Why should the Brits have all the fun? The writer of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, went stateside last year with the HBO series The Gilded Age, which tells the story of New York City high society in the 1880s amid the halcyon days of the industrial boom. The series follows the tension between old-money elites and their escalating feud with the nouveau riche neighbors who threaten the established social order. Meanwhile in real life, powerhouse families like the Vanderbilts and the Carnegies left their opulent footprints on Newport, Rhode Island, in the form of their famously ostentatious and absolutely gargantuan “summer cottages.” Circumstances which, of course, lend themselves to total set-design magic.
Ahead of Season 3 of The Gilded Age, which hits the screen in June, we’re touring 20 properties that are the crown jewels of the East Coast. From historic house museums to excessively decadent mansions, take a peek into these architectural gems that have stood the test of time.
The Breakers’ Great Hall and Music Room
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: Bertha Russell’s ballroom and George Russell’s bedroom, as well as the billiard room.
These so-called dollar princesses and their families lived in Manhattan and spent their summers in Newport, Rhode Island. Of course, these industry magnates didn’t consider their infrequent visits (some only came a few weeks in a year) as reason to exercise restraint. The mammoth Breakers mansion is one of four so-called summer “cottages” (read: castles) that were completed just blocks from each other in a building boom between 1892 and 1902. The mansion was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Renaissance Revival style, as a less-than-subtle symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial preeminence in the Gilded Age. It was an architectural one-upmanship that is considered the grandest of all the manses, featuring ornate ballrooms, extensive art collections, manicured gardens, and the latest (then) in modern technology, including electric lights. It has 70 rooms, an interior using marble imported from Italy and Africa, and a library mantel purchased from a château in France.
“When you walk into the dining room of The Breakers, with its painting of the goddess Aurora on the ceiling 50 feet above you or see 500,000 cubic feet of marble in a variety of different hues, you can’t help but be awestruck by the incredible wealth of these Gilded Age tycoons,” says Trudy Coxe, the chief executive officer and executive director of The Preservation Society of Newport County, which has under its stewardship six of the grand mansions featured in the series.
The preservation society worked closely with the filming crew to ensure the safety of the objects and spaces. “We had long discussions about the billiard table at The Breakers,” she explains. “It could not be removed, but it was important to the scene being filmed. Rather than moving it, we worked with their props department to put an alternative covering on the table to simulate an actual game of pool.”
In the series, the Breakers’ neo–Italian Renaissance great hall and music room is featured as Bertha Russell’s (played by Carrie Coon) ballroom, which we see in the final ball scene. George Russell (Morgan Spector) also discusses business while playing billiards in the mansion’s massive billiard room.
Marble House
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: Bertha Russell’s bedroom in the Russell residence
Marble House was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt. It was also designed by Richard Morris Hunt, but in the Beaux-Arts style. For an American house, it was unparalleled in opulence, with a temple-front portico resembling that of the White House, which had been completed 92 years earlier in 1800 (lofty, no?).
Mrs. Russell’s bedroom, built on a soundstage in Bethpage, New York, was inspired by real-life socialite Alva Vanderbilt’s bedroom in the Marble House. The French Louis XV bed was painted and reupholstered in salmon-pink velvet, and the custom bedding and wall draperies are of Italian silk. Consuelo Vanderbilt’s (Alva and William’s child) monochrome red bedroom in the mansion also serves as George Russell’s bedroom in the show.
Rosecliff
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: The exterior of Sylvia Chamberlain’s house
Rosecliff was built for Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs, whose father, James Graham Fair, was one of the four partners in the Comstock Lode. The famed architectural firm McKim, Mead & White were commissioned to design the mansion, which was modeled after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat of French kings at Versailles. The French Baroque Revival gem was intended to be designed for entertaining at a grand scale—and it certainly fulfilled its purpose. Fair Oelrichs would become known as one of the three great hostesses of Newport.
The white front facade of this mansion, which recently got a $7.4 million renovation, is a stand-in for Sylvia Chamberlain’s (played by Jeanne Tripplehorn) house. You’ll see it in Episode 7, when Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel) pays a visit.
The Elms
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: The servant kitchen and the real-life Sarah Berwind’s bedroom as parts of the Russell residence
The Elms is a Classical Revival dwelling that was completed in 1901. Architect Horace Trumbauer designed it for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind, taking inspiration from the 18th-century d’Asnières French château. It also houses an impressive collection of paintings and tapestries, as well as the latest technology of its age.
In The Gilded Age, the Elms is shown as part of the Russells home, including the kitchen and Bertha Russell’s bedroom.
Château-sur-Mer
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: The exterior is used for Caroline Astor’s Beechwood house; the boardinghouse is used for a scene with Oscar van Rhijn; and another room serves as Agnes van Rhijn’s bedroom
Completed in 1852, Château-sur-Mer is one of the first grand Bellevue Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport, built by architect Seth C. Bradford for William Shepard Wetmore. Its interiors were designed by Ogden Codman Jr., who co-authored Edith Wharton’s Decoration of Houses. The mansion was host to many major parties, including the Fête Champêtre, an elaborate country picnic for more than 2,000 guests in 1857, as well as a debutante ball for Edith Wetmore in 1889. Wetmore’s son and 19th-century nepo baby, George Peabody Wetmore, went on to have a distinguished political career as the governor of Rhode Island and, later, as a U.S. senator.
In The Gilded Age, the home’s exterior was used for Caroline Astor’s (Donna Murphy) Beechwood House. The hallway, dining room, and ballroom were used during Mamie Fish’s (Ashlie Atkinson) doll tea party. Several bedrooms serve as Agnes van Rhijn’s (Christine Baranski) bedroom, Oscar van Rhijn’s (Blake Ritson) bedroom, Anne Morris’s (Katie Finneran) bedroom, and Patrick Morris’s (Michel Gill) office. There’s also a scene filmed at the boardinghouse with Oscar van Rhijn, according to Patch.
Hunter House
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: The office of Brook family lawyer Tom Raikes
Hunter House was constructed in 1748 at the harborfront near the north end of the Newport Historic District at a time when the city was a bustling seaport in the British empire. The house was owned by wealthy merchants and overlooked the wharves that serviced their trading ships. It’s one of the finest examples of Colonial architecture in Newport, according to the Preservation Society. Inside, its resident families furnished the house with decorative arts produced by expert craftsmen, much of which has been preserved today. Such a luxurious lifestyle, however, depended upon the labor of enslaved people of African descent; recent research by the Preservation Society has identified at least 13 enslaved individuals who lived and worked at Hunter House. Today’s Hunter House honors their perseverance and incalculable contributions to Newport’s past.
One of the sitting rooms in Hunter House functions as the office of Brook family lawyer Tom Raikes, and is set fictitiously in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Belcourt of Newport
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: The Astor family summer home
Belcourt was completed in 1894 for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, a prominent American socialite and coachman who served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Like many of the Newport mansions, the Châteauesque structure was completed by architect Richard Morris Hunt; it was designed to mimic the hunting lodge of Versailles, built for Louis XIII of France, but with a special ask to accommodate Oliver’s collection of horses and automobiles. In 1896, Oliver gave the house to his second wife, the former Alva Vanderbilt, who designed the neighboring Newport mansion Marble House. Alva used Belcourt as a gathering place for the elite of society, hosting lavish parties and balls and attracting notable figures in politics, business, and the arts.
In The Gilded Age Season 1, Belcourt shows up in Episode 8 as Mrs. Astor’s lavish new Newport home, which Mrs. Russell sneaks inside and is forced to flee to avoid a less-than-pleasant meetup.
The Ledges
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: The social gathering scene where Caroline Astor and George Russell meet
Built in 1867 by prolific Boston tea and china merchant Robert M. Cushing, the Ledges was originally the summer home of the Cushing family. This majestic oceanfront pile is perched on one of Newport’s most desirable peninsulas, overlooking Bailey’s Beach. It was built by architect John H. Sturgis, who designed a large, stick-style cottage that was equal parts comfort and elegance. Today it features original furnishings, papered walls, and unique artwork, including a studio that was added to the side of the house for Robert’s artistic children.
Today, the estate remains in the hands of the Cushing descendants, who occasionally open the house up to film crews. It was featured a few years ago in the film Evening, starring Glenn Close and Meryl Streep. “Working at the Ledges was pretty extraordinary,” Gilded Age location manager Lauri Pitkus told The Providence Journal, “because I don’t think I’ve ever been in a home with spectacular views out of every window.”
Newport Art Museum
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
This historic house was built in 1864 for John Noble Alsop Griswold, an Old China Trade merchant and diplomat. The house is the work of (surprise!) Richard Morris Hunt; it was one of the earliest buildings in the American Stick style of architecture. The house has a complex roofline with a main mansarded section that is pierced by numerous gable and dormer sections. It boasts a number of balconies sheltered by deep eaves, with gable ends decorated with woodwork. Today, the house is a gallery location for the Newport Art Museum. In the series, the house features in Season 1 Episode 1, and again in Episode 5.
International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Features as: Mingling with the other elite scene
The International Tennis Hall of Fame and its perfectly preserved grass courts are in the Newport Casino, a National Historic Landmark property. The historic seven-acre estate was commissioned by New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett as a social club for the elite summer residents of Newport. The Newport News boasted three days after it opened in July 1880: “It is doubtful if a livelier place can be found.” Today, the space is recognized as the official hall of fame for the sport of tennis globally. Since 1955, 262 distinguished inductees representing 27 countries have been enshrined in Newport.
In the eighth episode of The Gilded Age Season 1, the characters are seen promenading around the piazza that overlooks what is known today as Horseshoe Court. A few characters are even playing tennis. “It was fitting to have that history depicted here, given The Gilded Age’s look into that time period,” the hall of fame’s Megan Erbes tells ELLE DECOR. “Several of our staff members got to work closely with the production team and actors, teaching everything from the history of our property to how to hit a proper forehand.” RI Monthly reported that crews returned to the courts last summer to film Season 2 of the show, so it’s possible that Newport Casino will make another appearance.
Due to renovations, the museum will be closed until May 2024. Further information can be found here.
Clouds Hill Museum
Location: Warwick, Rhode Island
Features as: The parlor, library, entryway, and staircase of the Morris house, located on Fifth Avenue in the show; Mr. and Mrs. Morris’s bedrooms were filmed in the Newport mansions
William Smith Slater hired General William Walker to build a home as a wedding gift for his daughter. The result was this historic home, which was completed in 1877. The Victorian house is filled with treasures—the fireplace surrounds, for example, were carved by Charles Dowler, who came to the United States to produce arms for the Civil War. Today, the house is open to visitors and is known as the Clouds Hill Museum.
The Clouds Hill Museum is the only Rhode Island site outside of Newport that was used in the series. The crew scheduled filming for Season 1 in late February of 2021, when a few hundred people were on site during two days of filming, museum director Wayne Cabral told Warwick Online, noting that the taping finished around midnight on the second day of filming (after five days of work to prep the set). Almost all the parlor’s furniture was removed, and the head set designer brought in items sourced from local antiques stores in East Greenwich and North Kingstown, museum president Anne Holst added. The producers were adamant about removing the existing curtains, which were disintegrating, Holst added, so she negotiated to leave the replacements (which cost $10,000) with the museum after filming.
Lyndhurst Mansion
Location: Tarrytown, New York
Features as: Visit to the home of Aurora Fane scene
The Gothic Revival–style Lyndhurst Mansion was designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis. Lyndhurst’s third owner, Jay Gould, is the real-life inspiration for the “new money” character George Russell. “He was fantastically ruthless in business, to an extent that Mrs. Astor would never let him in, he was never allowed into society, and she didn’t let his children in until he was dead,” creator, writer, and producer Julian Fellowes said in a podcast. “But he was an incredibly affectionate father and a very caring and faithful husband…and his children all had these nostalgic memories of Lyndhurst, their house on the Hudson.”
In Season 1 of The Gilded Age, Lyndhurst’s interiors are the home of characters Charles and Aurora Fane (Ward Horton and Kelli O’Hara), who are related to the van Rhijns and part of the “old money” side of society. The Lyndhurst lawns and grounds also doubled as Central Park and the Sheep’s Meadow in the opening sequence. The home boasts a bowling alley that dates back to 1894, which was re-created to be the ferry terminal that Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) and Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) take to Manhattan for the first time in Episode 1. And finally, the house’s carriage house was transformed into The New York Globe newspaper offices.
The Belvedere Estate
Location: Tarrytown, New York
Features as: A stand-in for Central Park
The Belvedere Estate, located between Lyndhurst Mansion and writer Washington Irving’s Sunnyside home, is a century-old mansion on 25 acres in historic Tarrytown. The estate was originally part of Philipsburg Manor, a 90,000-acre property built for Florence and Casper Whitney. “While the mansion dates from the 1920s, it has a much older European feel that could represent something from decades earlier,” says Belvedere Estate sales director Linda Fiorentino, who recalls the massive legwork required to film at the mansion.
“I will never forget the background actors descending from a yellow school bus, fully dressed in period costumes and felt hats,” she says. The Season 1 scene was filmed at the pond at the back of Belvedere Estate, acting as a stand-in for Central Park in the scene when Marian meets Mr. Raikes at Bethesda Fountain in Episode 1. The pond is a man-made feature, and the water level sometimes sinks to a mere foot or two, Fiorentino explains. “Before filming, they filled the pond with roughly 600,000 gallons of water to fill to capacity, giving the illusion of a much larger body of water and to allow them to have pleasure boats filled with passengers on the water,” she says. They also re-created Central Park’s Shakespeare Bridge from rough-hewn logs and brought in trees, shrubs, and foliage to cover the existing link fence because it was too modern.
Sleepy Hollow Country Club
Location: Briarcliff Manor, New York
Features as: The drawing room of wealthy widow Sylvia Chamberlain
Toward the end of the 19th century, Colonel Elliott Fitch Shepard, a lawyer who founded the New York State Bar Association in 1876, purchased more than 500 acres on a hill high above the Hudson River north of Tarrytown. He engaged the renowned architecture firm McKim, Mead & White to design his family’s manor house here. The result was a 75-room Victorian structure that mimicked 18th-century Italian villa architecture. Think: hand-carved mahogany paneling, a grand stairway near the front entrance, high patterned ceilings, and elaborate cornice work. Unfortunately, Shepard died before it was completed in 1893, and it passed into the hands of William Rockefeller and Frank Vanderlip. These men were part of a group (including John Jacob Astor, who died on the Titanic in 1912) who went on to convert the building to the Sleepy Hollow Country Club, which remains a private member’s-only club today.
Scenes in the drawing room of wealthy widow Sylvia Chamberlain were shot on location here. “The entire room was redressed by our team in the Rococo style,” set decorator Regina Graves told 1st Dibs.
Glenview Mansion
Glenview Sitting Room, Looking into the Ebony Library, taken in 1886.
Location: Yonkers, New York
Features as: Part of Mrs. Astor’s residence
Glenview was built in 1876 by John Bond Trevor, a highly successful stockbroker, who engaged New York City architect Charles W. Clinton to build his estate. The mansion was a paragon of luxury and modern comfort, featuring indoor plumbing, gas illumination, and a coal-burning furnace to circulate heat throughout its 37 rooms. The exterior had elements of Victorian Gothic and French Second Empire design, complete with a mansard roof, a gray stone facade constructed of blocks hewn from a Hastings-on-Hudson quarry, and decorative sandstone elements brought from Indiana.
The mansion makes an appearance as Caroline Astor’s residence in Season 1. “They were all so complimentary about Glenview, and of course we did a lot of polishing and waxing,” Laura Vookles, chair of the museum’s curatorial department, told The Rivertown Enterprise. “They focused on our exquisite interiors and filmed in six rooms, including the dining, library, and sitting rooms, and used all but one painting that is normally on view.”
John Paine Mansion
Location: Troy, New York
Features as: Tom Raikes’s office
The John Paine Mansion, also known as the Castle, was built in 1896 and was deemed the grandest house in Troy, New York. It has since served as a private residence, a college administration building, a movie set (see: Martin Scorsese’s 1993 drama The Age of Innocence), and, currently, a fraternity house. In the show, one of the bedrooms in the Castle features as Tom Raikes’s office.
Troy Townhouse
Location: Troy, New York
Features as: The Scott family residence
This residence, the home of Troy locals Bill and Sue Comiskey, stands in for the Brooklyn residence of the well-off Scott family. At one point early in the series, Arthur Scott (John Douglas Thompson) and his daughter, Peggy (Denée Benton), sit on carved-oak chairs around a damask-covered dining table. The home’s elaborate details really shine in this historic home, which dates back to the turn of the 19th century. Stained-glass windows and an elegant china cabinet are memorable architectural features that are original to the location and transport the viewers back in time.
While filming what would be the Scott family residence, Bill, the homeowner, told News10 that a few prized family possessions actually made the cut. “My desk was in it, front and center…you [also] saw the whole front and back parlor into the dining room where they were having a meal,” he explained. “[There were] great shots of this room catching the stained glass, the fireplace, [and] this bookcase my grandfather made.”
Hempstead House
Location: Sands Point Preserve, New York
Features as: The interior is used as George Russell’s workspace
Hempstead House was built for Howard Gould by architects Hunt & Hunt in 1912 on the north shore of Long Island. The mansion was eventually sold to art mogul Daniel Guggenheim (yes, that Guggenheim). Hempstead House is one of four mansions on the grounds of the Guggenheim Estate—which includes Castle Gould, Falaise, and Mille Fleur. The Tudor-style castle was the embodiment of Gold Coast opulence, a place where the esteemed family hosted grand parties, performances, and exhibitions by gatherings of the elite of the time. To say it is massive would be an understatement: 50,000 square feet, with 40 rooms and a 60-foot-tall entry foyer. In The Gilded Age, the mansion’s interior was used as George Russell’s workspace.
Rock Hall Museum
Location: Lawrence, New York
Features as: The late General Henry Brook’s house
Rock Hall Museum was initially an 18th-century plantation. The two-and-a-half-story Georgian-style home was built in approximately 1767 and later restored to its original appearance in the 1950s. In Season 1 Episode 1, the house’s white facade is featured within the first 15 minutes as a backdrop for the late General Henry Brook’s house. Marian, his daughter, is seen walking out of the home on her way to the train station.
Hart Cluett Museum
Location: Troy, New York
Features as: Anne Morris’s house
The Hart Cluett Museum is a work of Federal architecture designed by Martin E. Thompson in 1827. He was hired by William Howard. Thompson brought the design of the Hart Cluett House back to New York City, where many examples of the 1827 Federal-style townhouse were copied throughout Manhattan. This house, a museum open to the public today, was featured in The Gilded Age in Episode 2 as Anne Morris’s home.
Rachel Silva is the associate digital editor at ELLE DECOR, where she covers all things design, architecture, and lifestyle. She also oversees the publication’s feature article coverage, and is, at any moment, knee-deep in an investigation on everything from the best spa gifts to the best faux florals on the internet right now. She has more than 16 years of experience in editorial, working as a photo assignment editor at Time and acting as the president of Women in Media in NYC. She went to Columbia Journalism School, and her work has been nominated for awards from ASME, the Society of Publication Designers, and World Press Photo.
