and old portraits.
00:21:17
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.
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Speaker
Reynolds' mink coat, and century-old farm buildings now serving crepes and rosé.
00:21:31
Speaker
For any other museums out there listening, let me just say that this is a great idea.
00:21:36
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.
00:21:44
Speaker
I downloaded that myself and had a lot of fun with it.
00:21:47
Speaker
I highly recommend checking it out at rinalda.org.
00:21:51
Speaker
And of course, planning your visit to the house in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
00:21:55
Speaker
That's R-E-Y-N-O-L-D-A dot org.
00:22:06
Speaker
You've recently undertaken a restoration of the boiler room and the sort of the underbelly of the breakers.
00:22:15
Speaker
For any of the three of you, what did you discover during that restoration process?
00:22:20
Speaker
When the first breakers burned down and Cornelius Vanderbilt was planning the second breakers.
00:22:27
Speaker
This was in 1892, right?
00:22:29
Speaker
His main emphasis was, I am going to separate the boiler from the house.
00:22:34
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:22:35
Speaker
That was paramount in his planning for the building.
00:22:38
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.
00:22:51
Speaker
That's really what it is.
00:22:52
Speaker
It's at the front gates of the breakers.
00:22:55
Speaker
The boiler room was in very bad shape, really bad.
00:23:00
Speaker
It flooded all the time.
00:23:02
Speaker
every one of the beams was rusted out.
00:23:05
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?
00:23:20
Speaker
Well, now we are under the main house.
00:23:23
Speaker
As we go through this basement, you'll notice every so often there'll be one of these stanchions.
00:23:30
Speaker
And that will tell you where you are in relationship to the actual rooms above.
00:23:37
Speaker
You know, when you think about it, how did, back in 1895, how did the heat get into all 70 rooms?
00:23:45
Speaker
How did you get water to all the bathrooms and the kitchen?
00:23:50
Speaker
How did the elevators work?
00:23:53
Speaker
It's an interesting technology story.
00:23:56
Speaker
I think it's so amusing that we found a letter that,
00:24:00
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.
00:24:19
Speaker
You scholars of electricity know that
00:24:26
Speaker
forth a little bit on how best to deliver electric power.
00:24:31
Speaker
And you might be surprised to know that in the beginning, most of the houses had both.
00:24:36
Speaker
Not only alternating current, but also direct current.
00:24:46
Speaker
Now, the infrastructure supporting the operation of these mansions wasn't just mechanical and technological.
Social Dynamics and Labor in the Gilded Age
00:24:51
Speaker
The most important support, of course, was the enormous staff dedicated to making each house and each party run smoothly.
00:24:57
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.
00:25:05
Speaker
Not to mention the workforce whose labor built the wealth of these powerful families in the first place.
00:25:09
Speaker
It doesn't take too much imagination to find parallels between their economic times and ours.
00:25:14
Speaker
I want to talk a little bit about the social environment or the social and socioeconomic dynamic that's happening at this time.
00:25:25
Speaker
Because the Gilded Age was a period of civil unrest and strife and there were riots in New York and elsewhere.
00:25:33
Speaker
There were of course labor disputes leading to violent confrontations around the country.
00:25:41
Speaker
How did life in Newport relate to that struggle, that dynamic?
00:25:45
Speaker
I'll ask this to any of you who want to speak to that.
00:25:49
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?
00:25:58
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,
00:26:11
Speaker
because they were unhappy with the working conditions.
00:26:14
Speaker
Because imagine Newport during the height of summer, there was a lot of entertaining.
00:26:20
Speaker
Every night there was a party somewhere.
00:26:22
Speaker
Somebody was having a dinner.
00:26:23
Speaker
Somebody was having a dinner dance.
00:26:27
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.
00:26:39
Speaker
sort of showing off your wares, your best hats, whatever your, the best finery probably came from Europe.
00:26:46
Speaker
It must have been an exhausting period of time for those who were partaking, but also for those who were the workers.
00:26:54
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.
00:27:07
Speaker
That's how they were living their lives.
00:27:09
Speaker
That strike at the Elms didn't last for very long.
00:27:12
Speaker
He just brought in a whole new team of people and kept going on.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yeah, that was easy, huh?
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:19
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.
00:27:33
Speaker
So their work for the family, for
00:27:37
Speaker
maybe let's say two months at max, probably paid for the whole year.
00:27:43
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.
00:27:57
Speaker
This is when I'm going to make things good for my family for the rest of the year.
00:28:03
Speaker
So there may have been a dynamic amongst
00:28:06
Speaker
the workers here that said, we're just going to work and we're going to, if we're unhappy, so what?
00:28:14
Speaker
Well, that's one possibility.
00:28:15
Speaker
My friend Zach Mitchell had another theory.
00:28:17
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?
00:28:38
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?
Preservation of Newport's Historic Houses
00:28:51
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,
00:29:08
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
00:29:20
Speaker
and reinstalled at the Met.
00:29:23
Speaker
Some people say this story is not true.
00:29:25
Speaker
People from the Met say it's not true.
00:29:28
Speaker
We all say it is true.
00:29:30
Speaker
And so... Well, no one from the Met is here right now.
00:29:32
Speaker
That's right.
00:29:35
Speaker
And a group of people, primarily women, rose up and said, those panels are Newport's heritage.
00:29:44
Speaker
They don't belong anywhere else.
00:29:46
Speaker
And the way to save them is to save the house.
00:29:48
Speaker
And they went on a campaign.
00:29:50
Speaker
and bought the Hunter House.
00:29:52
Speaker
But the Hunter House at that point had no furniture and it also needed a tremendous amount of work.
00:29:58
Speaker
It really needed to be preserved.
00:30:01
Speaker
So the next campaign was to begin to restore the house.
00:30:05
Speaker
And of course there wasn't a whole lot of money around.
00:30:09
Speaker
So Catherine Warren, our founder, there she is over on that wall.
00:30:13
Speaker
Oh, over there.
00:30:14
Speaker
Yep, yep.
00:30:15
Speaker
She went on
00:30:17
Speaker
a campaign to get her friends interested in the colonial part of Newport and in the Hunter House specifically.
00:30:27
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.
00:30:43
Speaker
and the money raised from those tours, this is back in 1948, would be plowed into the restoration of Hunter House.
00:30:52
Speaker
What a phenomenal thing to do.
00:30:55
Speaker
Great act of philanthropy by the Vanderbilt family.
00:30:58
Speaker
She was a direct descendant, Countess.
00:31:00
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:00
Speaker
Sashany.
00:31:01
Speaker
And so she's now living on the second and third floors, and her first floor is open up for tours.
00:31:07
Speaker
And that resulted in
00:31:11
Speaker
a lot of interest, I guess, in Newport in general.
00:31:14
Speaker
And then along in the early 1960s, Harold Vanderbilt bought from the Prince family Marble House.
00:31:24
Speaker
His family had lived in it previously, sold it to the princes.
00:31:29
Speaker
He bought it back and he gave it to the Preservation Society.
00:31:34
Speaker
And then Chateau-sur-Mer came along and other houses over the period of time.
00:31:38
Speaker
came along.
00:31:39
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.
00:31:52
Speaker
So every style of domestic American architecture is on view here in Newport, all within walking distance.
00:32:00
Speaker
I think what's so unique about Newport, as opposed to
00:32:04
Speaker
Sturbridge or Plymouth or Williamsburg, no disparagement meant here at all, but every single one of our houses is real.
00:32:13
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.
00:32:25
Speaker
They are not manufactured to look like the colonial or guild of age.
00:32:30
Speaker
They are real.
00:32:32
Speaker
And I think that's what makes Newport really special.
00:32:36
Speaker
What have we missed?
Credits and Closing Remarks
00:32:38
Speaker
What should we cover that we haven't covered?
00:32:41
Speaker
Did we say everything that needs to be said?
00:32:43
Speaker
We could talk for hours.
00:32:45
Speaker
That's not a good question to ask us, Ben, because we really could talk for hours.
00:32:50
Speaker
Well, thank you, all of you, so much for joining me.
00:32:53
Speaker
This has been a real pleasure.
00:32:54
Speaker
Thank you, Ben.
00:32:54
Speaker
Thank you.
00:33:00
Speaker
And thanks again to all of you for listening.
00:33:03
Speaker
I'd like to thank our sponsors once more, Freeman's Auction House and Rinalda House.
00:33:06
Speaker
And a huge thank you to the Preservation Society of Newport County for making this episode possible.
00:33:11
Speaker
Don't forget to send me your feedback at podcast at themagazineantiques.com.
00:33:16
Speaker
And don't forget to subscribe and rate Curious Objects on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:33:21
Speaker
Today's episode was edited and produced by Sammy Delati.
00:33:24
Speaker
Our music is by Trap Rabbit.
00:33:26
Speaker
And I'm your host, Ben Miller.