The next day we were up early to walk through Newport to tour some of the Mansions. We went to The Elms, The Breakers and Marble House. First we took the Servant Life Tour at the Elms to see
behind the scenes areas of the house and what the servants lives were like. The Elms was built by the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind. Completed in 1901, its design was
copied from the Château d'Asnières in France. The house was so efficiently run and the thought and organization that went into making it so was quite amazing.
After the tour, we walked to lunch at the Tennis Hall of Fame. The charming shingle buildings form an oval around a little grass tennis court that is green and pretty. The structure is noted as
the finest example of shingle style architecture in the country. Then we walked on to the two Vanderbilt mansions: The Breakers and Marble House.
The Breakers was the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, built in an Italian Renaissance style. Marble House was his daughter in law Alva’s, built for her 39th birthday
present by his son William. It is in the Beaux-Arts style inspired by the Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles. Apparently Alva was a women’s rights advocate and
shocked society in 1895 when she divorced William at a time when divorce was rare and when women were not even able to vote, she received over $10 million, and several estates,
including Marble House.
We walked back along the cliff walk on the oceanfront side of Marble House and The Breakers, then to Diego’s Restaurant on the Bowen's Wharf where to boat was docked for dinner.
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