Newport Cliff Walk: A Guide to its Gilded Age Landmarks and Legends

(33 reviews)

Newport, Rhode Island audio tour: Newport Cliff Walk: A Guide to its Gilded Age Landmarks and Legends

This is a 3.2mi walking tour

It takes an average of 120 mins to complete.

Newport, Rhode Island

The United States

$11.99

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About the Tour

At the turn of the 20th century, Newport was the summer home of America’s fashionable society. Millionaires from New York and beyond competed for status by building palatial estates and throwing lavish galas within the ballrooms of their “summer cottages.” On this walking tour, you’ll see one of New England’s most breathtaking coastlines from a new perspective, as you step back into the Gilded Age.

On this 90-minute stroll along the Cliff Walk, you’ll hear about all the mansions you pass by, and the families who lived within them. I’ll tell you about Cornelius “The Commodore” Vanderbilt who built the most immense fortune in America at the time, and I’ll reveal how his descendants squandered it all within a few short generations. I’ll explain how the social structure of Newport’s elite was determined by Caroline Astor, the empress of ‘The 400’ – New York society’s and, by default, Newport’s unofficial ‘who’s who’ list.

Starting at 40 Steps, you’ll wind your way along the Cliff Walk, taking in mansions like the Breakers, Rosecliff, Belmont Estate and Rough Point. Along the way, I’ll point out the Chinese Tea House at Marble House and Ochre Point lookout. Home by home, you’ll discover how these estates were built, and why so many of them were merely abandoned at the end of the Gilded Age, when they weren’t donated or sold off as museums for a small fraction of the cost to build them.

Some questions I’ll answer along the way include:

What was the Gilded Age and why was it given that name?
Were the millionaires of the Gilded Age as wealthy as the billionaires of today?
How many servants did it take to staff a mansion in Newport?
Why were the Vanderbilts not easily accepted into Newport’s polite society and ‘the 400’?
How did Salve Regina University, located along the Cliff Walk, get its beautiful campus here?

On this tour, you’ll not only get to appreciate these magnificent homes, but also to walk along Rhode Island’s most impressive stretch of shoreline to see its most visited travel destination.

Tour Producer

Gregg Squeglia

4 tours

I am a travel writer and tour guide based in Massachusetts. I love to write and share what I have learned with others. During the summer, I provide guided bike tours here on the beaches of Cape Cod and walking tours of Martha's Vineyard.

I grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts - a historic city in its own right about 30 minutes from Boston. In elementary through high school classes, I learned about America's beginnings and all of the historic events that happened practically right around the corner. The colonial period quickly became one of my favorite eras in the nation's history.

I am also an officer in the US Army Reserve. This has taken me to many places across the country and even the world. During my travels, I try to learn as much as I can about the area, its history, and the people who call it home. Many of my travels are documented on my website, Knockabout Travel.

Preview Location

Location 16

Marble House

By now we know that the Vanderbilt family was an ever-present force in Gilded Age Newport. Marble House is yet another monument to the family’s influence at the turn of the 1900s. The mansion was commissioned by Alva Erskine Vanderbilt and her husband William Kissam Vanderbilt... By now we know that the Vanderbilt family was an ever-present force in Gilded Age Newport. Marble House is yet another monument to the family’s influence at the turn of the 1900s. The mansion was commissioned by Alva Erskine Vanderbilt and her husband William Kissam Vanderbilt. William was the younger brother of Cornelius II of the Breakers. The home was constructed over the course of four years from 1888 to 1892 and is considered to be the first of the summer cottages that were conspicuously excessive in its architecture and build. Previous to Marble House’s grand appearance, most of the summer homes along the Cliff Walk were respectable, but modest in comparison. Remember, even his brother’s residence, The Breakers, was a stick-built home until it was destroyed by fire in 1892. The arrival of Marble House ushered in a new era of extravagant stone-built mansions, each successively designed to outdo the others.

Looking at Marble House from Bellevue Avenue, the front of the mansion has a grand portico with stone pillars that are designed to resemble the White House. It has fifty rooms and at its peak required a staff of 36 servants to support the many social functions that occurred here on the regular. It was built at a cost of $11 million, or $320 million in today’s dollars, including nearly 65% of the cost being spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble.

Alva Vanderbilt was the force that put the Vanderbilts on the social map of New York and Newport society, having forced the arm of Caroline Astor into accepting the family into The 400. Mrs. Astor tried her best to exclude the Vanderbilt family from her club for as long as she could. The Astor balls and galas in New York and Newport required a specific calling card from Mrs. Astor herself, which for many years never arrived at a Vanderbilt doorstep. Then one year, in March of 1883, Alva decided to kick the doors of polite society off of their hinges and inject the Vanderbilt name into Mrs. Astor’s snob-ridden club once and for all. She decided to throw her own ball. A ball so elaborate that it would be the talk of all of society. A ball so lavish that it would cost $5 million in today's money - for one night. Of course, all of the 400 would be invited. Well, maybe 398. Everyone except Caroline Astor, and more specifically Mrs. Astor’s daughter, Carrie.

In reality, there were over 700 invited guests, but Mrs. Astor was still not one of them. She was furious, and her daughter Carrie…well, she was devastated. Mrs. Astor had no choice at this point. She was forced to get into her buggy and pay a social call to Alva Vanderbilt, acknowledging her presence and inclusion in society. Mrs. Astor and her daughter did attend the Vanderbilt ball, and going forward it was as if the Vanderbilts had belonged in Mrs. Astor's circles the entire time. She remarked, “We have no right to exclude those whom this great country has brought forward. The time has come for the Vanderbilts.”

Alva was a truly miserable woman with dictatorial tendencies, even bragging about how she “enjoyed nothing so much as tyrannizing over the little slave children,” referring to growing up on her father’s cotton plantation in the antebellum South of Mobile, Alabama. She would extend her tyranny to her own family, forcing her daughter, Consuelo, to marry into British Royalty in order to cement her own standing as American nobility, or at least as close as one can come to nobility in America. But despite knowing that there was no love in her daughter’s marriage, she saw Consuelo off across the Atlantic to become the first American Duchess of Marlborough in 1895, then later that year, with a cavalier disregard for hypocrisy, divorced her own husband, William, receiving a $10 million settlement and ownership of Marble House, which she had been gifted in full for her 39th birthday.

Alva survived her divorce, financially of course but more important - socially. In an era when divorce was the realm of the socially inferior, Alva would prevail and remain at the top of the social pecking order. The grounds for divorce between Alva and William was apparently William’s adulterous behavior. But, rumors abounded that William had actually hired a woman to play his mistress in order to enrage Alva and cause her to divorce him. She was just that tough to be around.

Alva would remarry a year later to Oliver Belmont, son of August Belmont of Villa-by-the-Sea whom we spoke of a few homes back on the Cliff Walk. During their marriage, Alva closed Marble House and summered at Oliver’s estate down the road, aptly named Belcourt and located immediately south of Marble House on the Cliff Walk. They remained married until Oliver’s death in 1906, at which point she reopened Marble House and had the Chinese Tea Room constructed. The tea room is modeled after the 12th-century temples of the Chinese Song Dynasty, an empire than ruled parts of China for 300 years before being conquered by the Mongols led by the famous Kublai Khan, who, for reference, was the grandson of the even more famous Ghengis Khan.

However, it would be unfair to say that Alva’s story ends there. After all, she would have her legacy attached to no man. After Oliver’s passing, she threw herself into her passion - women’s rights and suffrage. In the ensuing years, Alva founded a political action league, wrote for newspapers, and supported labor strikes all in support of getting women the right to vote.

In her later years, Alva relocated to France in order to be closer to her daughter Consuelo, ironically the woman whose rights she totally stripped in favor of her own ambition. She closed Marble House in 1919, letting it go dormant until she finally sold it in 1932, right before her own death. The new owner, investment banker Frederick Prince, and his family would occupy Marble House for the next 31 years, keeping the interior intact as the Vanderbilts had arranged it. In 1963, Marble House was purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is currently open for public touring. Read More

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Major Landmarks

Beechwood Mansion
Rosecliff
Ochre Point
Cliff Walk
40 Steps
Salve Regina University
The Breakers
Rough Point
Chinese Tea House at Marble House
Marble House

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Getting There

Route Overview

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Start location
Cliff Walk, Newport, RI 02840, USA
Total distance

5km
Final location
718-700 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840, USA
Distance back to start location

2km

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins at the Narragansett Ave Waterfront Public Access Point on Narragansett Ave, near 40 Steps. There is metered street parking available on Narragansett Ave.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

There isn't anywhere to stop along the way.

Best time of day

Anytime from Dawn to Dusk. Summer is the most popular time, but fair weather days from April through October are also enjoyable.

Precautions

Parts of the Cliff Walk entail walking over uneven ground and rocks. There are exit points for those that wish to enjoy only the paved walking path.

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