Page 3 of 4
Newport, Rhode Island
For time is wasted on the backs of angels
This road trip was really about trying to go somewhere I had not yet been, and the driving force of all that driving was a visit to Newport, Rhode Island. And anyone who has already been to Newport, Rhode Island (which seemed at times like everyone I knew but me) knows that the reason to visit is to see the Gilded Age mansions and the Cliff Walk. So this page of the slideshow is all about the mansions and the Cliff Walk, really focusing down on that and, pretty much, only that.
In late September there were five tourable mansions still opened, and the first one I visited was Rough Point. The mansion was designed by Peabody and Stearns, the same firm who designed the Central Railroad Terminal in Liberty State Park back home in New Jersey. This was my first Newport mansion, so I had no reference at the time to rank it in terms of mansion-ness, but in retrospect I’d probably rank it last. That’s a good place to start since it means that everything else I saw was going to be even better.
Even with a last place ranking the house was still quite impressive and the landscape and siting of the house was amazing. The landscape was designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead, the guy who designed Central Park in New York, and while I may have callously ranked the house last, I’d rank its grounds first.
Rough Point is on the water and on the Cliff Walk and is notable for its bridge, which was built to cross an inlet and move the public cliff walk as far away as possible from the house.
The next mansion was The Elms, the only landlocked one that I visited in Newport. The Elms was designed by a guy named Horace Trumbauer, an architect who designed the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the chapel at Duke University and who, according to the internet, was depressed during the depression and died an alcoholic. Thanks, internet.
The Elms felt more gilded age than Rough Point, and in fact it is so gilded age that the show The Gilded Age regularly films there. Also, possibly to compensate for its lack of water views, The Elms went all in on a formal garden in its backyard, which was nice even though the landscape design back at Rough Point was way better.
I visited the five mansions over three days (a 2-2-1 breakdown) and this middle day was the most Newport day possible. I started by parking in the lot at Newport Gateway where the free #67 bus leaves from. As I drove up, l could see literal hordes of cruise ship passengers lining up in front of me. I was able to get on the third completely full bus, which felt a little like a victory, and got off at the very last stop at Bailey’s Beach, where even at the very last stop I left an almost still full #67 bus behind- confirming yet again that cruise passengers like riding free buses but also like never getting off of them. From Bailey’s Beach, I walked the entire length of the Cliff Walk, and even skipped the free bus and walked all the way back through town to my car at Newport Gateway. The Cliff Walk, especially at its far end, was really more a trail than a walk. And there were sections I had completely to myself, although almost every person walking the opposite direction asked me how much was left and if the trail conditions got any better, even though (in my opinion at least) they never really got all that bad to begin with.
I visited the two best known mansions as part of my Cliff Walk walk and they did not disappoint. The first was Marble House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and home to yet another Vanderbilt. The building was just spectacular inside and it was hard to imagine seeing anything more ornate or grand, although of course my clumsy foreshadowing hints at what was yet to come
Marble House also has a decidedly non marble folly on its grounds. The Marble House’s Chinese Tea House is located on top of the Cliff Walk (which tunnels underneath) and it is a great place to enjoy an $18 snack of a smallish piece of pound cake and a limonata.
One of the reasons that I love to travel is that traveling can often create strong memories, and this day, my big mansion and Cliff Walk day at Newport, was most certainly memorable.
The sea all along the Cliff Walk was still angry. That damn coastal storm that has been following me since Thursday was still out at sea, a little too far out to rain on me but not so far out that I was completely out of its reach. The most memorable part of this memorable day was back on the Cliff Walk, just south of The Breakers where the waves were epic. When I crossed through this section, I timed it to miss all of the waves except for the last one, and that last one, well it was indeed memorable. The wave left me completely soaked, it was so bad that I had to dump about two inches of sea water that the wave deposited in the hood of my windbreaker. After that I took a break for about a half hour at a bench on a breezy point to try and dry off, at least a little. My general thought about traveling in the rain is that you get wet, then you dry off, no harm, no foul. But this was something else. After a half hour, my quick drying clothes were borderline ok, but my shoes six hours later still refuse to dry- apparently whatever material Merrell uses in their hiking shoes must be the most absorbent material on earth.
I was a little down after getting so drenched, but things started looking up almost immediately when I visited The Breakers, another Richard Morris Hunt residence for another Vanderbilt. It is well known as the best of the Newport houses and, after visiting it today, I am in agreement with everyone on this. Damn impressive.
The all Gilded Age mansions all the time page of the slideshow is starting to wind down with one last mansion: Rosecliff.
Instead of parking and taking the free #67 hop on hop off bus, I just gave in and drove to Rosecliff in my single occupancy private vehicle like an American. It was my fifth mansion in three days, all but one (Rough Point) were operated by the same organization uncreatively named Newport Mansions. I spent $70 and that $70 got me into The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff and the Green Animals Topiary Garden. They also offer tours of six other sites (all already closed for the season), and my $70 pass is still valid for a whole year right through to September 2025, a good thing to know in case I find myself back in Newport again between now and then.
Rosecliff was designed by Stanford White (the White part of McKim. Mead and White) to look like the Petit Triannon at Versailles and was built as a party house. The entire center of the H shaped plan is a one story ballroom, and everything else inside (with the possible exception of that heart shaped staircase) was subservient to the ballroom.
And just like that, we’ve seen the big five spectacular Newport Glided Age mansions (Rough Point, The Elms, Marble House, The Breakers and Rosecliff), walked the entire Cliff Walk and got totally drenched by the angry sea. That’s it for Newport, Rhode Island, but not for the slideshow. One more page remains.
