Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
Moments in a longer story.
Selected milestones in the history of The Breakers.
On this page
Fire, rebuilding and a museum
These dates describe the place you can learn about here. They are not a company timeline for Apollonaut.
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1885
The land is bought
Cornelius Vanderbilt II buys the property on Ochre Point in Newport.
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November 1892
Fire
The earlier house on the property burns down.
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1893–1895
The Breakers is built
Richard Morris Hunt designs the new summer house, built of masonry and steel to resist fire.
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1899
Cornelius Vanderbilt II dies
His widow, Alice, keeps the house.
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1934
A new owner
Alice Vanderbilt dies and leaves The Breakers to her youngest daughter, Countess Gladys Széchenyi.
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1 July 1948
Open for tours
The ground floor opens for tours run by The Preservation Society of Newport County.
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1971
National Register
The Breakers is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
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1972
Bought by the Society
The Preservation Society of Newport County buys the house from Gladys Széchenyi’s heirs.
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1994
National Historic Landmark
The Breakers is designated a National Historic Landmark.
Follow the stories behind the dates
A timeline is a beginning. The longer history introduces the people and places; the sources below provide further context.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
