Hello, Rhode Island. Now we can check off 47 states.
We left the cape this morning and drove a couple of hours to Newport, Rhode Island, which is known for its Gilded Age mansions. Around the turn of the 20th century, the millionaire socialites from New York, Boston and Philadelphia — magnates of railroad, shipping, lumber and coal — built dizzyingly opulent summer homes in Newport, where they would spend only about six to eight weeks a year.
Today, the Preservation Society of Newport County maintains 11 of these historic properties, and many of them are open for tours. After devouring some delicious sandwiches at the cozy little Rosemary and Thyme cafe, we beelined it to The Elms, a 60,000-square-foot summer “cottage” built in 1901 in the style of a French chateau for coal baron Edward Berwind and his wife, Hermione.
(The Berwind Corporation exists to this day, by the way, and is still controlled by members of the Berwind family. The company has diversified since the mid-20th century, and its current holdings include the companies that make Elmer’s Glue, the coatings on pills and the edible ink that’s stamped on M&M candies.)
We signed up for the Servant Tour, and our guide took us from the basement and the sub-basement, where we saw the kitchens, pantries, laundry rooms, ice room and boiler room, to the third floor, where most of the staff of 40 maids and footmen resided, and the roof, where we had a birds-eye view of the grounds — 10 acres of meticulously landscaped gardens — and Newport Harbor in the distance.
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| The Elms |
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| To preserve the elegant look of the building, servants' quarters were hidden behind a third-floor facade. Their windows looked out onto a wall! |
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| Fancy building, right? These are the STABLES at The Elms. |
Our next stop was The Breakers, considered the jewel of the Newport historic mansions — a 70-room Italian Renaissance-style palace built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Keith and I were struck by how the audio tour kept describing Vanderbilt as a modest man who taught Sunday school. Yeah right. A modest man who built a 125,000-square-foot sumptuous summer home to pay tribute to his own enormous wealth.
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| The Breakers |
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| The Great Hall at The Breakers |
After the tour, we hopped back in the car and drove about an hour north to Providence, where we checked in to The Dean Hotel, a chic 52-room hotel that opened just a few years ago years ago after the building underwent an ambitious renovation. Built in 1912, the space originally housed episcopal clergy. Through the decades, it was used as a homeless shelter, then for as a flophouse for vaudeville actors passing through town. By mid-century, it was a notorious strip club and brothel. Today, it’s a total hipster hangout, with a European-style bar, a late-night karaoke lounge, a German restaurant and a coffee shop in the lobby. Inside the whitewashed rooms, modern industrial design meets vintage flair with locally crafted steel furniture, handsome antiques and flea-market oil paintings. The kids enjoyed traveling up to the fourth floor in a old lift — the kind with an accordion gate for a door. Their adorable room actually has two sets of bunk beds, which is perfect.
Since we left Newport, Natalie’s been especially quiet and jittery. I lined up a prospective student tour for her tomorrow at the Rhode Island School of Design, and she is positively FREAKING OUT. Keith and I have tried to reassure her that this visit is just the start of her college search. She should not be sweating this, we’ve told her. But she should keep her eyes and ears and heart open to what RISD offers, so that she can compare it to other schools she sees in the next 18 months and start to develop a idea of what will — and will not — be a good fit for her.
In a solid state of denial, Natalie would like to pretend that she’s going to enjoy the safety and security our home for the rest of her life. She says she still thinks of herself as a 7-year-old, and she’s not ready to make major life decisions. We keep telling her: No one is expecting you to make a decision about anything today, or tomorrow, or for a long time; this is just a visit!
From the two square block we’ve seen so far, Providence is a lovely, artsy city. We grabbed dinner at AS220, a mixed-use arts complex that takes up most of a city block around the corner from our hotel and includes several rotating gallery spaces, a performance stage, a black-box theater, a print shop, a darkroom and media arts lab, a dance studio — and a bar and restaurant. I chose this place deliberately, hoping to get Natalie excited about the creativity and energy that surges through a college town — especially one with a highly regarded school of art and design. As we dove into bowls of sweet potato and coconut curry and homemade macaroni and cheese, I pointed out the bulletin board next to our table covered in posters — about art shows and progressive political rallies … and artistic political rallies … and political art shows. (It was hard to tell the different, honestly.)
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| Tupac as a mermaid! |
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| AS220: An art show in the gallery space next to the restaurant |
My plan may have backfired, as Natalie is thoroughly intimidated by the artsy vibe and the tattooed and pierced patrons at the restaurant. She said she felt like a little kid in a classroom full of sophisticated seniors. Of course, we were the only family there. Everyone else was 25 and under and apparently meeting up before the poetry reading in the gallery next door.
In retrospect, I realize that Natalie might have kept a more open mind about RISD if we had taken her to, like, Pizza Hut, or Chipotle. I always try to push Natalie out her comfort zone, but this time I may have gone too far.
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