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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 5 sepTember 2017
New Breakers tour plumbs the depths below famous mansion

By MICHELLE R. SMITH main house. The first Break-
Associated Press ers mansion was made of
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Visi- wood and burned down in
tors to the spectacular Gild- 1892 in a boiler explosion.
ed Age mansion The Break- The architect, Richard Mor-
ers now have the chance ris Hunt, designed an inno-
to explore its depths with vative indirect hot water
a new tour that shows off system powered by coal to
the domestic technology heat the 138,000-square-
that helped make the 70- foot house. Two boilers
room building state of the now on display in the room
art when it was completed heated a school until 2016
in 1895. The hour long “Be- but are the same as what
neath The Breakers” tour was originally installed
takes place almost entire- here, Roy said.
ly underground, from the Hot and cold water — both
boiler room built hundreds fresh and saltwater — was
of yards from the house, available from the taps in
through a tunnel as wide the bathrooms. City water
as a carriage, and into was used for flushing toilets,
the mansion’s basement, because of its unpleasant
where visitors can see taste. Rainwater collected
original parts of its eleva- in cisterns and run through
tor, electrical system and a cheesecloth filter was In this Dec. 1, 2014 photo, visitors walk toward an entrance to The Breakers mansion in Newport,
plumbing — which used used for drinking, Roy said. R.I. Visitors to the spectacular Gilded Age mansion are now being allowed to explore its depths
with a new tour that shows off the domestic technology that helped make the 70-room, building
three kinds of water. The house, built on a cliff state-of-the art when it was completed in 1895.
It’s a weekend handy- over the Atlantic Ocean, (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
man’s dream tour and drew saltwater from the
a completely different ocean for baths, which was
way to look at the opu- thought to be therapeutic.
lent house built by railroad A power station built by
magnate Cornelius Van- Thomas Edison supplied
derbilt II. The Preservation electricity, and visitors
Society of Newport Coun- can still see the electrical
ty, which owns The Breakers panel where it came into
and several other mansions the house. Its switches are
in Newport, developed the made of copper, and they
tour based on journals kept are mounted on marble,
by a resident house engi- which does not conduct
neer, as well as other docu- heat. While the panel was
ments. retired from use in the
Tour guide Raymond Roy 1990s, there is still some live
describes the tour as fo- knob-and-tube wiring used
cusing on “the guts and in the mansion, Roy said.
the glory” of the house, as Visitors can also get a
opposed to the “glitz and glimpse of airshafts that run
glamor” upstairs. through the house, the old
“The systems we talk about wine cellar and other curi-
are commonplace today,” osities that weren’t public
Roy said. until the tour began in Jan-
But at the time The Break- uary.
ers and other famous New- Gary and Cindy Denholm,
port mansions were built, of Frederick, Maryland,
amenities such as electric- toured the upstairs of The
ity were available to only a Breakers a few years ago,
few. but this tour was a new way
The tour begins in the care- to see it. Gary, who works
taker’s cottage, which at the National Archives,
sits at the gate to the 13- is interested in the history
acre estate and was built and politics that serve as
to camouflage a massive a backdrop to the homes,
chimney that runs from the while Cindy enjoys learning
boiler room, dug below it about the architecture and
by hand. people who lived there.
The boiler was intention- “We each take something
ally placed far from the different away,” she said.q