The Breakers

The Breakers is a mansion built in the Renaissance Revival style along Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island. The building rises five floors with seventy rooms constructed from limestone, marble, and steel framing that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

Cornelius Vanderbilt II commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the residence between eighteen ninety-three and eighteen ninety-five, after an earlier wooden house burned down. The design drew inspiration from sixteenth-century Italian palaces and marked the peak of the Gilded Age in America.

The name refers to the waves of the Atlantic breaking against the rocks at the foot of the cliffs below. The great hall with its Corinthian columns and the evening light over the ocean illustrate the lifestyle of America's upper class around nineteen hundred.

The Newport Preservation Society organizes daily guided tours that allow visitors to walk through the main rooms and terraces. An elevator is available, and refreshments can be found at the café near the entrance.

The basement houses an extensive electrical installation from the eighteen nineties that was remarkably modern for its time. Special basement tours reveal this technical setup that staff used for kitchen, heating, and lighting operations.

Location: Newport

Inception: 1893

Architects: Richard Morris Hunt

Architectural style: Renaissance Revival architecture

Part of: Bellevue Avenue Historic District

Address: 44 Ochre Point Avenue

GPS coordinates: 41.46972,-71.29861

Latest update: December 12, 2025 16:52