Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Breakers and The Elms Mansion Tours {Newport, Rhode Island}

One of the highlights of our girl's trip to Newport was visiting two of the many mansions that are open to tours: The Breakers and the Elms.  It was hard to believe that the Gilded Age wealthy spent such extravagant sums on homes they only used for 6-12 weeks a year.  But they sure are beautiful, and the trustees have done such a wonderful job preserving them, even from my strict standards (I have studied historic conservation in grad school).  If you ever make it to Newport, The Elms and the Breakers are highly recommended. 

Unfortunately, photographs aren't allowed inside, but I was still able to capture a few pictures of the grounds. Both were incredibly beautiful, but I most especially loved the interior spaces and grounds of The Elms.  The layout was absolutely perfect, and if I was ever going to build a mansion (ha!) there isn't much I wouldn't want to duplicate with the layout of the interior and grounds.  The Elms also had the most incredible trees. The European Weeping Beech trees were like something out of a dream, and I could imagine my children (and myself) playing in them for hours on end.  The Elms also had some really beautiful fall leaves that made an appearance just for us. I can't wait until the leaves turn here in NYC!




(we did this on our first day in Newport, and it almost felt like we were about to be a part of a horror film given the dreary weather and wind, and the fact that the place was pretty deserted)










The Elms:
















2 comments:

Morgan said...

gorgeous pictures lesley!!! it was such a fabulous weekend! now we have to start planning for next year! ;)

stacey said...

gorgeous, gorgeous. i especially love the ones of the leaves. who knew there were such cool things in Rhode Island! :)