The Breakers: Newport, Rhode Island

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architecture, Breakers, doors, Norm 2.0, ornate, Rhode Island, Stone building, Thursday Doors

Side gardens and entrance to the Breakers

This week I’m sharing my photos of the Breakers in Newport for my Thursday Doors post. While I love taking pictures of so many parts of fancy houses and buildings, I’m quite enchanted by doors. I’m so grateful to have found some like minded people who also like to share photos of doors. I hope you enjoy my tour of this “cottage.”

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. It is hosted by Norm 2.0.

“The Breakers is the grandest of Newport’s summer “cottages” and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America.

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central Railroad, which was a pivotal development in the industrial growth of the nation during the late 19th century.” from the Newport Mansions Preservation Society.

This house had so many beautifully crafted features. Each room had magnificent doors and the views from one set of doors into the other rooms was very interesting. Some of the rooms had very distinctive styles. The first floor was extremely ornate. The second floor was comparatively simple, but probably my favorite rooms were there. The bathrooms were fantastic. I would love to have such a bathroom today! Here are the doors and doorways of the first floor.

The second floor doors were simpler.

There were secret doors that the servants could use to unobtrusively go about their business. There was a servant who’s job it was to go throughout the house and close and open window shades and shutters as the day progressed. That was the whole job, but I’m sure it kept him super busy! Old fashioned air conditioning. The pantry and the closets were amazing.

These are the rooms of the first floor. The details amazed me. The skylight is by Tiffany and it is so beautifully framed by the staircase. One of the rooms had portions of the wall “painted” with platinum. The floors and ceilings were all exquisite.

I really loved the comparative simplicity of the bedrooms and bathrooms. The kitchen was a wonder. It was fascinating to see how they used materials and design to make the work of the kitchen more efficient. The zinc and marble were utilitarian rather than a matter of style.

There was one tree on the grounds that I found particularly beautiful. I’m not sure what kind of tree it is.

I hope you have a beautiful day. For more door photos check out Norm 2.0.

 

Thursday Doors on Friday: Back to Rhode Island

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migraine, Norm 2.0, Rhode Island, Thursday Doors

Yesterday I had a cavity filled and trips to the dentist are major migraine triggers for me. Also, last week it was cool enough to sleep under the down comforter and this  week we are pining for our window air conditioners. My computer is a desktop and it is located in the upstairs room that is becoming my studio. The heat is also a migraine trigger for me so I’ve been either packed in ice in bed or in a camping chair in the basement to make it through the day. In any case I wanted to give you a peak at the Breakers, one of the Newport, RI mansions we visited on our trip there.

This is the gate to the house. Pretty fancy. Here is the description from the Newport Mansions Preservation Society.

“The Breakers is the grandest of Newport’s summer “cottages” and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America.“

While I love the doors and textures and interesting architectural features, I have to say that this one kind of bothered me. The Buddhist teacher Atisha said, “Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment.” I wasn’t sure it was resentment I was feeling, but to have doorknobs like these kind of seems like such conspicuous consumerism that I feel a little bit nauseated. On the other hand, its pretty.

The door itself is so lovely, too. Next week when the air conditioner is in and I’m feeling physically and emotionally better I will post the loveliness that is The Breakers, but for more beautiful door photographs without the emotional baggage see Norm 2.0.

I hope you have a temperate and beautiful day.

Narragansett, RI: Thursday Doors and WWC

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Atlantic Ocean, bridge, Cee's Photo Challenge, Narragansett, Norm 2.0, Ocean, Rhode Island, Thursday Doors

Here are my doors from Narragansett. They are to share in Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors Challenge.

These are the doors to the towers. The first picture is the entry to the visitor’s center for the town.

Most of the houses in Narragansett range from multi-million dollar mansions to little bungalows that look like they’ve been here for a while. This old house  was about a block from the Crazy Burger Restaurant and I really loved it. The house was abandoned a while ago and this has to be some valuable real estate and here was an overgrown mystery.

Our hotel in Narragansett was right across from the beach. I’m almost reluctant to share, because it was such a wonderful little gem. But here it is.

Here is the path to the beach.

I got the beach in a few different kinds of light. I was looking forward to our sunrises, but they were so foggy and dark and not photogenic. It was lovely in the evening.

I love the variation in textures and colors. This was the view from our bed. Not too much traffic this time of year, so it was lovely.

The path to the beach and this bridge to Newport are my entries to Cee’s Which Way Challenge. The fog was present more of the day than I expected. I’m learning the ways of the Atlantic Ocean. It has been beautiful where ever we have seen it.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

Narragansett, RI

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Atlantic Ocean, birds, Cee's Photo Challenge, gluten free, Narragansett, Rhode Island, seagull, Shore, Stone building

I’m in love. With Narragansett, RI. I’m sure I’m saying this about somewhere after each trip we have taken to some new corner of the East Coast, but this place really resonated with me. And it had a fantastic restaurant with lots of gluten free options! We went there for 2 meals in the 2 days we were in town! We loved the Anchor Hotel, right across the street from the shore – I have some photos of that which will be included in my Thursday Doors post.

A lovely shoreline.

A seagull (or gulls) who insisted on posing for photos in the atmospheric setting and on the hilarious sign (with edits) Click on photo above to read the sign. I thought Cee would like this sign and the benches.

It is funny how my blogging friends come with my on vacation now, even when I don’t go online. I’m saving some door photos for Thursday Norm.

The most distinctive thing about Narragansett was the tower!

I hope you enjoyed your virtual vacation.

Thursday Doors: Providence, RI

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doors, Gillette Castle, Norm 2.0, Providence, Rhode Island, Thursday Doors

So here are the doors that I didn’t include (and a few that I did) in yesterday’s post about Providence. The door with the white “fence” is on the campus of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD.)

This old bank is so lovely. I really like the anchors on the doors.

This old house was moved to this location – seemed like a strange option to Mike and I. The gate was my favorite part.

Here is the letter box door again because I love it.

These are my 2 favorite doors from Gillette Castle.

To see doors from around the world check out Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors challenge.

Providence, RI: CZT#27

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bridge, Cee's Fun Foto Challenge, Cee's Photo Challenge, Certified Zentangle Teacher, Church, CZT, Norm 2.0, Providence, Rhode Island, Thursday Doors, Unitarian, Which Way Challenge

Here is the inspiring location for the 27th Certified Zentangle® Teacher training seminar that I attended last week. Tomorrow I plan to have a Thursday Doors post and a post all about the wonderful seminar and the art I created while there. In the meantime, here is the class photo.

You can also see the gorgeous ballroom at the Providence Biltmore. I have quite a few photos of the hotel, our views from the hotel, and the neighborhoods near the hotel. It really is a lovely city.

These are the views from my lovely suite that I shared with an artist named Donna from Montana and some of the views are from the hotel’s banquet dining room. We had some lovely foggy/raining days that were perfect for arting inside.

Here are some views from the inside of the hotel. I thought about saving the letter box “door” for a solo spot on the Thursday Doors post, but I have too many interesting doors that I collected on this trip! So I will share a few today and the rest tomorrow. There may be some redundancy in the posts, but when interesting architecture is the subject can a view be seen too many times?

I love the “wicked awesome” light fixture at the bottom of the mosaic. Also, you can see some public art that is painted on the fences around the plaza. It was really hard to photograph, but so cool to see as you walked past it! There are gondolieri, bridges, and tulips adorning the river. This is going to serve as another Which Way Challenge post for Cee. At the corner of Benefit and Benevolent Streets is the Unitarian Church with it’s beautiful magnolia tree. The very first Baptist church in this country is also featured above. That is all for today. I’m still pretty worn out from a very full week, last week.

I hope you have a beautiful day.