DECEMBER 14, 1984
FREELANCE
Luxurious Newport Mansions
by Lisa Pavadore
Collegian Feature Editor
My roommate hasn’t had the
chance to come home to Boston
with me during vacations, but
when she does finally come to
visit, one attraction I want her to
see is not in Boston, but is about
two hours South in Newport,
Rhode Island.
Situated amidst the town _of
Newport are. eight mansions of
various backgrounds, which have
been taken care of by the Preser
vation Society and can be seen
through tours.
If you are not from the Nor
theast coast, you may have never
heard of the Newport Mansions.
Tours are conducted from mid-
April through November, when it
is warm enough to walk around
the grounds of each mansion and
see how much land each mansion
encompasses. Prices of tours
range from $4-$l6, and when I
visited the mansions last summer I
bought tickets that allowed me to
see any four mansions for ten
dollars.
Each mansion has its own il
lustrious past, which is explained
at the beginning and throughout
the tour.
The mansions I visited were
Rosecliff, The Elms, and The
Breakers, as I did not have
enough time to see a fourth man
sion.
The Elms was the first of my
stops, and I was pretty surprised
when I realized how large the
FEATURE
mansions really are. The front en
trance alone is bigger than my
whole apartment back home, with
its draping marble staircase and
marble columns.
Rosecliff,. my second stop, had
a history I found interesting. It
seems that one of the owners of
the mansion at one time had been
the founder of the Campbell Soup
Company. Rosecliff also has been
the set of movies such as the
Great Gatsby and The Betsy. I
even got to stand in the bedroom
that Robert Redford used as his'
dressing room!
The last, and possibly the most
impressive of the mansions is The
Breakers. It is named so because
the rear of the house faces the
Atlantic coast and the waves
break at the stone wall that guards
the grounds and the mansion.
Though most of the mansions
have had different owners
throughout the years, Breakers
claims one owner since being built
- The Vanderbilt family, Cor
nelius Vanderbilt being the first
owner. Gloria Vanderbilt, known
worldwide for her fashions, is one
of Cornelius’ descendents.
This mansion, like all the
others, is spacious and very or
nate, with its silk wallpaper and
alabaster columns. The dimen
sions of the kitchen floor are big
enough to fit the foundation of an
average two-story house in it.
The mansions can be rented for
weddings, receptions, etc., and
BEHREND COLLEGIAN
“The ELMS” - the grand staircase, descending from the second floor divides at the first landing and comes
down on both sides of the entrance hall. The stairway walls are adorned with rare tapestries.
the average price to rent one for a
day is around $2300, not in
cluding music, catering, and
whatever else you might want.
The mansions and their
grounds seem to possess a magic mansions would take a full day.
of their own, attracting thousands So, if you ever happpen to head
of people yearly. Sometimes there East, a tour of the mansions in
is a wait in line to tour the man- Newport, Rhode Island may be a
sions, and to view just four of the visit to consider.
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