Tag: mansion
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French Tradition at Delaware’s Nemours Estate
During a recent visit to Wilmington, DE, I visited Nemours Estate, the unforgettable home and formal gardens of industrialist Alfred I. Dupont.
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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 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.
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Chateau-sur-Mer (My Newport Adventures)
Chateau-sur-Mer is probably the most Victorian of all houses in Newport. It was owned by William Shepard Wetmore, who made his fortune trading with then-exotic China. When it was built in 1852 – long before the big four – it was one of the most famous houses in Newport. William’s son, George Peabody Wetmore, inherited it in 1862, and he had…
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Marble House (My Newport Adventures)
The Marble House (completed in 1892) was designed by Alva Vanderbilt, who was then the wife of William K. Vanderbilt. The house was designed by Richard Morris Hunt with decoration by Jules Allard and Sons. The Marble House is definitely over the top, yet it feels strangely accessible because none of the rooms are particularly…
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The Elms (My Newport Adventures)
The Elms was the first mansion I saw on my first day in Newport, and it was the perfect way to start my trip. The home was built in 1901 for Edward and Herminie Berwind, who made their fortune in the coal industry. It was later occupied by Edward’s sister Julia. The house was designed…
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An Introduction to Newport, Rhode Island
An introduction to Newport, Rhode Island and all the spectacular Gilded Age mansions within. Newport was once a summer destination for American elites.
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My visit to Lyndhurst, an American castle
Lyndhurst is an huge house in Tarrytown, New York. It was home to politician William Paulding, businessman George Merritt, and finally Gilded Age industrialist Jay Gould and his family. Lyndhurst has incredible Gothic Revival architecture, stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge, and great furniture.
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Kip’s Castle – My Visit to a New Jersey Mansion
Updated with news photos from my Christmas 2017 visit to Kip’s Castle. Click on the photo gallery below! I recently took some time to visit a local landmark – Kip’s Castle in Verona, New Jersey. The former home of textile industrialist Frederic Ellsworth Kip and his family, Kip’s Castle is a sprawling stone mansion at the very top…
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Hudson River School Day
Thomas Cole and Frederick Edwin Church, the two most prominent Hudson River School painters, both had homes and studios in the Catskill area of New York. One summer day, I went up there to visit the two houses, which are now museums open to the public for tours. This was my experience.
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of the Turnblad Mansion, Minneapolis
I belong to a wonderful group on Facebook called Mansions of the Gilded Age. Last month, I asked some of my fellow group members whether they knew of any gargoyles on Gilded Age homes. They came back with quite a few great examples, including the Turnblad Mansion in Minneapolis. Commissioned by Swedish-born newspaper publisher Swan Turnblad…
