Click any picture for its somewhat larger (640 x 480) version.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Around the main center atrium/lobby |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Random interior details, including a small fountain under the main staircase |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Main dining room |
![]() |
![]() |
Billiards room, paneled in white marble with a very heavy iron light fixture support over the table |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Morning room (?) |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Music room |
![]() |
![]() |
not sure which room |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Study / library |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
|
Various bedrooms (upstairs) |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Telephones and other signaling setups existed back then, but only for
in-house communications. Mrs. Vanderbilt reportedly directed much of
the house's operation from a "nerve center" in her own bedroom. Note
the buttons dedicated to specific stations to call, as opposed to being
a general-purpose dial. Wall buttons would summon specific parts of
the staff; other bedrooms have fewer buttons but with similar purposes.
There is extensive technical information about this particular system in a
historical document
on servant life (about 80 Mb!) from the Preservation Society site.
Efforts to track down wiring and determine purpose are ongoing, not only
here at The Breakers but in the other Newport houses as well.
Communicating outside the house was never done electronically in well-bred society, even if the capability existed. A message to someone at another house would be handwritten on paper in beautiful copperplate, and formally delivered to the other residence by an impeccably-dressed footman. |
![]() |
![]() |
more random bedroom areas |
![]() |
![]() |
Tapestry and embellishments over the main staircase |
![]() |
![]() |
More of the upper atrium, while heading out of it toward the servants' areas and back downstairs |
External references
The Preservation Society has a short video file (21 Mb) which sweeps across parts of the Breakers interior quite a bit. It appears that "wallyg" took a few sneak shots inside Breakers and other properties and threw them into his Flickr set, along with some historical commentary swiped from somewhere else. |