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 era, where architecture became a way for America’s wealthiest families to display power, culture, and refinement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This photograph was taken inside “The Elms: one of the grandest of Newport’s summer “cottages”. Built between 1899 and 1901 for coal magnate Edward Julius Berwind, the mansion was inspired by the French Chateau d’Asnièresnear Paris and remains one of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts design in America.

The interior of The Elms was meant to impress at every turn. The sweeping marble staircase, gilded capitals, elaborate ironwork, crystal chandeliers and towering columns reflected the influence of European palaces. Wealthy American industrialists of the Gilded Age often looked to France and Italy for inspiration, hoping to bring the elegance of the Old World to Newport.

America during the Gilded Age was a time of enormous industrial growth, immense fortunes and dramatic contrasts between wealth and everyday life. Each Newport mansion has its own personality. Some overwhelm with size, while others captivate through decorative arts, gardens or architectural detail. Standing inside The Elms, you can see the ambition of the era. These homes were designed not simply as residences, but as statements, expressions of wealth, taste and America’s emergence onto the world stage at the turn of the twentieth century.