Having recently been to a lot of beach town on the coast, and not overly interested in seeing more sand, I at first struggled to find something that I wanted to do in Rhode Island.  It seemed to be a lovely state, very green, but with a road system somewhat in need of improvement, and some quite alarming bridges.  I discovered that there were a number of very wealthy families that built their summer homes in Newport, however, so I went there to take a tour.  I settled on seeing The Breakers, the home of the Vanderbilt family.  Getting there through narrow streets was a pain, parking was easy, and the entrance to the grounds was definitely impressive!

I got there early, so was able to walk right up to the ticket booth, and then proceed toward the majestic façade of the house, but later in the day there was a line to get in.

The tour is self-guided, and included one of those audio guides with headphones, which was quite useful.  Through the entryway, you first enter into the great hall.  There was so much to see here that it was a bit overwhelming!  This place (palace) was built in the Gilded Age, the age of conspicuous consumption, and there was hardly a spot that wasn’t elaborately decorated.

For all it’s opulence, though, the guide stated that the Vanderbilts were a typical family, and there seemed to be a tradition of sliding down the grand staircase on kitchen trays when they got a bit rowdy!

The dining room was set up for a small family dinner, but it was clear that it could handle big banquets as well.    The chandeliers are both wired for electric and piped for gas, as electricity was apparently rather unreliable at the time, and gas could be used as a backup.

I had to keep reminding myself to look up, as every inch of the ceilings was decorated as well.

The billiard room was panelled in marble, and had mosaics on the floor and ceiling, some of which included the family symbol of an acorn.  The iron light fitting over the pool table is so heavy that it has to be supported from structural members.

Walking back through the great hall, I could look out at the ocean.  It felt a bit like a Roman villa, with the arches and more mosaics on the ceiling.

The library was warm and inviting, although it seemed to hold surprisingly few books.  Or perhaps there just seemed to be few because the room was so large.

Upstairs I walked though a series of bedrooms, including this, the bedroom and office of Mrs Vanderbilt.  This one room is larger than some apartments I’ve lived in.

If I could take home one thing from the house, I think it would be this chair.  Imagine drinking tea and having a cosy chat with someone in a chair made for two!

The audio tour stated that there were 14 bathrooms in the house, though at the time of it building indoor plumbing was still new.  The bath tub below is made of marble, and had to be filled with hot water several times to raise it’s temperature before it can be comfortably used.

The childrens’ rooms were a bit more cheerful in most cases, though I was continually surprised by the small size of the beds.

The upstairs balcony was open to the ocean breezes, and I could hear the crashing waves along the shore that gave the house its name, The Breakers.

The tour also went into some detail about the running of such a large house, including a look into a maid’s room adjacent to the bedrooms, and a trip down these servants’ stairs.

The large kitchen had a row of stoves along the far wall, any kind of copper cooking pot you could possibly want, and plenty of counter space.  There was a separate small room for pastry preparation away from the heat of the stoves.

The butler’s pantry held all the dinnerware, cutlery (in a safe), and glassware, as well as a table to hold the cold foods ready to be served, and a warming oven to hold the hot foods.  The scullery connected the kitchen to the butler’s pantry.

The dumb waiter in the butler’s pantry would hold trays for the upstairs maids to deliver to the bedrooms.  Breakfast in bed please!

Exit through the gift shop.

After returning my headset, I was shunted through the gift shop and outside, where I was free to roam the grounds as long as I liked.  The picture below is a view of the back of the house from just above the rocky shore.  There are flower gardens on each side of the house.

As I was leaving out the front gates, I discovered the childrens’ play house.  It was a full sized house, but with all fittings and furniture shrunk to a child’s size, and it was very cute.  The original Breakers home was burned to the ground, to be replaced by the present building, and this play house is all that remains of the original structures.

I didn’t spend a lot more time in Rhode Island.  Although there were certainly things to do there, they seemed to revolve around eating, shopping, and beaches, none of which I was particularly interested in at the time.  I think it looked like a lovely state to reside in, although I’m not sure that I need to take another holiday there.

[By the way, for those of you who are Family Guy fans, and are wondering where Quahog is in Rhode Island… it’s not a real city or town, sorry.   However, I did discover that a quahog is a type of clam that’s popular there.  And there’s also a bar/restaurant chain called Quahog Republic.  So there you go.]