Bookable
Built after a fire
Cornelius Vanderbilt II bought the property on Ochre Point in 1885. When the earlier house there burned in November 1892, he asked the architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a new one, made as fireproof as possible with masonry and steel. The Breakers was built between 1893 and 1895 as the family’s summer residence.


Marble, gilt and limestone
The house has 70 rooms on five floors. Its interiors, by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman Jr., use marble from Italy and Africa, rare woods and mosaics, and architectural elements bought from French châteaux, including the library mantel.
Open to visitors
In 1948 Countess Gladys Széchenyi, the Vanderbilts’ youngest daughter, opened the ground floor to tours run by The Preservation Society of Newport County. The Society bought the house in 1972. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994.


