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
View our FAQs, parking information, guidelines and more.
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.
Wind Farm Federal Appeal: FAQs
The Preservation Society of Newport County has appealed federal agency approval of two massive wind farms off the Rhode Island coast.
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.
With Trudy Coxe, CEO and Executive Director of The Preservation Society of Newport County
On July 26, 2022, The Preservation Society of Newport County hosted “An Evening with Julian Fellowes,” the creator of “Downton Abbey” and “The Gilded Age” and the recipient of the Society’s 2022 Antiquarian Award. The highlight of the evening at The Breakers was this wide-ranging interview of Lord Fellowes conducted by Preservation Society CEO and Executive Director Trudy Coxe.
(April 2026) Lewis Keen’s tireless work restoring Colonial-era burying grounds has literally reshaped the final resting places of thousands of early Newporters. The chairman of the city’s Historic Cemetery Advisory Commission, he has documented thousands of gravestones and organized their preservation, ensuring these outdoor museums remain a vital part of the city’s living history.
Nick Benson and his family have owned The John Stevens Shop for three generations. Founded in 1705, The John Stevens Shop specializes in inscriptions in stone and is one of the oldest continuously run trade businesses in the country. All the work is still done by hand and includes some of the most prominent monuments in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
(February 2026) As one of the original members of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, Geoff Kelly investigated the 1990 theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, considered the heist of the century. He worked on the case for 22 years before retiring from the FBI in 2024. His recent book on the Gardner theft is entitled “Thirteen Perfect Fugitives: The True Story of the Mob, Murder and the World’s Largest Art Heist.”
(January 2026) Preservation Society CEO Trudy Coxe interviews independent scholar and author Eve M. Kahn. The former “Antiques” columnist at The New York Times, Kahn writes about art, architecture, and design for the Times among other publications. She has written biographies of artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907) and writer Zoe Anderson Norris (1860-1914).
(December 2025) Jim Donahue, Curator of Historic Landscapes & Horticulture and the creative force behind Holidays at the Newport Mansions, talks about the nearly year-long planning and preparation that goes into this beloved tradition, along with tips for home decoration and what he thinks the Vanderbilts, Wetmores and Berwinds would have thought of it all.
(November 2025) Food Historian Becky Diamond, author of “The Gilded Age Cookbook” and, most recently, “The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook,” whets our appetite with insights into holiday dinners and the innovations the Gilded Age brought to dining across the country.
(October 2025) Mathieu Deldicque, director of the Condé Museum of the Château de Chantilly in France, was keynote speaker at the Newport Symposium hosted by The Preservation Society in November 2025, entitled “The French Influence in Newport.”
(July 2025) In celebration of the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” we invited three guests – Paul Del Nero, Nannie Wright Talbott Brown and Peter Neivert – to reminisce with Trudy Coxe about the filming of the 1974 movie at Rosecliff, Marble House and other Newport locations.
(June 2025) Preservation Society CEO Trudy Coxe interviews Lark Mason, an expert in Chinese art and antiquities who has appeared on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow” since its inception in 1996. He is a former President of the Appraiser’s Association of America and was a senior officer, generalist and expert in Chinese works of art with Sotheby’s, New York.
(May 2025) Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator Leslie Jones discusses the Preservation Society’s exhibition “Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light.” This exhibition offers an intimate perspective into one of the greatest minds of the Gilded Age, going beyond the buildings he created by providing personal insights that help us better understand this complex man.
(February 2025) David Norton Stone is the author of “Newport is Burning: The Gilded Age Fires of Kate Judd.” He tells the fascinating and largely forgotten story of Judd, a notorious Gilded Age arsonist convicted of burning multiple houses around New England, including the beautiful Weaver cottage that stood on Newport’s Bellevue Avenue.
(December 2024) Author and historian Thomas Ruys Smith discusses his book, “Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth-Century America,” explaining how the stories in this collection reflect the origins and evolution of Christmas as a holiday, and how that growth impacted American literature during the Gilded Age.
(November 2024) Learn about the incredible exploits of Cassie Chadwick, a memorable Gilded Age con artist profiled by author Annie Reed in her book “The Imposter Heiress.” One of history’s most successful con artists, Chadwick was dubbed the “Queen of Swindlers,” the “Duchess of Diamonds” and the “High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance” by newspapers of her time.
(October 2024) Spiritualism was a religious movement claiming spirits of the dead are able and willing to communicate with the living. Kathryn Sheehan, Executive Director of the Hart Cluett Museum, discusses the 19th-century origins of this movement in upstate New York, and how it attracted prominent supporters like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Cornelius Vanderbilt.
(September 2024) Join us for an exclusive conversation with world-renowned chef Jacques Pépin before his appearance in the 2024 Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival. In this episode, Pépin shares stories from his culinary journey, insights into his French roots, and his thoughts on the art of cooking. Discover what inspires this legendary chef and his connection to Newport. Bon appétit!
(July 2024) Preservation Society CEO Trudy Coxe discusses “The Great Elephant Migration” exhibition with Ruth Ganesh, a principal trustee of Elephant Family – a UK-based NGO dedicated to protecting Asian elephants. Later, Trudy is joined by Preservation Society Curator of Collections Dr. Nicole Williams, who discusses the exhibition “Wild Imagination: Art and Animals in the Gilded Age” at Rosecliff.
(May 2024) Bard College Professor Dr. Myra Armstead, author of “‘Lord, Please Don’t Take Me in August’: African Americans in Newport and Saratoga Springs,” discusses conventional narratives of Black politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and how the political outlook of African heritage communities in resort towns like Newport and Saratoga was less easily categorized.
(April 2024) Ninth-generation Newporter Keith Stokes – now Rhode Island’s Historian Laureate – discusses African heritage life and political identity in Gilded Age Newport. Stokes and his wife, scholar Theresa “Soni” Guzmán Stokes, presented a lecture at Rosecliff on this topic in collaboration with the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and in conjunction with the exhibition “Gilded Age Newport in Color.”
(March 2024) Dr. Jonathan Michael Square of Parsons School of Design delves into the life of W.E.B. Du Bois through the lens of fashion. He traces Du Bois’ evolving fashion sense across nearly a century of life, spanning from the era of Reconstruction to the Civil Rights movement’s dawn, shedding light on the significance of how Du Bois presented himself.
(February 2024) Theresa “Soni” Guzmán Stokes, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, previews the exhibition “Gilded Age Newport in Color” at Rosecliff and discusses significant historical figures of the African heritage community in Newport, including doctors, dentists, teachers, hoteliers and other entrepreneurs who laid the foundation for the later 20th-century civil rights movements.
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.
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