The Breakers in Newport

23 February 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  2 minutes

The Breakers in Newport © Elisa.rolle/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Breakers in Newport © Elisa.rolle/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island on the Atlantic Ocean. The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1994, and is a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District. It is owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is open for visitation on a year-round basis. The Breakers was built as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy . It is built in an architectural style based on the Italian Renaissance. Designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, with interior decoration by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman, Jr., the 70-room mansion has a gross area of 125,339 square feet (11,644.4 m2) and 62,482 square feet (5,804.8 m2) of living area on five floors. The house was constructed between 1893 and 1895. The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates and the 30-foot-high (9.1 m) walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high (3.7 m) limestone-and-iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The footprint of the house covers approximately 1 acre (4,000 m2) of the 14 acres (5.7 ha) estate on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Breakers is one of the most visited house museums in America and in 2016 had 472,700 visitations.   read more…

Theme Week New England – Vermont

24 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Stowe © flickr.com - Patrick/cc-by-2.0

Stowe © flickr.com – Patrick/cc-by-2.0

Vermont borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont’s western border with the state of New York and the Green Mountains run north–south the length of the state. Vermont is the 2nd-least populous of the U.S. states, with nearly 50,000 more residents than Wyoming. The capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the U.S. The most populous municipality, Burlington, is the least populous city in the U.S. to be the most populous within the state. Other cities are Essex, South Burlington, Colchester, Rutland, Bennington, Brattleboro, Milton, Winooski, St. Albans, Vergennes, St. Johnsbury, Shelburne, Hartford, Springfield, Barre, and Williston. As of 2015, Vermont continued to be the leading producer of maple syrup in the U.S. It was ranked as the safest state in the country in January 2016.   read more…

Theme Week New England – Rhode Island

23 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Newport © MVASCO - Michael Kagdis/cc-by-sa-3.0

Newport © MVASCO – Michael Kagdis/cc-by-sa-3.0

Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, and the second most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states, following New Jersey. Its official name is also the longest of any state in the Union. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. The state also shares a short maritime border with New York. On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, and was the fourth among the newly sovereign states to ratify the Articles of Confederation on February 9, 1778. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution and initially refused to ratify it. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and last state to ratify the Constitution.   read more…

Newport in Oregon

4 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Yaquina Bay Bridge © Visitor7/cc-by-sa-3.0

Yaquina Bay Bridge © Visitor7/cc-by-sa-3.0

Newport is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon. It was incorporated in 1882, though the name dates back to the establishment of a post office in 1868. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 10,000, an increase of nearly 13% over its 2000 population. Newport is the county seat of Lincoln County. It is also the home of the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and Rogue Ales.   read more…

Newport in Rhode Island

21 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Newport Sailing 2009 © chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-3.0

Newport Sailing 2009 © chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-3.0

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County. It is located 23 miles (37 km) south of Providence, and 61 miles (98 km) south of Boston. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and a major United States Navy training center. A major 18th century port city, Newport now contains among the highest number of surviving colonial buildings of any city in the United States. The city is the county seat of Newport County (a county that no longer has any governmental functions other than court administrative and sheriff corrections boundaries). Newport was known for being the city of some of the Summer White Houses during the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.   read more…

Theme Week Wales – Newport

6 June 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Newport Arcade © geograph.org.uk - Robin Drayton/cc-by-sa-2.0

Newport Arcade © geograph.org.uk – Robin Drayton/cc-by-sa-2.0

Newport is a city and unitary authority in south east Wales. It is located on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn estuary, 12 miles (19 km) east of Cardiff. It is the third largest city in Wales, with a population of 146,000.   read more…

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