Good Morning! And, welcome to Newport, Rhode Island. Well, perhaps not "welcome" in the way we might think of "welcome". Too much of Newport is hidden behind elaborate gates, strongly worded signs, and tall wooden fences designed, no doubt, to keep the cruise excursion riff-raff and other tourist-types at a comfortable distance. Comfortable for them...but, darn it, I'm having trouble getting a good view. Remember, but for an accident of birth I might have been here. Let me see what I missed.
This is the famed Breakers estate, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt for the eight-week Newport Summer Season. Eight weeks! Now that has to qualify as real wealth. We toured this beauty, and if you're ready for a few statistics, here they are: 65,000 square feet. The rather lavish dining room contains 2,400 square feet. It was not my imagination telling me it was larger than my year-around house. That dining room is one of 70 rooms. Cornelius paid $12 million for this beauty, which would be $355 million in today's dollars. It's owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County and open for tours. Not the apartment behind the windows on the third floor, however. That luxury suite is periodically occupied by Anderson Cooper of CNN fame and some of his Vanderbilt/Whitney cousins. I don't think they were home.
Newport is a charming place although today was a bit foggy and hazy. Except for the tourists who come to gape at the historic mansions, and a few remaining wealthy souls who rebuild and remodel a home here and there, the economy depends on the fact that Naval Station Newport is based here, with its Naval War College, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (not for me, thank you) and a large US Navy Training Center.
The famed Newport Cliff Walk is a wonderful way to spend a few hours wandering beside the harbor and enjoying views of the mansions built along this stretch of water. This one will certainly do. It's gorgeous. And who is the lucky owner? Salve Regina University. Salve Regina University? Tough times fell on Newport in the 1930s and, frankly, in some of the years since. Salve Regina seems to have been the recipient of a number of gifts of huge homes in need of maintenance, remodeling and upkeep. This is Ochre Court, Salve Regina's first gift and its first home.
Here's another example of a Salve Regina building. Once owned by the Lorillard family (cigarettes and other tobacco abominations), it was also bequeathed to the university. It wasn't a surprise to learn that Salve Regina is known to have one of the most beautiful campuses in the United States.
Even if one ignores the mansions, known as "cottages" in their day, the Cliff Walk is beautiful.
Goodness. Where did this come from? I think it's my reminder that even in Newport we can find a bit of squalor with the splendor. Call the maintenance man, people!
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