The Gilded Age Invasion

The Intellectuals

Newport experienced an cultural renaissance after the Civil War when a large and diverse group of intellectuals made Newport their summer retreat and served to renew the city’s moribund cultural heritage.

Luminaries like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry and William James, Edith Wharton, Julia Ward Howe, John Singer Sargent, John La Farge, Mark Twain, and Edgar Allen Poe (one season). Even Bret Harte enlivened several dinner parties during the summer of 1871.

Much of this cultural cream along with other wealthy Boston Brahmins built stately but tasteful cottages,  mostly on the hill above the city center. The lower Bellevue Avenue/Ochre Point area was only sparsely developed at this time.

The Invaders

Suddenly the scene shifted . Late in the 19th century, Gilded Age millionaires, attracted by Newport’s cultural reputation, it’s seaside cachet and the opportunity to mingle with the intelligentsia, descended in droves on the City by the Sea.

The elite intellectuals, snobbish in their own right, wanted no part of this gaudy noveau riche group. So many vacated Newport, inadvertently driven out by the new social invaders and from then on, distinguished party guests like Bret Harte would be replaced be replaced by the likes of an Austrian archduke or an English polo champion.

Who were these interlopers, where did they come from, and how did they get so rich? Well, they were Vanderbilts, Astors, Fishes, Belmonts, Havemeyers, Berwinds, Goelets and hundreds more. They came from all over the country, but mostly from New York.

They got so rich by benefiting enormously from several simultaneous phenomena like: the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War (profiteering), lack of federal income tax, abundant and cheap immigrant labor, and (in some cases) a combination of creativity and hard work with a dash of ruthlessness. Of course, many others were born rich…the beneficiaries of ancestral largess.

These noveau riche, or trust-fund babies often lacked the polish and grace required for aristocratic status. Their collective insecurity, supplemented by a restlessness for recognition, contributed greatly to the excesses of their lifestyles. So, when they needed a summer retreat as a depository for their ostentation, they looked to Newport with its colonial heritage and understated patrician demeanor.

These Gilded Agers left an indelible imprint on the City by the Sea, as attested to by their monumental mansions…some seemingly a merger between Grand Central Station and the Palace of Versailles.

Criticism of this group abounded, and ranged from silly, to scandalous, to insensitive, to immoral. Across the country from editorial pages to pulpits, editors and preachers railed against them…the budget for one of their balls or summer wardrobe could feed hordes of starving poor. The example set by this class came under constant attack. This group, through its lifestyle, was accused of many sins but, as we shall see, one of them was not dullness.

The Newport invasion was led by the pioneering, August Belmonts (∞). As a member of the Rothschild family, August Belmont was gilded with European banking money, and his wife, Caroline was the daughter of Commodore Matthew Perry. Their mansion, By-the-Sea (ß), was one of the first along Bellevue Avenue. The Belmonts began throwing lavish parties and parading up and down Bellevue Avenue in their French carriage. The Old Guard was offended by such exhibition, but their protests were futile, as the floodgates opened before a rush of Astors, Vanderbilts, Van Rensselaers, and Stuyvesants. The Belmonts proved to be bellwethers.

Thus began the Gilded Age of Newport, the splendor of which the world has rarely seen. The summer colonists built their lavish mansions (always called cottages, no matter what the size or cost) along Bellevue Avenue, and around Ochre Point and Ocean Drive.

Newport became the Mecca for high society and a playground for the new American aristocrats.

(∞) – A large bronze statue of August Belmont guards the headquarters of The Preservation Society of Newport County at the corner of Bellevue and Narragansett Avenues.

(ß) – The mansion, (now demolished) was located near the junction of Bellevue and Marine (dirt road) Avenues.

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 Of Mansions and Madness

So, the Gilded Agers made Newport their summer Mecca, and the race was on. Competition for position in the social order was intense. Even Old Line New York families like the Van Alens and the Goelets found themselves drawn into the fray as the struggle for upmanship expanded.

Of course financial strength and genealogy played a role in social standing, but as the Gilded Age developed, other factors rose to prominence. The size, grandeur and location of one’s cottage was critical, and other issues such as lavish balls, expensive wardrobes, and fancy yachts were important.