R.I. mansions offer specialized tours

NEWPORT, R.I. -- As tour groups filter through The Breakers, the opulent oceanside mansion once used as the Vanderbilt family's summer home, a guide brings a Connecticut family of four into a spacious and spectacular room off the main entrance.

The Great Hall is a stunning sight, 50 feet high with red- carpeted staircases and a gilded plaster frame that borders a bright blue sky painted on the ceiling.

Tour guide Nell Trainor lets the Chan family take in the view, then turns to the youngest members of the group -- Alissa, 9, and her 14-year-old sister, Queenie.

"It would probably take about 12 of your friends (to reach the top) if we had them stand on shoulders," Trainor says.

She peppers the rest of her presentation with joking asides to the girls, asking about their hobbies and personal collections and sharing stories about the Vanderbilt kin who lived in the 70-room house.

It's all part of a family tour that the Preservation Society of Newport County began offering last year at The Breakers, the 1895 Italian Renaissance-style mansion that is the most popular of Newport's eye-popping palaces. The tour, intended to provide a more family-friendly, educational experience, is one of several specialized visits developed at the mansions in recent years.

Singles can enjoy drinks at a 1920s speakeasy at Astors' Beechwood Mansion. Ladies who lunch can dine on a terrace at The Elms. Fashionistas can check out the designer wardrobe of a wealthy socialite at Rough Point. And the party crowd can check out "Vegas Night" at Belcourt Castle.

For houses like The Breakers, which has hosted tourists for several decades, the newer tours offer a fresh way to experience Newport's mansions, which together form one of Rhode Island's most prized tourist destinations.

A typical tour at The Breakers features talk of Gilded Age riches and marble fireplaces -- a snoozer for a typical kid.

"I can be on a tour and kind of see the kids' eyes glazing over," Trainor said.

Which is why she starts her family tour by stopping at the children's cottage house, a small and squat building with short black doors near the main mansion.

She excludes some of the historical names and dates that might bore children, and includes details about the antics of the Vanderbilt children -- saying they were permitted to slide down the staircases, or telling of a time when one of the girls locked a group of adults inside a room during a temper tantrum.

"It gets the child thinking and imagining what it must be like to live in an environment like The Breakers," said Janice Wiseman of the Preservation Society.

The family tours are offered four times a day -- twice in the morning and twice after lunch -- from May to September and are designed for children between 4 and 11, Wiseman said. Tours typically last for an hour or so, and groups are usually limited to 10 to 12 people.

The Astors' Beechwood Mansion aims for a more mature crowd with "Roarin' '20s" tours on Tuesdays and Fridays. Guests at the mansion, whose tours typically focus on the Victorian era, are taken instead to 1925. During the tour, they might encounter actors portraying Cole Porter, Zelda Fitzgerald or other historical characters in era- appropriate clothing.

With dialogue that celebrates Newport's free-drinking ways in the age of Prohibition, the 1920s-themed tour is decidedly an adult affair, according to Patrick Grimes, who manages the tours.

"I wouldn't recommend the '20s tour for the 5-and-under crowd, that's for sure," he said. Besides, Grimes said, children tend to be more captivated by the Victorian era and gorgeous dresses than by the "gritty reality" of the Jazz Age.

Next month, the house will begin offering an even deeper 1920s experience with a speakeasy on Tuesday evenings. Visitors can enjoy cocktails and hors d'oeuvres while being treated to a jazz-age musical revue in the ballroom.

At Rough Point this summer, visitors will get a more intimate view of the late tobacco heiress Doris Duke, whose stunning wardrobe is now on display in "Jet Set to Jeans: The Wardrobe of Doris Duke," now part of house tours there.

The collection of fashions from the 1920s to 1980s includes work by designers including Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Halston and Christian Dior, and serves as a sort of retrospective of 20th- century fashion, according to Nancy Langello of the Newport Restoration Foundation, which runs Rough Point.

Belcourt Castle is hosting "Vegas Night" on Aug. 20, where guests are invited to come dressed as their favorite celebrity -- such as Cher, Sammy Davis Jr., Elvis Presley or a Vegas showgirl. The party also includes a comedy show, live music, DJ, cash bar and buffet.

The Elms now offers a midday "Lunch & Garden Tour" with a catered- box lunch eaten on the terrace of the Carriage House, along with a tour of the sunken garden and grounds. An "After Hours" tour on Thursday and Friday evenings featuring wine and canapes on the terrace debuted at The Elms last year.

Copyright C 2005 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.