This Downton Abbey Lookalike is Rhode Island’s Grand Monument to the Gilded Age

The Breakers, Rhode Island

Most summer homes don’t have platinum walls or 48 fireplaces, but The Breakers isn’t like most homes. This Newport mega-mansion, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, packs more luxury per square foot than any other Gilded Age palace in America. Here are some interesting facts about this palace, which you can actually visit today.

Platinum Details in the Music Room

The Music Room features real platinum leaf on its huge crystal chandeliers and decorative trim. While other mansions of this era used gold leaf, the Vanderbilts chose platinum from Russia’s Ural Mountains instead.

Italian craftsmen spent fourteen months carefully applying this precious metal by hand. The platinum surfaces still shine as brightly today as they did in the past, unlike gold leaf which usually becomes dull over time.

Underground Passages for Household Staff

Below the mansion runs a network of brick tunnels stretching to about 350 feet. These passages are wide enough to allow servants to move quickly between the kitchen and other rooms without being seen. Iron tracks in the main tunnel guided food carts to different parts of the house.

You can still see the large coal chute that handled three tons of coal each day, along with smooth limestone walls worn down by years of servants walking past.

The Perfect Sound of the Great Hall

The Great Hall’s 50-foot ceiling and specially carved walls create excellent acoustics like a modern concert hall. The limestone walls have 45-degree angles that bounce sound perfectly, while hidden chambers in the 45-foot ceiling enhance the music.

Four hundred guests could clearly hear a string quartet playing without any sound equipment. The room’s measurements follow specific proportions that make the sound so clear that musicians still record classical music here today.

A Special Wing for Children

The third floor was initially intended as a haven for the three Vanderbilt sons and their tutors/chaperones, with five bedrooms, but also included a large space for the household staff.

The children’s wing included a classroom with built-in blackboards, a dining room with child-sized fancy dishes, and a proper gymnasium. A hidden staircase behind oak panels let teachers and nannies reach the children’s area without going through the main parts of the house.

A Kitchen Designed Like a Ship’s Galley

The kitchen, which was large enough to be the size of a normal house, was modeled after kitchens on luxury ocean liners, with industrial equipment rarely seen in homes. Eight coal stoves could cook meals for hundreds of people at once, while special elevators moved dishes between four floors.

The two-story kitchen was placed on the first floor, away from the main house, to keep cooking smells contained and minimize the risk of fire, which had destroyed the original house that once stood on the property.

Hand-Crafted Leather Wall Coverings

The Morning Room’s walls are covered with fine Moroccan leather, made by expert craftsmen in Fez using methods from the 1300s. Each leather panel took three months to make, with detailed patterns filled with real gold.

The deep red color came from special plant dyes, and a secret mix of cedar oil and egg whites kept the leather soft. When the sun shines through the east windows in the morning, the patterns cast moving shadows across the leather.

Advanced Water Systems

The mansion processed thousands of gallons of water daily through almost three miles of copper pipes. Four large underground tanks collected rain from the roof, and sand filters cleaned the water for drinking.

The garden watering system had zones of copper sprinklers that worked using gravity from the mansion’s height. This setup handled water for the marble fountains, greenhouse, and fire safety – which was very modern for the late 1800s.

An Advanced Communication Network

The mansion had lots of call bells, each making its own musical note that servants learned to recognize. Long lengths of copper wire hidden in the walls connected every main room to central signal panels in the service areas.

Early telephones installed in 1895 let people talk between the locations in the house. Some of these old devices still work, including silver buttons in the floors that let guests quietly call for service with their feet.

Engineering to Last Centuries

The mansion’s steel frame has thousands of flexible joints that can handle ground movement, while the stone blocks were set with special mortar that allows slight shifting. These building techniques came from European earthquake designs.

The building has stayed perfectly straight for years despite constant ocean storms. Looking at the outside walls, you can see small gaps between stones that let them expand in heat while keeping rain out.

A Research Center for Historical Building Methods

The Breakers keeps one of the biggest collections of records of any Gilded Age mansion, with more than 25,000 original documents showing how it was built. These include blueprints, material lists, and daily construction notes.

Scientists study the building’s original materials using special tools that don’t cause damage, like X-rays and advanced cameras. Their research helps us understand how people built things in the 1800s and shows us how to protect old buildings properly.

Visiting The Breakers

The Breakers is now open year-round, offering self-guided audio tours through the Newport Mansions app. The mansion is owned by the Newport Preservation Society and operates as a museum open to the public.

In addition to the tours, the Preservation Society has carried out various preservation efforts, including repairs to the boundary fence and the underground boiler room. Adult admission to The Breakers is $29 as of this writing.