The Breakers

Newport's most celebrated - and showiest - Gilded Age house was worked by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1895 and mirrors the impossible abundance of the Vanderbilt family. The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America.

Roof works of art, mosaics, marble sections, fine wood framing, and cut stucco brighten its rooms richly and garishly, as was planned by the Vanderbilts, who never gambled being beaten by their well off rivals. The Italian Renaissance "summer cabin" has 70 rooms, including a terrific three-story lounge area, and was assembled utilizing imported French and Italian marble and alabaster.