The Inwood Journal: Newport Do's and Don'ts: The Mansions The Inwood Journal of Lou Bruno, teacher, psychologist and retailer, now into website design, PC consulting and real estate. Saturday, September 24, 2005 About Me Newport Do's and Don'ts: The Mansions Name:Louis Bruno Location:White Plains, New York The Newport, RI mansions define conspicuous consumption. If gawking at An award-winning website generally tasteless faux grandeur is your thing, you'll not want for things to designer, Lou Bruno has do. developed and maintains websites On our recent trip, we took in three mansions, the mandatory Breakers, for the real estate industry, for Marble House, and Vernon Court. Cornelius Vanderbilt II's Breakers, designed personal property, gems & jewelry, real by the premiere architect of the period, Richard Morris Hunt, is the grandest estate, and machinery & equipment of the mansions -- called "summer cottages" by their owners. It is appraisers, and for non-profit groups characterized by stiff, uncomfortable, almost inhuman splendor. The tour including professional organizations and guide was neither interested nor knowledgeable. museums. He has also developed websites in fields ranging from automotive Also designed by Hunt for William K. Vanderbilt (Cornelius II's younger equipment to forensic audio to tax brother), Marble House, too, is resplendent in imported finery -- Hunt reduction. His extensive background in imported complete rooms from Europe -- and includes 500K cubic feet of sales and retail management has enabled marble worth $7 million in 1890. The rooms here seem more comfortable him to "create websites that work," his than at the Breakers, and reflected the personalities of the owners. The self- company motto. paced audio tour, with available "detours" for special interests, was excellent. If you decide to take in just one mansion, this is the one to do if you don't View my complete profile select Vernon Court (see below). But choose for yourself. Visit the Newport Mansions website of the Preservation Society, which maintains the Breakers, Marble House, and eight other mansions. RSS/Atom Feed Inwood Journal Feed Privately maintained and omitted from the usual run of Newport tours is Vernon Court, designed by John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings, the architects who created the New York Public Library. Built in 1898 for Mrs. Richard van Nest Gambrill, it's considered Previous Posts one of America's greatest mansions. Not as Bruce Museum: ornate as the Breakers or Marble House, it's ● still exquisitely over-the-top, but more Masterworks of Photography tasteful. But Vernon Court is the bonus. The ● Seaman-Drake Arch Struggles On attraction is the museum established by ● Ernesto's Ristorante Vernon Court's owners, Judy and Laurence Preemptive Graffiti Cutler, to house their collection of art from ● the "golden age" of American illustration. ● Appraising Machinery & Equipment The National Museum of American ● Matisse at the Katonah Museum of Illustration, housed on the lower floors of Art Vernon Court (the Cutlers live upstairs when Chadds Ford Inn -- Don't Go There they're not in New York), includes a wealth ● Passport to Historic Oyster Bay of art by such pre-eminent illustrators as Norman Rockwell, Maxwell Parrish, ● http://www.inwood.servenet.com/2005/09/newport-dos-and-donts-mansions.html (1 of 2) [8/13/07 9:22:51 AM] The Inwood Journal: Newport Do's and Don'ts: The Mansions N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, J.M. Flagg, and J.C. Leyendecker, whose 1930 ● So You Want to be a Real Estate advertising illustration, Interwoven Appraiser Socks , for the Saturday Harlem Housing: The Bad and the Evening Post appears at right. Blessed with ● unusual wisdom and a handsome budget, the Cutlers are consummate Good collectors and curators. The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles reviewed their New Treasure in Newport, Rhode Island in its September 2003 issue. Advance reservations "granted at the discretion of the Admissions Office" are required. Plan ahead. posted by Louis J. Bruno @ 9:08 AM 0 Comments: Post a Comment Links to this post: Create a Link << Home http://www.inwood.servenet.com/2005/09/newport-dos-and-donts-mansions.html (2 of 2) [8/13/07 9:22:51 AM].