by Teena Kay

Created on: April 04, 2010   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

I was on a serious sightseeing tour of New England during one of my last fly drive holidays to the USA. I started off in Boston and after two weeks had to be back in Boston to catch my flight home. I had booked my first and last night hotel stays in Boston and all other nights I was going to stay where the roads took me. (I also stopped off in a little place called Quonochontaug just because I loved the name.)

Rhode Island

Not really an island at all but still on mainland USA sandwiched between Connecticut to the west and Massachusetts to the north and east. Capital city is Providence and the state is home to approximately one million plus a few inhabitants. Rhode Island is the smallest of the US states.

Newport, Rhode Island

Newport is situated towards the southern tip of Rhode Island, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is an old style colonial town with beautiful historic buildings, rugged beach front walks and some of the most beautiful and ostentatious mansions found in the whole of the USA.

These mansions were the summer homes (or cottages as they are called) of the rich and famous. Think Vanderbilt, Astor and Rockefeller and you know what I’m talking about. These are the places where the ‘ladies what lunch’ have their summer soirees, high society balls and luncheons and invite those who want and need to be seen to mingle amongst likeminded and equally minted gentry.

A number of these mansion are now owned and kept up by the Preservation Society of Newport County. The society own 11 historic properties, including The Breakers, Rosecliff, Chepstow and The Elms among others. Most of these properties are now museums that can be visited during summer season and there is restricted access in winter.

While in Newport, I managed to visit two of these historic houses, Rosecliff being the first of the two.

Rosecliff Mansion

Did you see the 1970s film adaptation of 'The Great Gatsby' or maybe 'True Lies' with Arnold Schwarzenegger? You may remember some great mansion scenes that have stuck in the back of your mind and now they are resurfacing.

Yes, a lot of movie scenes were shot at Rosecliff, one of the top mansions in Newport. The 'Gatsby family' resided at this house, Arnie seduced his wife and every other woman in the ballroom by dancing the tango like his life depended on it.

Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs commissioned Rosecliff in 1898. Architect Stanford White designed it and it was finished in 1902, costing approximately $2.5 million.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>