The Breakers, Newport, Rhode Island. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

On Monday, January 5, 2015, Newport, Rhode Island’s Zoning Board of Review released its 4-1 decision in favor of a controversial visitor center planned for the grounds of The Breakers, a Gilded Age mansion built for the Vanderbilts. Many neighbors, preservationists, and descendants of the Vanderbilts, including the designer Gloria Vanderbilt, have voiced their opposition to the center, stating that it would detract from the integrity of the historic landmark.

The magnificent seaside mansion is owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the area's finest architecture, decorative arts, landscape, and social history. The Preservation Society selected a design by the Massachusetts-based architecture firm Epstein Joslin that meets its historic preservation criteria while better accommodating The Breakers’ 400,000 annual visitors. The $4.2 million center will feature ticketing, wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, and an area to purchase prepared foods. The decision marks the first time that food service has been approved at a Newport museum.

Built as a summer “cottage” for the Vanderbilts in 1895, The Breakers is Newport’s grandest and most visited mansion. Designed by the celebrated American architect Richard Morris Hunt in an Italian Renaissance style, The Breakers was Hunt’s final project and one of his few surviving works. Hunt, who helped establish architecture as a profession, was celebrated for his palatial style and taste for lavish interiors, making him a favorite among  America’s elite during the nineteenth century.

The Breakers sits tucked away on Ochre Point Avenue, just a short distance from Newport’s mansion-lined Bellevue Avenue. The thirteen-acre estate overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and boasts seventy rooms -- many of which were built in Europe, shipped to the United States, and re-assembled in place in Newport. The Parisian firm Jules Allard and Sons and the American architect and decorator Ogden Codman, Jr. designed The Breakers’ grand interiors, which feature marble imported from Italy, rare wood mosaics, and architectural elements that once resided in a French chateau. 

Despite the Zoning Board’s ruling in favor of The Breakers’ visitor center, it is expected that an appeal will be filed.