General Info

The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial pre-eminence in the Gilded Age. It was commissioned in 1893 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system and grandson of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the family fortune. Richard Morris Hunt, one of the great architects of the Gilded Age, directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70-room palazzo inspired by the 16th-century palaces of Genoa and Turin. The house was completed in 1895 and the family spent summers there. The Breakers was purchased from the heirs of Countess Széchenyi, Vanderbilt's daughter, by The Preservation Society of Newport County in 1972. It is a National Historic Landmark and is toured by hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Several scenes in HBO's "The Gilded Age" were filmed in The Breakers.The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial pre-eminence in the Gilded Age. It was commissioned in 1893 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system and grandson of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the family fortune. Richard Morris Hunt, one of the great architects of the Gilded Age, directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70-room palazzo inspired by the 16th-century palaces of Genoa and Turin. The house was completed in 1895 and the family spent summers there. The Breakers was purchased from the heirs of Countess Széchenyi, Vanderbilt's daughter, by The Preservation Society of Newport County in 1972. It is a National Historic Landmark and is toured by hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Several scenes in HBO's "The Gilded Age" were filmed in The Breakers.