marble house

newport的一个主要游览项目就是看豪宅 这里有着号称美国最贵的一条街 因为两边分布着好几栋价格不菲的豪宅 marble house最有特色的要算后花园的tea house了 看上去很有中国特色

Our guide was a nice guy who talked clearly and nicely and answered all the questions we had about that part of American History and The Vanderbilt family.

Considering these Newport mansion were only used several weeks each summer, the opulenceand grandeur are incredible. When touring the Marble House, you have the opportunity to learnmany things about the Gilded Age, the Vanderbilt family, and the day-to-day life of the family and servants. It is also a study in women's liberation because of the Alabaman who designed, owned, and dominated the house, Alva Vanderbilt. It's not a happy commentary on marriage and family of that era. PBS had a special which included the story of Alva who insisted on marrying her daughter off to British royalty, which is a very unhappy tale. The bottom line may be that extravagance can't bring happiness. The entire Marble House eventually became a very large storage closet for the things that didn't fit in Alva's other Newport mansion. In any case, it'sa wonderful study in architecture, New England history, and a time which is best left in the past.

If your Newport stay is limited & you can old choose 2 mansions to tour, make it The Marble House & The Breakers…both rich in Vanderbilt driven American History. The Gilded Age brought a new definition to American architecture & grandeur in estate living. Please don't miss the opportunity to step back in time! Although the tour guide will give a more in-depth experience, if you're pressed for time, a self-guided/audio tour will last about an hour if you're in a rush…2 if you prefer a slower pace. We saw The Breakers one day (2/24/15) and returned to The Marble House the next (2/25/15) so we weren't rushed. It was a perfect compliment to our romantic February Cliffside Inn B&B getaway!

Since we were the only visitors at that time, my husband and I got the tour guide all to ourselves. The guide was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed his telling of the history of the house and the details in the architecture.

Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt (later Belmont) had this mansion built for her as a birthday gift. She insisted on being in control of the design and owning the house outright. She designed the house as a monument to women and later held women's suffrage meetings on the grounds. Purchase an audio your and stare at the opulent rooms that show off the Vanderbilts status and wealth. This is not a house that was meant to be lived in comfortably - it was meant to show off and that it does. Decorated with European antiques from medieval times to Louis XIV, each room is a masterpiece. Be sure to check out the gothic room and Alva's lavish lilac bedroom. I was especially impressed with how they managed to get the exact same wallpaper reproduced by the same company 90 years later. The Chinese tea house is closed to visitors but you can peer in the windows and see a few Asian antiques. There is a steep hill rolling down to the Cliff Walk so be careful where you walk. There seems to be a walking path to get down there.The gift shop sells Newport souvenirs and light snacks.

The tour was great. The mansion takes you back in time and seeing the craftsmanship and marble, marble, marble is a lot of fun.

House is amazing if your into seeing history of America this is a must. Tour guide knew her stuff and was sweet .

Very interesting. Quite different from other mansions I have seen. Tour guide was quite knowledgeable about the owners and stories from last years.

We spent the day in Newport visiting all of the mansions in the area, and this one was our favorite. It is wonderfully preserved and the audio tour adds so much to the experience. If you buy the mansion pass you save a bit of money and get into almost all of the mansions. We will be coming back again this summer because there's just so much to see in one day.

It really is a marble house! Each room was more decorated than the last. It really was opulent, more so than I ever expected. My favorite part though was the Tea House down by the water. Gorgeous!

The place is very unique and the tour was great. We want on a rainy day and really enjoyed this place.

This and The Breakers can easily be done in one day, and they accommodate eachother by giving a point-of-purchase discount for the other. I was lucky enough to be there on the most crisp gorgeous summer day of the year and that kind of thing never happens to me, but it did on that day. First I stood on line at The Breakers… After reading about the Vanderbilts all my life I couldn’t believe I was about to enter their mammoth summer home on the Newport bluff. The façade is imposing, the grounds are beautiful. The first floor of public reception rooms did not disappoint. Although aging, the place has held up well. There are moments – like a fountain under a tree outside, where you can almost feel the presence of the summer family. The second floor of private bedrooms also did not disappoint. You get a sense of Alice and her daughter Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s lives, as well as Cornelius’s place in it (Gertrude being the aunt of Gloria Vanderbilt, and the great-aunt of Anderson Cooper from CNN). You get a sense of the commitment between Alice and Cornelius, and the feeling of a real family. Of course rooms for other family members, as well as most other private rooms are not on display, and as you gaze in the direction of all those other mysterious rooms you feel slightly slighted. Mostly though, I am just glad that these things are still around for me to see, thanks to the efforts of those who worked to preserve them. Their fees are worth it.Alva, however, is the one who really threw a curve in Newport Society. In addition to Marble House, after she had forced her daughter in to marriage to a man she did not love, and divorced Willie K (an unheard of thing at the time), she married Oliver Belmont, acquiring yet another Newport mansion, and then had a complete reversal on her feelings about women and their place in society. The story is that she kept Marble House for doing her laundry during her second marriage. And though we weren’t able to enter it, her Japanese Tea House in the yard of Marble House, on the bluff, is still there, where she held her women’s meetings and became a pioneer in the women’s rights movements. Kitchens for both houses are in the basement, as things were done back in those days, and in Alva’s Marble House there is also a gift shop in the basement where you can buy memorabilia from her women’s rights movement. A righteous cause! Seeing the guest room in Marble House, designed entirely with the purpose of “wooing” the Duke of Marlborough, is pretty amazing – his space is larger than Willie’s or Consuelo’s or even Alva’s. Standing in Consuelo’s small chamber off of Alva’s, you can almost feel her pain from a life of duty to what her mother expected from her. It was pretty amazing seeing these things. I hope they will be around forever – a reminder of a time long gone.

The Marble House is the place where no expense was spared and not an inch of the house was ignored as far as luxury is concerned. It makes a statement of wealth of the Vanderbilts. The self guided tour was as informative and was as short or as you wanted it too be. One of the must sees along with the Breakers and the Elms

Go for the beauty, stay for the stories of political and social intrigue. It really is an amazing place.