RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

The Breakers Collection (PSNCA.H.001)

The Preservation Society of Newport County

424 Bellevue Avenue
Newport, RI 02840
Tel: 401-847-1000
museumaffairs@newportmansions.org

Biographical note

The Vanderbilt Family:

The original Breakers was purchased in 1885 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, as a summer home for his family. Cornelius II was the grandson of the great Commodore Vanderbilt and the son of William Henry Vanderbilt. After working upwards from the position of bank messenger and clerk, he became the treasurer and then the head of the Harlem Railroad. He then succeeded his father and grandfather as the Chairman of the Board of the New York Central Railroad. Cornelius was married to Alice Claypoole Gwynne in 1867, and by all accounts it was a good match. The couple had seven children together. Their firstborn, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, died at the age of five from a childhood illness, while the eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt II died of typhoid fever while attending Yale University.

Of the surviving children, Cornelius “Neily” Vanderbilt III became the eldest. He was a graduate of Yale University and the Sheffield Scientific School, and also went on to work with the New York Central Railroad. Neily was disinherited by his father after eloping with Grace Vanderbilt Wilson, a well-known socialite, in 1896. The disagreement lasted many years, but softened somewhat just before his father’s death in 1899. Cornelius and Grace remained married for the rest of their lives. The next child, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, became a great sculptor, collector, and patron of the arts with her husband, Harry Payne Whitney. In 1931, Gertrude founded the Whitney Museum of American Art as a repository for her enormous collection of American modern art pieces. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, two years younger than Gertrude, was another Yale graduate who became heavily involved in the family railroad business after the death of his father in 1899. He was married twice, first to Miss Ellen Tuck French, and later to Miss Margaret Mary Emerson. Alfred was also well known for being a sportsman, and his interest in coaching. In 1915, at age 37, he was lost aboard the RMS Lusitania when it was sunk off the coast of Ireland.

Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt was the youngest son of the family. He attended Yale University, and was a self-styled “investor,” as well as a director for several railway lines. Reginald was married twice, had two children, and maintained residences in both New York and at Sandy Point Farm in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He died in 1925 at the age of 45. Finally, the youngest child, Gladys Moore Vanderbilt Széchenyi inherited The Breakers upon the death of her mother. In 1908, she married Hungarian Count, László Széchenyi, and the couple had five daughters. It was with Countess Széchenyi that the Preservation Society of Newport County developed a relationship around the preservation of historic properties on Aquidneck Island. In 1948, the Countess graciously leased The Breakers to the Preservation Society for one dollar per year until, in 1972, the PSNC purchased the property from her descendants.