Slide Title
Preview
Date
Winter 12-1967
Description
The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America. Cornelius Vanderbilt II purchased a wooden house called The Breakers in Newport. In 1893, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a villa to replace the earlier wood-framed house which was destroyed by fire the previous year. Hunt directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin. Allard and Sons of Paris assisted Hunt with furnishings and fixtures, Austro-American sculptor Karl Bitter designed relief sculpture. Novelist Edith Wharton and Boston architect Ogden Codman decorated the family quarters.
Creator 1 Role
Photographer
Creator 2 Dates
1827-1895
Creator 2 Role
Architect
Building Type
Mansion
Building Style
Renaissance Revival
Subject Headings
Historic buildings – Rhode Island -- Newport; Newport (RI) – Buildings, structures, etc; The Breakers Mansion (RI); Space (Architecture) – Rhode Island -- Newport;
Country Name
United States
Region Name
Rhode Island
City Name
Newport
Street Address
44 Ochre Point Avenue
Recommended Citation
Smolski, Chester and Hunt, Richard Morris, "The Breakers- Newport, RI" (1967). Browse All. 220.
https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/smolski_images/220
Keywords
The Breakers; mansions; Newport; historic buildings;
Notes
Bibliography: Jordy, William H, Ronald J. Onorato, and William M. K. Woodward. "Buildings of Rhode Island." Oxford: New York, 2004. p. 561-562.; Yarnall, James L. "Newport Through Its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern." Newport, R.I: Salve Regina University Press in association with University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 2005. p. 141-144