Take a walk along cliffs of the rich and famous

By Chris Oliver
Advertiser Travel Writer

NEWPORT, R.I. — The city famous for its jazz festival, sumptuous seafood dishes, the America's Cup yacht races and great surfing at Easton's Beach, has a wealth of tourist attractions.

Newport's 3 1/2-mile Cliff Walk offers visitors a chance to stroll through architectural history. Chris Oliver • The Honolulu Advertiser

Newport is home to a clutch of coastal "cottages" built last century by America's barons of finance in an era of, at least then, unparalleled opulence. (For "cottages," read "mansions" — properties complete with formal gardens, circle driveways, carriage houses, statues and splendor.)

"Newport has long been a symbol of the glamorous life of the very rich; it's where the people who built America summered," said Newport preservationist Andrea Carneiro.

The builders were America's royal families, wealthy New Yorkers and industrialists like the Vanderbilts (Cornelius and William), the Astors, the Stuyvesants, coal merchant Edward J. Berwind, silver heiress Tessie Oelrichs and tobacco heiress Doris Duke, among others.

Their towering wealth was reflected in their mansions — The Elms, Marble House, Rosecliff, Rough Point, Chateau-sur-Mer and The Breakers — the architectural extravagances of millionaires who benefited from the industrial revolution. Those mansions and dozens of others were all the more imposing for sharing an area not much bigger than Kailua.

Newport's Cliff Walk winds past many mansions, including Beechwood, foreground, once home to the Astors. Beechwood Mansion

Today, visitors can tour the mansions, many of which have been rescued by the Preservation Society of Newport County, or simply view them from Newport's Cliff Walk, an easy public-access trail along the craggy coastline that crosses the owners' private lands.

The trail began as a footpath in the late 1700s. During the late 19th century, the summer getaways for wealthy New Yorkers spread from the center of the Newport Harbor area to this then-undeveloped coastal stretch overlooking Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. Serious development of Cliff Walk started in about 1880, and a number of mansion owners spent the next 50 years improving the walk, piece by piece.

The Cliff Walk was designated a National Recreation Trail in 1975 and combines a fabulous walk along the New England shoreline with a glimpse into Newport's gilded history. The 3 1/2-mile pathway takes about two hours (Note: There is no access to the mansions from the Cliff Walk. See information box on how to take a mansion tour).

The walk begins at Easton's Beach, known for its surf break and soft sand. Along the way, look for these highlights ...

The Breakers

Built in 1895 by Richard Morris Hunt for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, The Breakers is a 70-room palace in the Renaissance style, decorated with more than a dozen different Italian marbles, massive chandeliers, stained glass, ornate fireplaces and antique tapestries, making it one of the most ornate houses in the United States. There are also touches of alabaster, silver and crystal.

The east wall of the mansion is entirely glass, looking out over the Atlantic.

Dinner parties for 200 guests were given without the Vanderbilts calling in extra help.

The Breakers is considered the grandest of all Newport's mansions, dwarfing the multimillion-dollar achievement of Cornelius Vanderbilt's brother, William, who built the nearby Marble House.

Forty Steps

At the end of Narragansett Ave., about three-quarters of a mile along the path are the Forty Steps, a dramatic stone staircase that drops about two-thirds of the way down the side of the cliff to a balcony over the sea.

The Forty Steps was a gathering place for the help. Here, they held weekend dances and played the Irish songs and music that reminded them of home.

Beechwood

Beechwood was built in 1851. For much of the Gilded Age, Caroline Astor, known as The Mrs. Astor, entertained her chosen top 400 U.S. socialites at the oceanside villa, with the highlight of Newport's summer season being Mrs. Astor's Summer Ball. Today, visitors can experience a tour through her mansion conducted by actors replicating the accents, dress and manners of a century ago.

Marble House

Built in 1892, also by Hunt, for William K. Vanderbilt, Marble House is famous for its mottled pink marble walls (more than 700,000 cubic feet of imported marble were built into this Greek-style palace), Corinthian columns, heavy beveled doors and tall windows.

Local lore has it that the Vanderbilt footmen were liveried in maroon coats, black knee breeches, gilt garters and patent-leather shoes.

At the edge of the property, overlooking the ocean is ...

Mrs. Vanderbilt's Chinese Tea House

This small, colorful pavilion was inspired by temple buildings in southern China and opened with a lavish Chinese costume ball in 1914. The pavilion fell into disrepair but was fully restored, inside and out in 1982.

Rosecliff

Built in 1902 by Stanford White for Tessie Oelrichs, Rosecliff was conceived as a stage set for the dinners, balls and costume parties that made up the social whirl of Newport in the Gilded Age.

Rough Point

In 1922, James B. Duke, the founder of fortunes in electric power and tobacco and the namesake of Duke University, purchased Rough Point. This vast English manor house was built by Frederick W. Vanderbilt in 1889 on a prominent piece of the shoreline jutting into the ocean.

In 1925, James Duke died, leaving his fortune to 13-year-old Doris, his only child. Rough Point became one of Doris' private retreats. The house stayed in the family until she died in 1993.