Marble House

Marble House is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a museum run by the Newport Preservation Society. It was designed by the architect Richard Morris Hunt, and said to be inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles (which it resembles in little more than pilasters and balustrades). Grounds were designed by noted landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch. Marble House was built between 1888 and 1892 for William Kissam Vanderbilt, grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. The house was a social landmark that helped spark the transformation of Newport from a relatively relaxed summer colony of wooden houses to the now legendary resort of opulent stone palaces. It was reported to cost $11...