History
As the previous mansion on the property owned by Pierre Lorillard IV burned during 1892, Cornelius Vanderbilt II insisted that the building be made as fireproof as possible and as such, the structure of the building used steel trusses and no wooden parts. He even required that the furnace be located away from the house, under Ochre Point Avenue; in winter there is an area in front of the main gate over the furnace where snow and ice always melt.
The designers created an interior using marble imported from Italy and Africa plus rare woods and mosaics from countries around the world. It also included architectural elements (such as the library mantel) purchased from chateaux in France.
The Breakers is the architectural and social archetype of the "Gilded Age," a period when members of the Vanderbilt family were among the major industrialists of America. Indeed, "if the Gilded Age were to be summed up by a single house, that house would have to be The Breakers." During 1895, the year of its completion, The Breakers was the largest, most opulent house in the Newport area. It is a typical achievement of socially ambitious and pretentious American upper class of the Gilded age who were eager to imitate and surpass the European aristocracy in lifestyle without having a noble pedigree and were seen as extremely vulgar by the European elites.
Vanderbilt died from a cerebral hemorrhage caused from a second stroke during 1899 at the age of 55, leaving The Breakers to his wife, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt. She outlived her husband by 35 years and died at the age of 89 during 1934. In her will, The Breakers was given to her youngest daughter, Countess Gladys Széchenyi (1886–1965), essentially because Gladys lacked American property. Also, none of Alice's other children were interested in the property while Gladys had always loved the estate.
The Breakers survived the great New England Hurricane of 1938 with minimal damage and minor flooding of the grounds.
During 1948, Gladys leased the high-maintenance property to the non-profit Preservation Society of Newport County for $1 a year. The Society bought the Breakers during 1972 for $365,000 from Countess Sylvia Szapary, the daughter of Gladys. However, the agreement with the Society allows the family to continue to live on the third floor, which is not open to the public. Countess Sylvia lived there part-time until her death on March 1, 1998. Gladys and Paul Szapary, Sylvia's children, spend summers there to this day, hidden from the hundreds of thousands of tourists who explore below.
Although the mansion is owned by the Society, the original furnishings displayed throughout the house are still owned by the family.
It is now the most-visited attraction in Rhode Island with approximately 300,000 visitors annually and is open year-round for tours.
In April 2009, the museum stopped offering personalized tours by tour guides, owing to a decision by management. Patrons now receive standard audio headsets.
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“No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)