Get your towels ready (and turn your speakers on) — it's about to go down!

Dolphins

Gretchen said there were no dolphins around Newport, but Wikipedia says there are, so they got to stay on the map.

The Chanler

The Chanler was built in 1865 (and is, accordingly, one of the oldest mansions in Newport) for Congressman John Winthrop Chanler and his wife, Margaret Ward Astor Chanler, great-granddaughter of John Jacob Astor and daughter of William Backhouse Astor. While they stayed at the home, then known as Cliff Lawn, the Chanlers played host to President Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and other politicians, writers, artists, and dignitaries.

The Chanlers had ten children within eleven years, until Mrs. Chanler passed away at the age of 37. When her husband passed away just two years later, their children were known sadly as the Astor Orphans. Two of those children grew up to follow in their father's footsteps and represent New York in the United States House of Representatives.

Since being sold by the Astor family, the home was alternately a school for girls, a bishop's private residence, an apartment building for naval officers, and, briefly, an art museum to display Beatrice Turner's portraits (see the description for Cliffside Inn). Fortunately, the home has survived with much of the original construction now preserved, and remains a beautiful example of a Gilded Age mansion built by Newport's oldest family of cottagers.

We look forward to having you see The Chanler during our wedding ceremony and reception.

Rose Island

Despite being only 18.5 acres in size, Rose Island is the site of abandoned stone barracks (originally constructed in 1798), a still-functioning Victorian lighthouse, and a wildlife preserve for migrating birds.

The island is accessible only by boat, so ferries for the clambake will be leaving from Fort Adams State Park beginning at 6pm. We hope that you'll join us!

Fort Adams

Throughout the colonial era, Newport was one of the country's largest cities and busiest ports; in 1774 it was the country's fifth-largest city — rivaling both New York and Boston in size, and certainly more fashionable than either. During the Revolutionary War, however, Newport fell under British occupation, and centers of shipping and industry had to move elsewhere. While Newport sunk into an economic depression following the war, its location and military importance remained. Forts have always been in place on Goat Island, but the need for greater fortification in Newport was realized after the War of 1812.

In 1824, construction began on Fort Adams. It was considered the most modern and complex fortification in the Western hemisphere at the time it was built. The Fort remained operative until 1965, when it was turned into a State Park.

Newport Yachting Center

Yachting in Newport has a long tradition. In the 1890s, the New York Yacht Club frequently spent time in Newport because of its preferable sailing conditions. William K. Vanderbilt was said to have enjoyed spending time on his yacht, Alva, more than he enjoyed spending time at Marble House with his wife, Alva (visit the description of Marble House to find out why he probably had very good reason).

In 1930, Newport officially because the home of America's Cup, and was proud host to the event for over 50 years. Even though the race is no longer in Newport (the scale of the event has outgrown this small city; the 2007 America's Cup accommodated 5.7 million visitors in Valencia, Spain), you can still take a walk down the humbly-named America's Cup Boulevard or enjoy a sailing cruise of Newport Harbor.

Easton's Beach

Before the 1840s, Newporters were reluctant to do more than merely look at the ocean. Swimming attire at the time was heavy and cumbersome, particularly when soaked with water. Easton's Beach became the most popular swimming place in Newport because, at noon every day, a red flag was raised over the beach — signaling that the women should leave, and men were allowed to swim in the nude.

By 1913, nude bathing was a bygone tradition at Easton's Beach, replaced by the respectability of a boardwalk, carousel, and cabanas that could be rented for the afternoon for just a few cents. The carousel is still there and open for business on summer afternoons.

Green Animals

In 1928, cotton industrialist Thomas Brayton purchased a farm in nearby Portsmouth, and hired a Portugese gardener named Joseph Carriera, who excelled in creating the topiaries of his homeland. Mr. Carriera sculpted the Brayton's hedges into whimsical animals such as giraffes and camels to the delight of Mr. Brayton's daughter, Alice, who dubbed them her “Green Animals.”

When in her 80s and faced with no heirs willing to care for her beloved topiaries, Miss Brayton considered selling the Green Animals to the New York Botanical Gardens, but in the end couldn't bear to have them leave Rhode Island. She decided to leave them to the newly forming Newport Preservation Society, and in doing so helped the Society gain more prominence right before it began acquiring some of Newport's most notable mansions.

Claiborne Pell Bridge

Before the 1960s, there were three ways to enter Newport, and none of them were easy: the Mount Hope Bridge, the Sakonnet River Bridge, and the Jamestown Bridge followed by a ferry ride. (None of these options were available to Gilded Age visitors; they all arrived by boat.) These bridges were on smaller roads with horrible traffic, and couldn't accommodate the influx of tourist traffic in the summer. It was difficult to get to Newport, so people simply weren't trying — the 1950s and early 60s represented a slump in Newport's tourism business, and consequently in its economic well-being. In 1966 construction on the Newport Bridge began, and two years later the Newport Restoration Foundation was founded by Doris Duke. Together, these two event made Newport more accessible, more presentable, and more of an attraction that it had been in decades. The Newport revival had begun.

In 1992, the Newport Bridge was renamed in honor of Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell, who was a longtime resident of Newport and helped the city gain prominence by encouraging President and Mrs. Kennedy to make it their summer home.

Hotel Viking

The Astors, Vanderbilts, and other cottagers were not fans of tourists clogging up their beloved Newport. In 1898 when the Ocean House Hotel burned down, the elite vehemently blocked the building of a new hotel. There were very few hotels in Newport around the fin de siècle, making the Hotel Viking, built in 1926, one of the oldest.

In the 1970s author and playwright Thornton Wilder liked to come to Newport to write, and frequently stayed at the Hotel Viking. It is thought he wrote much of Theophilus North, his novel about a rich father trying to keep his daughter from marrying a socially inappropriate mate (set on Bellevue Avenue in the 1920s) while staying there.

Goat Island

The island earned its name after early colonists used the island as a pasture for their goats.

During 1703, a fort was built on Goat Island named Fort Anne (after the reigning queen), which was later changed to Fort Liberty during the Revolution, and then to Fort George by the British occupiers of Newport from 1776 to 1779. After the war, it was changed to Fort Washington in a fit of new patriotism. In 1798, Rhode Island sold Goat Island to the federal government, who renamed it Fort Wolcott, after a member of the Continental Congress (from Connecticut, not Rhode Island, to the annoyance of locals). Regardless of what it was called, the fort is no longer there. After maintaining a naval presence on Goat Island through the 1960s, the federal government sold the island to a private developer who tore it down and built a hotel.

Cliff Walk

The fabled Cliff Walk is a three and a half mile elevated path along the coast of Easton Bay, with spectacular views of both the ocean and the backyards of Newport's best mansions.

The Cliff Walk was first laid out in the 1860s, and thus predated many of the mansions. As Newport grew as a tourist destination, many cottagers felt this path bordering their lawns was a huge intrusion. They tried to have it closed, and then tried to buy it, all to no avail: Rhode Island has an old law, a carry-over from their colonial charter, that fishermen must have unblocked access to the ocean. So, Cliff Walk remained open. The only response the cottagers were allowed was to raise their lawns, and thus keep the hoi polloi from disrupting their ocean views.

Cliff Walk

The fabled Cliff Walk is a three and a half mile elevated path along the coast of Easton Bay, with spectacular views of both the ocean and the backyards of Newport's best mansions.

The Cliff Walk was first laid out in the 1860s, and thus predated many of the mansions. As Newport grew as a tourist destination, many cottagers felt this path bordering their lawns was a huge intrusion. They tried to have it closed, and then tried to buy it, all to no avail: Rhode Island has an old law, a carry-over from their colonial charter, that fishermen must have unblocked access to the ocean. So, Cliff Walk remained open. The only response the cottagers were allowed was to raise their lawns, and thus keep the hoi polloi from disrupting their ocean views.

Downtown Newport

If you're hoping to get some shopping done, take a walk through the downtown Newport area to visit the antique shops, art galleries, ice cream parlors, seafood restaurants, clothing stores, and — of course — the Newport Fudgery.

Beechwood

In 1881, Mrs. Caroline Astor purchased a home on Bellevue Avenue and hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to add a necessary ballroom. Born Caroline Schermerhorn of old New York Knickerbocker stock, William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (grandson of John Jacob Astor) married Caroline to secure the Astor's transition from nouveau riche to full-fledged blue bloods. His plan worked.

With her family's background and her husband's money, Mrs. Astor became the gatekeeper of New York society. She established The 400 — those people who were important to know and be known by. As the emblematic Society Grand Dame, everyone followed in her footsteps. When Mrs. Astor had a cottage in Newport, everyone would soon have a cottage in Newport. The Gilded Age had arrived in the “Kingdom by the Sea.”

The Breakers

After Mrs. Caroline Astor purchased Beechwood and hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to renovate it, the Vanderbilt family resolutely decided that they would also hire Hunt — but they would have him design their houses from the ground up. The Vanderbilts weren't only competing with the Astors, they were competing with one another in an elaborate game of one-upmanship that historians amusingly called “Vanderbuilding.”

The Breakers was the home of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife, Alice, both of whom were determined to out-do the home of their sister-in-law, Alva Vanderbilt, who was building her over-the-top Hunt creation across the street in Marble House. In the end, the Cornelius Vanderbilts won the day: with its 70 rooms, 62,000 square feet, marble staircases, Italian sculptures, and a room painted entirely in platinum leaf, The Breakers remains the best known of all the Newport mansions.

Cliffside Inn

The Cliffside Inn was originally the summer home of the Turners, a wealthy family from Main Line Philadelphia. Daughter Beatrice dreamed of attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but her father forbade it, fearing her exposure to nude models. When he died in 1913, it seemed that Beatrice would have the chance to pursue her dream, but instead she developed increasingly odd behaviors: she painted Cliffside entirely black, began to wear old-fashioned Victorian clothes, and retreated reclusively into her house.

In 1950, two years after Beatrice's death, an entrepreneur hoping to turn Cliffside into a hotel entered the home and discovered self-portraits of Beatrice, nearly 1,000 in all, spanning 20 years of her life. And yes, some of her portraits were nude. Her father would be dismayed.

Marble House

When William K. Vanderbilt presented his wife, Alva, with a blank check to cover the cost of a new cottage in Newport, perhaps he anticipated that the scale and excess of her “Vanderbuilding” would lead to a mansion with five hundred thousand cubic feet of square marble, costing him $11 million ($260 million in today's dollars — in a world before income tax.) Perhaps he anticipated Alva would get into constant fights with architect Richard Morris Hunt (a documented exchange: “Dammit, Mrs. Vanderbilt, who is building this house?” to which she replied, “Dammit, Mr. Hunt, who will be living in it?”)

What Vanderbilt likely didn't anticipate, though, was that — nearly one year after Marble House was completed — Alva turned rumors into confirmed headlines by publicly breaking up their marriage and moving in with investment banker and US Representative Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont in his cottage, Belcourt, just down Bellevue Avenue. If you have time, you can tour both Marble House and Belcourt to see each of Mrs. Vanderbilt Belmont's homes.

Rosecliff

Rosecliff was the home of Teresa Fair Oelrichs and her husband, Hermann Oelrichs. Mrs. Oelrichs, or “Tessie” was a true rags to riches story: the daughter of an Irish immigrant, she grew up on a farm until her father headed West at precisely the right time, finding silver and taking over Nevada's Comstock Lode. Mrs. Fair took her newly-made heiress daughters to Newport to find husbands, and when her plot worked, refused to invite Tessie's socially unacceptable father to their daughter's wedding. However, Mr. Fair didn't hold a grudge: he sent a $1 million check as a wedding present.

Rosecliff was also used as the set of The Great Gatsby film starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. In order to ensure that the movie's extras matched the movie's glamorous set, the film's casting director posted a call to Newport's residents: “Wanted: Aristocrats, $1.65 per hour.” Nuala Pell (wife of Senator Claiborne Pell), Candy Van Alen (wife of Jimmy Van Alen, great-grandson of W. B. Astor, Jr., and grand-nephew of Frederick Vanderbilt), and Oatsie Charles (a fellow socialite) all responded to the call, and can be seen dancing in the background of Gatsby's parties.

The Elms

While The Breakers was built by the Vanderbilts with their railroad money, The Elms was built by E. J. Berwind, who made his money selling the Vanderbilts coal to power their railroad engines. While Richard Morris Hunt was busy fighting with Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt, Mr. Berwind hired architect Horace Trumbauer, who famously said, “If spending money bothers you, I'm not your architect.” It did not seem to bother Mr. Berwind.

After his death, Mr. Berwind left The Elms to his sister, Julia. Miss Berwind lived at The Elms until her death, alternately showing privileged obtuseness (such as when she placed a large order with the supermarket during World War II and was asked to show her ration books; Miss Berwind responded “I thought those were for ordinary people”), and sweet kindness (such as opening the greenhouse at The Elms every afternoon to serve neighborhood children milk and cookies). When you visit, please take time to check out The Elms's beautiful gardens — the best in Newport — but you'll have to pack your own milk and cookies.