Category: Historic Places
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An Array of Art at Biltmore
George Vanderbilt wasn’t a huge art collector, but he still managed to acquire quite a few notable works of art that are now on display at Biltmore.
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A Chateau in North Carolina – My Visit to Biltmore
Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC was once the home of George Vanderbilt and his family. Now a resort and museum, it was the object of my recent trip.
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A Rainy Day at Monticello
Founding Father Thomas Jefferson designed his home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, VA. I visited on a very rainy September day as part of my vacation.
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Tour Great Architecture from Anywhere
While you can never truly experience a place from a screen, it’s nice to have the option to see great architecture in 360 degrees from your couch.
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Kykuit: Home of the Rockefellers
Kykuit is the Sleepy Hollow, NY estate of the Rockefeller family. It’s well-known for two things – its gardens and its modern art collection.
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The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms
A short account of my Christmastime visit to the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. It was the home of American designer and entrepreneur Gustav Stickley.
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Glynallen Castle, New Jersey
Two picturesque grotesques from a fantastical, Tudor-inspired mansion in New Jersey.
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Newport Wrap-Up
If you’ve read all my posts in this series, you’ve officially been introduced to every Newport mansion I visited. (But not every Newport mansion, since unfortunately I didn’t get to visit two of them.) But my Newport adventure wasn’t entirely mansion tours. There’s lots else to see and do in town. The Redwood Library and Athenaeum is…
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The Green Animals Topiary Garden (My Newport Adventures)
Brayton Hall, the Brayton family’s former home, is located about 20 minutes outside Newport in the nearby town of Portsmouth. The primary attraction of this site isn’t the house, but the garden, popularly known as the Green Animals Topiary Garden. It has more than 80 topiaries shaped of like animals and objects alongside may other trees and flowers. My favorite topiaries were the owl,…
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The Isaac Bell House (My Newport Adventures)
The Isaac Bell House is very different from anything else I saw in Newport. While the Vanderbilts, Berwinds, and other prominent Newport families looked to the past to imitate Renaissance, Gothic, and Baroque architecture, Isaac Bell looked forward instead. Thanks to his architect Stanford White, his house (completed in 1883) began a new style that’s now called Shingle Style.…
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Kingscote (My Newport Adventures)
Kingscote was owned by George Nobel Jones, and then several generations of the King family (who obviously gave it the name). The home was built in 1841 but substantially enlarged in the 1880s for the Kings. The original house was designed by Richard Upjohn, and the addition was by McKim, Mead, and White. Kingscote is large and impressive,…
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The Breakers (My Newport Adventures)
The Breakers is the crown jewel of Newport, and it’s totally crazy to experience. Cornelius Vanderbilt II, who owned the house with his wife Alice, clearly saw himself as a grand Renaissance prince. The Breakers was designed to look like an Italian Renaissance palace by Richard Morris Hunt and completed in 1895.
