Operating Schedule
See which of the mansions are open and when. Search by date or month, or view the full year’s schedule.
Guest Information
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Tours, Groups, Exclusive Experiences
Explore our various tour types to find what’s best for you and your group.
Accessibility
See specific information about access at each house and property.
History of Newport and the Mansions
Founded in 1639, Newport was an important port city, a center of the slave trade, a fashionable resort and the summer home of the Gilded Age rich.
What was the Gilded Age?
The Gilded Age was a period of unprecedented change in America. Fortunes were spent on luxuries such as the lavish "summer cottages" of Newport.
Deep Dive into the Show
Learn about the people, places and events depicted in Julian Fellowes' popular historical drama series.
“Inside the Newport Mansions” Gilded Age Conversations
Noted historians and authors share their insights into all aspects of Gilded Age America in this monthly series of interviews with the Preservation Society.
Become a Member
We invite you to become a member of the Preservation Society today.
Premium Memberships
We invite you to join these exclusive levels of membership for patrons interested in enhanced access and benefits at the Preservation Society.
Current Members
As a member, you can enjoy unlimited general admission to our properties and do not need tickets. Simply bring your membership card for admission.
Membership FAQs
Membership gives you free, unlimited access to regular guided and audio tours at all Newport Mansions properties.
About Us
Our mission is to protect, preserve, and present the best of Newport County's architectural heritage. Learn more about us and our work.
Group Tour Information
Bring your adult or student group to tour the Newport Mansions at a discounted rate.
Group Visit Request Form
Please complete the request form and submit. Completing this form serves as a group visit request and is not a confirmed reservation.
Personal Photography on the Grounds
Rent our museums for commercial photography & videography, TV production, and wedding photography.
Commercial Filming or Photography
Museum Rentals & Weddings
Host your wedding, rehearsal dinner, corporate event, or other celebration at our historic museums.
Americans’ relationship with animals transformed during the Gilded Age (1870-1914). With a focus on Newport history, the exhibition explores how this exciting, tumultuous period shaped the role of animals in our modern world. Exhibition was open August 30, 2024 – January 12, 2025.
In the late 19th century, Americans moved in large numbers from farms to cities, losing touch with a rural way of life and with the closeness to nature and animals that defined it. Nostalgia for a lost kinship with animals pervaded urban, industrial America. At the same time, many were encountering new, “exotic” species through a boom in foreign travel, marine exploration and imperial expansion. More everyday Americans enjoyed natural history pursuits like birdwatching. Pet keeping surged. And while captive animals thrilled spectators at zoos and circuses, which both had their heyday in the Gilded Age, activists launched the nation’s first animal rights movement.
Newporters played a vital, though often contradictory, part in these developments. They fought at the vanguard of the animal rights movement yet set the era’s fashion for furs and feathers as residents of its most stylish summer resort. Newporters pampered their pets but expanded industries like the railroads that ravaged wildlife habitats.
Wild Imagination brings together a menagerie of animal-themed artworks and other objects, from paintings, sculptures, photographs and fashions to fancy dog collars and sea creatures blown in glass. These pieces reflect profound and lasting changes in human-animal relations. They also reveal the individual stories of wondrous creatures that continue to capture our imagination.
In addition to items from the Newport Mansions collections, objects in this exhibition are generously loaned by the following institutions: Brown University Castle Hill Inn Columbus Museum of Art Harvard University Historic New England Maryhill Museum of Art The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home Museum at the International Tennis Hall of Fame Mystic Seaport Museum National Museum of American Illustration Newport Historical Society Newport Restoration Foundation New-York Historical Society New York University Trinity College
Cat in a Crate S.S. David (American, 1847-1898), c. 1887 Oil on canvas stretched around box Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Museum Purchase with funds provided by Loann Crane and the Derby and Howald Funds. 2019.026.
Loïe Fuller in Butterfly Gown Reutlinger Photography Studio (Paris, 1850-1937), c. 1898 Cabinet card Collection of Maryhill Museum of Art
Les Trois Amis (The Three Friends) Charles Chaplin (French, 1825-1891), 1887; Frame made by Jules Allard and Sons (French, active 1878-1907) Oil on canvas, oak and giltwood frame Bequest of Mrs. Harold S. Vanderbilt. PSNC.429.
“Tired! How Could I Be Tired, Cuckoo?" Illustration in The Cuckoo Clock Written by Mary Louisa Molesworth (British, 1839-1921) and illustrated by Walter Crane (British, 1845-1915) (London: Macmillan and Co., originally 1877), 1892 Ink on paper, cloth Gift of Ms. Elizabeth K. Misener. PSNC.12643.3.
The Spiders and the Flies (Caricatures of Jay Gould and William Henry Vanderbilt) Charles Kendrick (American, 1841-1914) for Chic (January 25, 1881), p. 8-9 Lithograph Watkinson Library's Division of Special Collections, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.
Portrait of Hippodale at Six Years Old Mariette Leslie Cotton (American, 1866-1947), c. 1910 Oil on canvas, giltwood frame Gift of Miss. Christina C. Anderson. PSNC.14388.
French Bulldog Figurine Émile Gallé (French, 1846-1904), c. 1890 Tin-glazed earthenware, glass Gift of Mrs. Alletta Morris McBean. PSNC.8631.
The Turkey Shoot (or New England Turkey Shoot) Julian Scott (American, 1846-1901), 1875 Watercolor on paper Gift of Mrs. Alletta Morris McBean. PSNC.8567.
Coffee Service Worcester Royal Porcelain Company (English, 1862-present), probably decorated by John Hopewell (English, 1834-1894), 1875-1879 Gift of Mrs. Alletta Morris McBean. PSNC.8550.1ab-.6ab.
Dactylometra, Newport, Rhode Island (detail) Unidentified Photographer, 1897 Ernst Mayr Library and Archives of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Explore the underground systems that made this great house a marvel of technology for its time. Tour times may vary. See the event webpage for details.
For the first time in the 130-year history of The Breakers, the private third-floor family space occupied by generations of Vanderbilts is open for public tours. Tour times may vary. See the event webpage for details.
The Preservation Society of Newport County is getting into the Spirit of 2026 with an insightful exhibition, theatrical performances bringing Newport’s Revolutionary history to life, programs for children and a series of lectures by leading voices in the field of American history and arts.
To mark the U.S. Semiquincentennial, "Revolution Reimagined: Evolving Stories from Newport’s Past" explores Newport’s vital role in the American Revolution through the lens of myth and memory. Exhibition is included with admission to Rosecliff.
Learn about our latest exhibition, “Revolution Reimagined: Evolving Stories from Newport’s Past,” with a guided tour led by one of the primary collaborators on the exhibition. Offered on select dates.
Three days of fun and educational seminars, tastings, dinners and the fan-favorite Sunday Brunch await you at Rosecliff! Seminar schedule and tickets now available!
Seeking wines no one else can get? You can't find these in restaurants or stores!! Quigley Wines is opening their cellar vault to give you a boutique wine experience like no other! Please click the seminar title or image to see more information about this event.
SOLD OUT
Three extraordinary terroirs. Five wines. More than two centuries of family winemaking tradition. Join Pablo Nyárády for an intimate masterclass exploring how a family winemaking legacy dating to 1820 finds expression across three remarkably different places: Napa Valley, the rugged Fort Ross-Seaview appellation of the Sonoma Coast, and the historic vineyards of Tokaj, Hungary. Please click the seminar title or image to see more information about this event.
A tour through the world’s best Sakes from Komé Collective, paired with a signature dish from James Beard Nominated & Star Chefs "Rising Star", Chef Basil Yu from Yagi Noodles, Newport RI. Please click the seminar title or image to see more information about this event.
From a career that spans living in Burgundy and selling wine in high-end auctions, to running a boutique wine shop in Manhattan, to becoming the largest female owned and run wine import company in the US, Mary Taylor has a boatload of stories to tell. Her wine label "Mary Taylor Wine" is geared to showcase wine from the perspective of ‘place.' This side-by-side tasting will be a fun and joyous learning experience. Please click the seminar title or image to see more information about this event.
Guests attending this Charcuterie Artisan presentation will learn how to build the perfect charcuterie board by mastering flavor, texture, presentation, and wine pairings. Discover how to balance ingredients and create combinations that make every bite better. Please click the seminar title or image to see more information about this event.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a 3,000-year-old tradition from China that celebrates togetherness. We invite you to a family program celebrating this festival on the grounds of Marble House near the Chinese Tea House.
Mark your calendar for these fun, artistic and educational events this fall at the Newport Mansions!
Calling all intermediate and above plein air painters! Join Bill Lane, award-winning local artist, for a day-long workshop on plein air painting at The Breakers. Intermediate and above watercolor and oil artists welcome.
Evan Aten, Horticulturist Supervisor at Green Animals Topiary Garden, will bring you for a fall walk through the gardens and teach you how to prep your garden beds for winter.
In an exclusive for our members, Director of Museum Affairs & Chief Curator Leslie Jones and Chief Conservator Patty Miller will give a wide-ranging update on the state of the Preservation Society collections.
Join Preservation Society Archives Fellow Grace Acton to learn about Chepstow’s ties to America’s founding families. Thursday, October 8 & 15 only.
Get into the spirit of the season with a history-based lecture presented by critically acclaimed history podcaster ("Lore") and bestselling author Aaron Mahnke.
Witches and vampires, angels and princesses, skeletons and superheroes, get ready! There’s big Halloween fun for the family at Newport’s biggest mansion.
This November, the Newport Symposium offers a series of lectures and tours examining the origins and legacy of art, architecture, landscape and design in the United States. Registration is now open.
Jeff Curtis, Director of Gardens & Landscapes, will provide a tour of the greenhouse and discuss how the work done there provides thousands of bedding plants and cut flowers for our historic properties.
A Newport Songbook brings Newport’s musical heritage to life through 19th century performances, local composers, and songs connected to the city’s theaters, salons, and celebrated residents.
Download our tour app before your visit and bring your earbuds.
Parking is free onsite at all properties except for Hunter House and The Breakers Stable & Carriage House, where street parking is available.
Answers to some of our most frequently asked questions.
Explore the 11 properties under the stewardship of the Preservation Society and open as historic house museums.
Partners in Preservation
Saturday, November 21 Sunday, November 22
Friday, November 27 Saturday, November 28 Sunday, November 29
Thursday, December 3 Friday, December 4 Saturday, December 5 Sunday, December 6
Thursday, December 10 Friday, December 11 Saturday, December 12 Sunday, December 13
Thursday, December 17
Sunday, December 20 Monday, December 21 Tuesday, December 22 Wednesday, December 23
Saturday, December 26 Sunday, December 27
Morph Hospitality
Author, “Flavors of my World” & “Chaat” Two-time “Tournament of Champions” winner, “Chopped” judge, Food Network’s “BBQ Brawl”
CKD Productions & Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival Culinary Director
Author, “Beyond My Chef Coat” Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” and “Great Food Truck Race,” “Today” Show, NBC “Celebrity Cooking Showdown” winner
Sparrow Restaurant, New Milford, Connecticut
Four time “Chopped” champion, Food Network’s “Tournament of Champions,” “Guy’s Grocery Games”
Sift Bake Shop, Mix, ATY Bar & Bonbons
Author, “Sift Cookbook” Best Baker in America, Food Network; Best Pastry Chef in Connecticut, Connecticut Restaurant Association; Food Network’s “Chopped Sweets” judge
