Servant Life Tour
Buy Tickets Buy Member TicketsRecent research has revealed new details about life behind the scenes in the great houses of Newport. These include the stories of The Elms butler, Ernest Birch; his wife, cook Grace Rhodes; and one of the maids, Nellie Lynch Regoli. The tour also delves into the realities of immigration, employment and labor disputes in the early 20th century.
You’ll climb 120 stairs throughout the tour, including the back staircase from the basement servant entrance up to the third-floor staff quarters, where you’ll see exhibits and photographs about the individual men and women who lived and worked here. Weather permitting, your tour will take you out onto the roof for a spectacular view of the 10-acre estate and Newport Harbor beyond. Then, head back down the stairs to the basement kitchens, coal cellar, boiler room and laundry rooms.
More Tours, Events & Exhibitions
Beneath The Breakers Tour
Daily
10:00am
Explore the underground systems that made this great house a marvel of technology for its time.
June 1 - September 1, offered at 10 am & 2 pm
Third Floor Preservation in Progress Tour
Daily
12 pm and 2 pm
For the first time in the 129-year history of The Breakers, the private third-floor family space occupied by generations of Vanderbilts is open for public tours.
French Inspiration and American Ambition: The Architectural Practice of Richard Morris Hunt at Marble House
April 25, 2025
11:00am – 12:00pm
The guided tour of Marble House will illuminate the French influences that architect Richard Morris Hunt incorporated throughout the mansion.
SOLD OUT
Inside “The Gilded Age” Tour
May 2 – June 27, 2025
Fans of HBO’s "The Gilded Age" will love this guide-led tour of locations in four of the Newport Mansions where Julian Fellowes' historical drama series was filmed. Fridays only, May 2 through June 27.
