(Colorized) Breakers designed by Peobody & Stearns (1878)
Even today Newport is filled with Gilded Age mansions. But many of the grand houses that once existed from that time have been lost over time and still others have been replaced with different mansions, sometimes even sharing the original structure’s name. One such notable instance is the Breakers mansion designed by Peabody and Stearns on Ochre Point Avenue for the Lorillard Family.
While the name “The Breakers” now conjures images of a massive Italian Renaissance palazzo, its previous iteration was very different from the limestone palace built by the Vanderbilts. In 1877, tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard IV commissioned the well-respected Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns to design a summer “cottage” that reflected the relaxed, albeit grand, seaside lifestyle of the era. Completed in 1878, the original Breakers was a masterpiece of the Stick Style, characterized by its sprawling wooden facades, wrap-around verandas, and complex rooflines.
Breakers by Peabody & Stearns (1877-78)
Unlike the more formal, classically-inspired structures that would define the Newport mansions of 1890s, Lorillard’s Breakers was designed to harmonize with the rugged Newport cliffs and had a distinct American flavor. It was a home built for a man who loved the outdoors—Lorillard was a famed sportsman who eventually founded Tuxedo Park. The house was informal, woody, and quintessentially North American in its aesthetic. Which it blended Queen Anne influences with the rustic charm of the New England coast.
In 1885, Cornelius Vanderbilt II purchased the estate from Lorillard for $450,000. For several summers, the Vanderbilt family enjoyed the wooden Peabody & Stearns house, which was illuminated by gas lights throughout the structure and his family enjoyed it as a comfortable retreat from the stifling heat and social rigors of New York City. However, the very materials that gave the home its charm—cedar shingles, ornate woodwork, and gas lighting—ultimately led to its demise.
The Peabody & Stearns Breakers came to a shocking end. On the evening of November 25, 1892, a fire broke out, reportedly due to a faulty kitchen flue. Despite the efforts of local fire brigades, the wooden structure was quickly consumed by flames. By the following morning, the Stick Style masterpiece was reduced to a smoldering ruin of stone foundations and charred timber. Unusually for that time of year, the Vanderbilt family was in residence at the time, but despite the efforts of the family and servants the loss was complete. Only with the exception of the Children’s Playhouse, which was far enough away from the main house to avoid being destroyed. Today, this is the last remaining remnant of the Peabody & Stearns design for the property.
Left: P&S Breakers (1870) Right: R.M. Hunt Breakers (1893)
The loss of the original house prompted Cornelius Vanderbilt II to pivot from wood to something much more permanent. Fearing another fire, he hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to build the fireproof, 70-room “palazzo” that stands on the site today. The furnace was separated from the house and put beneath the gate house, which gives away the mechanical area below it with an enormous chimney far out of scale to the modest stone structure. The construction of the building was completed in 1895, after the untimely death of Hunt.
While the current Breakers is a marvel of Gilded Age opulence, the original Peabody & Stearns design represents a lost chapter of Newport history—a time when the elite were comfortable blending into the landscape rather than needing to dominate it. As their wealth increased, it is ironic that the elite felt less confident in building the quintessentially American Stick Style structures of the 1860’s and 1870’s and began to want palaces that were far more derivative of European palace designs of previous centuries.
The (current) Breakers (R.M. Hunt 1893-95)
At A4 Architecture, we have been privileged to design four distinct projects, for current Breakers mansion for four distinct projects. If you would like your home or building to be designed with the same care and eye to the long-term as these Newport’s mansions, please reach out to the award-winning architectural team at A4 Architecture and we will be pleased to assist you in achieving your goal.
Ross Cann, RA, AIA, LEED AP, is an author, historian, teacher and practicing architect living and working in Newport, RI. He holds degrees in Architecture and Architectural History from Yale, Cambridge, and Columbia Universities. A4 Architecture has done multiple projects at many of the great Newport mansions over his long career.