Marble House
Newport, Rhode Island was one of the towns we would head to during our homeschooling day trips. There are so many houses to visit, and we would arrive with the intention to tour two.
Here we are at the Marble House.
From the moment we approach it, the scale and intention are unmistakable. Built between 1888 and 1892 for Alva Vanderbiilt, this was not simply a summer home, but a statement. Constructed with an extraordinary amount of marble, the house feels immovable, as if designed to define an era.
The interior spaces are richly detailed with a reflection of European influence and American ambition. The gatherings that once filled these rooms were about status and social connection.
Alva Vanderbilt later used Marble House as a platform for the women’s suffrage movement, hosting events that shifted its meaning from one of display to one of purpose.
These homeschooling visits were a way to see history in layers, architecture, lifestyle and social change, all within a single place.
Read More
Read More From Nancy
Gilbert Stuart Birthplace
Gilbert Stuart went on to fame as the portrait artist of Geroge Washington, the very image that appears on every dollar bill. Our first visit to this site was during my homeschooling days. Visiting historic houses was a part of our homeschooling adventures, and I would purposely seek out places like this, homes where history felt real […]
Hammersmith
In the 1990s, Hammersmith Farm in Newport opened for tours, and we made the trip to see it. The estate is best known as the childhood summer home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and as the site of the wedding reception following her marriage to John F. Kennedy in 1953. After the ceremony of St. Mary’s […]
The Elms
Over the years, we have visited all the historic homes in Newport, Rhode Island. Newport itself has layers of history, from its colonial seaport beginnings to its role in early American trade, but it is the extraordinary collection of Gilded Age mansions that draws so many people to explore the town today. Walking through Newport feels like stepping into another […]
