Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island

By Jennifer Stewart, berthonusa.com | newportmansions.org

Marble House, situated on the world- famous Bellevue Avenue here in Newport, is one of a number of properties owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County, who have been tireless in their efforts to keep these places from disappearing. Below is a list of the historic properties under their stewardship:

MARBLE HOUSE © SANDY NESBITT/COURTESY OF THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

ENTRANCE © GAVIN ASHWORTH/COURTESY OF THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

GOLD ROOM © GAVIN ASHWORTH/COURTESY OF THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

Known as ‘cottages’ (many of them with 50 plus rooms), they were either donated by their owners or purchased by the Preservation Society, and once under their care, they have been restored as far as possible to their original elegance. Open to the public, the Society successfully preserves a link to the golden era of Newport.

Marble House was in private use until 1963 when it was acquired by the Preservation Society. It is a National Historic Landmark. Harold Vanderbilt donated the funds to the Preservation Society so that they were able to purchase Marble House, because it was his mother’s summer house!

THE DINING ROOM

Newport residents can visit all the Preservation Society’s properties in the city without charge, and a mansion trip is always on a guest’s list when staying with friends or family in Newport! Rosecliff is a popular wedding venue and the traditional site of the Newport Flower Show, but other large properties have hosted various events, including Newport Classical Music Festivals. We have all been to events at the mansions and it is always a special night, with all that old world elegance and magic in the atmosphere as you walk through the various rooms. Lots of movies and mini-series have been filmed here: HBO’s historical drama, ‘The Gilded Age’, was filmed at seven of the Preservation Society properties in its first two seasons, and will return to film at the Newport Mansions again for Season 3. Other major productions filmed here include ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Buccaneers’, ‘Amistad’, ‘True Lies’ and ‘27 Dresses’; never mind various commercials and the use of interior shots for promotional purposes.

Marble House was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt between 1888 – 1892, and was a 39th birthday present to his wife, Alva Vanderbilt. Even at that time, the cost was approximately $11 million dollars ($373 million these days), with 500,000 cubic feet of marble alone making it one of the most significant homes in the USA (if not the world) at that time. The Vanderbilt fortune was originally amassed by his grandfather ‘Commodore’ Cornelius Vanderbilt from steamships and railroads. William’s older brother, Cornelius, built The Breakers just down the road, another property owned and preserved by the Preservation Society, and that is even more elaborate than Marble House. Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt, although US born, lived in France for most of her life before she married. It was in France that she fell in love with French history and art, and these dominate the decor at Marble House. Architect Richard Morris Hunt was the first American graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he designed the house in the Beaux-Arts style. He was deeply involved with the interior design as well.

PORTRAIT PAINTING OF MRS. ALVA VANDERBILT

PORTRAIT PAINTING OF HAROLD STIRLING VANDERBILT

The main floor is opulent, and is certainly designed to impress visitors. The dining room is built of rose marble from Algeria, with chairs in bronze and French portraits. The library or morning room has lovely carved walnut bookcases. The Gothic room once housed Alva Vanderbilt’s collection of Medieval and Renaissance art objects. The Grand Salon and Ballroom has 22 carat gold leaf walls, and it is decorated in the style of Versailles and the Louvre, with Greek mythology adorning the walls.

What I have always liked is the incredible staircase up to the mezzanine level which then continues up to the family’s bedrooms. On the mezzanine level there are his and her offices. We chuckle at these, imagining Alva and William yelling back and forth to each other, coordinating their social schedules!

The back terrace and lawn overlook the Atlantic Ocean, with the Cliff Walk at the very end of the property. Alva had also built a Chinese tea house for luncheon parties right on the edge of the cliff. Today it is used by visitors as a place for a quick coffee or snack.

In Alva’s day the house needed 36 staff to run it, with many of the cooks, gardeners and stable hands being recruited from Ireland. Their descendants make up the backbone of Newport today, with the neighborhoods behind the mansions still rife with Irish and nicknamed The Fifth Ward (Newport officially only has four).

Marble House, as well as other summer ‘cottages’, were part of the Gilded Age era in the United States. Millions were being made by the captains of industry and finance – Vanderbilt, Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie to name a few. New techniques and information technology were expanding rapidly, and the urge to show off their new money spawned these extraordinary buildings. There was an unspoken competition to see who could outdo who with the most lavish lifestyle. The bigger the ball, the better the horses and carriages, the more outlandish the entertainments, the finer the gardens – they all strove to be number one in this very closed society. Homes like these were new to the Americas, and they worked hard to outdo the Europeans.

© COURTESY OF THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

Of course, the new millionaires watched their counterparts in Europe very closely. Mr. Vanderbilt was well known for his horses in France as well as America, and he was one of the first American members of the Paris Jockey Club. Alva was deeply involved in the Womens’ Suffrage Movement. She used her Tea House for meetings, arranging marches, and much else and was very influential in the Movement.

The Vanderbilts were also well known for their sailing exploits, and they owned and campaigned a number of America’s Cup yachts. William Vanderbilt was the co-owner of the 1895 America’s Cup winner DEFENDER, designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff and built in 1895 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in Bristol, Rhode Island. William successfully defended the Cup, defeating the British keel cutter, VALKYRIE III. His cousin, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, also an avid sailor, was one of the owners of RELIANCE, winner of the Cup in 1903.

The next generation maintained the tradition, and when the 1930 America’s Cup was held in Newport, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, son of William, was off and sailing! He has three America’s Cup trophies to his name:

✣ ENTERPRISE, 1930, skipper, defeating the North Irish Challenger SHAMROCK, 4-0.
✣ RAINBOW, 1934, skipper.
✣ RANGER, 1937, skipper.

Marble House has silver trophies everywhere. There is a dedicated trophy room, with the less important trophies still occupying a full display cabinet in the kitchen today. Harold was posthumously elected to the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 1993.

When the America’s Cup was won by Australia in 1983, the Cup officially changed hands at a ceremony on the terrace outside Marble House, ending the 132 years of American Cup victories for the United States.

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FOYER/STAIRCASE © JOHN CORBETT/COURTESY OF THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

CHINESE TEA HOUSE © COURTESY OF THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

THE AFTERGUARD, OR ‘BRAINTRUST’, OF RANGERS. LEFT TO RIGHT: ROD STEPHENS, THE DESIGNER OLIN STEPHENS, THE NAVIGATOR ZENAS BLISS, MRS. GERTRUDE VANDERBILT, HAROLD S. VANDERBILT AND ARTHUR KNAPP.JR © COURTESY OF THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY