Newport Preservation Needs Online Votes to Win $25K Grant
Monday, June 27, 2011
It's time to cast a vote for one of Rhode Island's most glamorously historic properties, and win $25,000 in grant monies for the Newport Preservation Society in the process.
In a national online competition on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Web site, 100 sites chosen by the Trust are competing to be named "a place that matters." Currently, according to Trudy Coxe, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director of the Newport Mansions, the Breakers is just about 700 clicks behind a historic movie theater in Wellington, Texas.
Some theater in Texas is going to beat the Breakers?
Not if Coxe, and the Preservation Society has its way. With 5pm on June 30th as the voting deadline, they are asking Rhode Islanders (and lovers of Rhode Island) to cast their votes for the Breakers.
To cast your vote, visit www.Newport Mansions.org. You can only vote once from one email address. Need more incentive? There's a daily raffle prize of a $50 gift certificate at the Newport Mansions Store, and a grand prize of a $150 gift certificate.
10 reasons to vote for The Breakers
10. It's amazing. The Breakers was built in 1895 without limitation of scale or expense. Its 45-foot high central courtyard contains a broad grand staircase rising in two curving sections illuminated by a multi-colored stained glass skylight 33 feet long. Its 138,300 square feet of living space encompass 70 rooms, 23 bathrooms and 27 fireplaces, including a room with platinum leaf wall panels. Its lavish use throughout of rare Italian marble, gilt and silver leaf, Baccarat crystal, and more gives it a "Wow" factor of 10.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST9. It's architecturally important. The Breakers was one of the last domestic projects designed by the most famous architect of his day, Richard Morris Hunt. Architectural historians Antoinette Downing and Vincent Scully Jr. called it "the acme of the American palatial mansion of the period."
8. It's historically important. The Breakers is a landmark of the Gilded Age of the late 1800s - a time when America became a world industrial power. It was the summer home of the Vanderbilt family, who played an important role in American history, from self-made shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor and founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
7. It helped start the preservation movement in Newport. In 1948, Cornelius Vanderbilt's daughter opened the house to public tours in order to raise money for the fledgling Preservation Society of Newport County. Twenty-six thousand people toured the house in the first year. The Preservation Society went on to save many important Newport buildings, eventually including The Breakers.
6. It's open to everyone. The Breakers is open to the public every day of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
5. It offers a variety of experiences. Visitors to The Breakers can choose from two audio tours in 5 languages that bring the house to life with first person remembrances of generations who lived and worked in the house in its heyday. It also serves as the setting for annual classical music concerts, dinners and other celebrations.
4. It is the flagship property of Rhode Island's thriving heritage tourism industry. Visitors to the Newport Mansions contribute more than $100 million to the region's economic activity annually.
3. It is one of the Top 10 Most Visited Historic House Museums in the country according to the Almanac of Architecture and Design. More than 330,000 people visit The Breakers every year.
2. We in Newport love it enough to come out on a 49 degree spring morning under gray skies with 25 mph winds whipping off the Atlantic to have our picture taken!
1. It is loved worldwide. Visitors come to The Breakers from all over the world - nearly 21 million people since it first opened to the public in 1948. New England Travel Magazine named it the Best Mansion Tour in New England for 2011.
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