Visiting Newport, Rhode Island, can feel like stepping onto a film set, because many scenes from HBO’s hit show “The Gilded Age” were filmed in the city’s gigantic 19th-century mansions. Even beyond the shiny veneer of a TV, Newport is remarkably well preserved, a living monument to an era of extreme opulence and ambition.
The city swung into social significance in the late 19th century, when America’s wealthiest industrial families built extravagant summer homes — which they dubbed “cottages” — by the sea. Families including the Vanderbilts and Astors transformed the city’s landscape, commissioning architects such as Richard Morris Hunt and Stanford White to design sweeping European-inspired estates replete with marble and crystal.
Mansions of the Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport Jaguar Tours, Newport Cliff Walk, Rough Point, Newport Art Museum, International Tennis Hall of Fame, Castle Hill Inn, and The Chanler are included in this article.
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