Johanna: Boston Trip : Day 6 (Last Day!)

My last day in Boston was spent as a road trip to Rhode Island.

Siobhan drove as we took the route south of Boston through Providence and then on to Newport.

With its yacht races and grand manses, Newport has been a playground for the rich since the late 1860s.

Many of the elaborate so-called "cottages" built by the 19th-century industrialists are open for tours, including Breakers.

44 Ochre Point Ave., Newport, RI 02840

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.

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central Railroad, which was a pivotal development in the industrial growth of the nation during the late 19th century.

The Commodore's grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system in 1885, and purchased a wooden house called The Breakers in Newport during that same year.

In 1893, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a villa to replace the earlier wood-framed house which was destroyed by fire the previous year.

Hunt directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin.

Allard and Sons of Paris assisted Hunt with furnishings and fixtures, Austro-American sculptor Karl Bitter designed relief sculpture, and Boston architect Ogden Codman decorated the family quarters.

The Vanderbilts had seven children.

Their youngest daughter, Gladys, who married Count Laszlo Szechenyi of Hungary, inherited the house on her mother's death in 1934.

An ardent supporter of The Preservation Society of Newport County, she opened The Breakers in 1948 to raise funds for the Society.

In 1972, the Preservation Society purchased the house from her heirs.

Today, the house is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Upon visiting - you get a Audio Guide for The Breakers Revealed!

A Compelling New Look at a Legendary Mansion. The result of 10 years of research and oral histories, our new tour of The Breakers will engage and enlighten you with detailed and personal accounts of the people who lived and worked in this great house from the height of the Gilded Age through the first half of the 20th century.

Listen to reminiscences of life in The Breakers

Hear from servants and their children

Tour never-before-seen spaces

Views from our sea side drive.

548 Bellevue Ave., Newport, RI 02840

Commissioned by Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs in 1899, architect Stanford White modeled Rosecliff after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat of French kings at Versailles.

After the house was completed in 1902, at a reported cost of $2.5 million, Mrs. Oelrichs hosted fabulous entertainments here, including a fairy tale dinner and a party featuring famed magician Harry Houdini.

"Tessie", as she was known to her friends, was born in Virginia City, Nevada. Her father, James Graham Fair, was an Irish immigrant who made an enormous fortune from Nevada's Comstock silver lode, one of the richest silver finds in history.

During a summer in Newport, Theresa met Hermann Oelrichs playing tennis at the Newport Casino. They were married in 1890.

A year later, they purchased the property known as Rosecliff from the estate of historian and diplomat George Bancroft.

An amateur horticulturist, it was Bancroft who developed the American Beauty Rose.

The Oelrichs later bought additional property along Bellevue Avenue and commissioned Stanford White to replace the original house with the mansion that became the setting for many of Newport's most lavish parties.