The home, which was acquired by Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1885, was destroyed by fire in 1892 and replaced by the current Breakers. While only extant for 14 years, it "was widely known in the nineteenth century and continues to attract the attention of architectural historians today."[3]
History
Side view of the original Lorillard cottage
On August 28, 1877,[4]Pierre Lorillard IV paid $96,147 for 10 acres (480,736 square feet)[5] on Ochre Point from Gov. William Beach Lawrence, through Alfred Smith.[6] Lawrence had originally acquired 60 acres for $12,000 in 1850 from Newport farmer George Armstrong.[6] Lorillard, of the extremely wealthy Lorillard Tobacco Company family, named their most popular cigarette after the town, Newport.[7]
Lorillard hired Peabody and Stearns who designed the residence in the Queen Anne style, construction began in 1877 and was completed in 1878[8] at a cost of $90,000.[4] The landscaping was designed by Ernest Bowditch. The Breakers was notable for its high tower and steeply-gabled roof forms. During its construction, Peabody described the structure to the Newport Mercury as carrying "out fully the English design... The house throughout is furnished with heavy plate glass, and on the first floor the windows are all nearly French [doors]... When house and grounds are finished, the Lorillard estate will be among the most handsome of the multitude of handsome estates which Newport contains."[1]
Upon its completion, the exterior of the home was described in The New York Times as follows:[8]
It is eligibly situated on Ochre Point, and is 181 feet long, 84 feet wide and three stories high. The underpinning was Cape Ann granite and the exterior was Philadelphia brick, laid in red mortar, with trimmings of Nova Scotia and North River blue-stone. The roof is gothic, and is indented with high peaks, gables and dormer windows. At the side of the front entrance is a large octagonal brick tower, rising high above the roof, and surmounted by a gilded vane. The lookout at the top is reached by a spiral staircase. On nearly all sides are broad piazzas with flooring of Philadelphia brick and tiles bordered with blue-stone.[8]
Peabody and Stearns also designed a detached cottage that was built with the mansion in 1877 and used as a children's playhouse. This building survived the 1892 fire and is still standing on the grounds of The Breakers.[9] It is open for tours on the grounds of the current mansion.[10] In 1879, Lorillard purchased an additional three quarters of an acre (45,138 square feet)[5] for $10,000 from Lawrence.[6] Also in 1879, Lorillard helped found the Newport Casino.[11]
Rumors persisted for several years that the Lorillard estate was to be sold. In October 1883, it was reported that Cornelius Vanderbilt II purchased the "house and grounds, with all improvements" for an amount between $400,000 and $500,000.[2] Lorillard actually sold the house in October 1885 to Vanderbilt for $400,000, in what was then the largest real estate deal ever made there.[5] A week earlier, James Cook Ayer had offered Lorillard $375,000 for the property.[5] Lorillard was interested in race horses and found that the Newport property lacked the space he needed.[15] After the sale, he used the proceeds to buy[16] an "undeveloped tract of hilly lakeside land about an hour northwest of New York"[15] where he developed what would become Tuxedo Park, New York,[17] a community of "rustic, shingle-style 'cottages' that would blend in with the beautiful wilderness setting."[18]
After acquiring the property, Vanderbilt rehired Peabody and Stearns to remodel the building,[19] becoming the first of many Vanderbilts to own property in Newport.[20] Reportedly, Vanderbilt spent an additional $500,000 improving the estate over the next five years,[1] with 80 men alone working on the renovations in 1886 which included tearing down a kitchen to make space for an elegant dining room and new building for the displaced kitchen.[21] The new dining room, at 40 feet by 70 feet was the largest in Newport.[3]
1892 fire and rebuilding
The Breakers, built in 1893, which replaced the original Breakers.
The brick and shingle structure was destroyed by a fire, which started in the kitchen, in November 1892.[22] The family, including Cornelius, Alice, Gertrude and Gladys, had been staying at the house for the Christmas holiday.[22] At the time, Vanderbilt stated that the house was insured for $125,000, the furniture for $75,000 and the boiler for $10,000, a total of $210,000, at least several hundred thousand dollars less than what it was worth.[22] In the wreckage, workers found two safes which contained his wife's jewelry that were only minimally damaged from the intense heat.[23]
Vanderbilt replaced the 1878 residence with the massive and now more well-known The Breakers, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and constructed between 1893 and 1895.[1] This new structure became a 70-room mansion with a gross area of 125,339 square feet (11,644.4m2) and 62,482 square feet (5,804.8m2) of living area on five floors that is today owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County.[24][25]
From the late 1870s to the 1920s, the Vanderbilt family employed some of the best Beaux-Arts architects and decorators in the United States to build an unequaled string of townhouses in New York City and palaces on the East Coast of the United States. Many of the Vanderbilt houses are now National Historic Landmarks. Some photographs of Vanderbilt residences in New York are included in the Photographic series of American Architecture by Albert Levy (1870s).
Belcourt is a former summer cottage designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Construction was begun in 1891 and completed in 1894, and it was intended to be used for only six to eight weeks of the year. Belcourt was designed in a multitude of European styles and periods; it features a heavy emphasis on French Renaissance and Gothic decor, with further borrowings from German, English, and Italian design. In the Gilded Age, the castle was noted for its extensive stables and carriage areas, which were incorporated into the main structure.
The Breakers is a Gilded Age mansion located at 44 Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, US. It was built between 1893 and 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family.
Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845–1917) and John Goddard Stearns Jr. (1843–1917). The firm worked on in a variety of designs but is closely associated with shingle style.
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico resembles that of the White House.
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe was an American philanthropist and art collector. Though she gave large amounts of money to institutions such as Grace Episcopal Church and Union College, her most significant gifts were two bequests to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She left her large collection of popular contemporary paintings to the museum, together with $200,000.
Vinland Estate was built at Ochre Point, Newport, Rhode Island, United States, in 1882 for tobacco heiress Catharine Lorillard Wolfe by Peabody & Stearns. The Romanesque Revival style exterior consists of red sandstone with Aesthetic Movement style elements. Interior elements include designs by William Morris, windows by Burne-Jones, and landscaping by Ernest Bowditch.
The Bellevue Avenue Historic District is located along and around Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Its property is almost exclusively residential, including many of the Gilded Age mansions built as summer retreats around the turn of the 20th century by the extremely wealthy, including the Vanderbilt and Astor families. Many of the homes represent pioneering work in the architectural styles of the time by major American architects.
Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt was the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and reigned as the matriarch of the Vanderbilt family for over 60 years.
Chepstow is an Italianate house museum located at 120 Narragansett Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, built in 1860. It originally served as a summer "cottage", but the Preservation Society of Newport County now owns the property. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Ochre Point-Cliffs Historic District in 1975 and within the Historic District of the City of Newport.
The Cornelius Vanderbilt II House was a large mansion built in 1883 at 1 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It occupied the frontage along the west side of Fifth Avenue from West 57th Street up to West 58th Street at Grand Army Plaza. The home was sold in 1926 and demolished to make way for the Bergdorf Goodman department store.
Beaulieu, or Beaulieu House, is a historic mansion located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island built in 1859 by Federico Barreda. Subsequent owners of Beaulieu have included John Jacob Astor III, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, and his wife Grace Vanderbilt, née Grace Graham Wilson.
Fairholme is a Tudor Revival historic mansion in Newport, Rhode Island designed by Frank Furness and built by Furness & Hewitt in 1874–1875 for Fairman Rogers.
Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly was an American socialite and heiress. She was a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family. She and her husband Hamilton McKown Twombly built Florham, a gilded age estate in Madison, New Jersey.
Ogden Goelet was an American heir, businessman and yachtsman from New York City during the Gilded Age. With his wife, he built Ochre Court in Newport, Rhode Island, his son built Glenmere mansion, and his daughter, Mary Goelet, married Henry Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe.
Richard Thornton Wilson was a multimillionaire American investment banker known for being the father of five children who all married into prominent families during the Gilded Age of New York.
Mary Rita Goelet, known as May Goelet, was an American socialite and member of a family known as "the marrying Wilsons".
Thomas Howard Howard was an American clubman who was prominent in New York and Newport society during the Gilded Age.
Edmund Henry Schermerhorn was an American businessman of New York's Dutch Schermerhorn family.
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