Original subtitles

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What does it take to make a house

one of history's greatest homes?

Whether they're warm and cozy, or grand and drafty,

when you're building your home,

you're creating your own universe.

And the most celebrated homes in history

stood the test of time.

This is Hampton Court Palace.

It was a place for fun,

and above all, as you can see, of magnificence.

This is a spectacular palace, even today.

We often describe it as an architectural autobiography.

And so at Monticello, you get a true sense of the man.

I think that the point was to be ostentatious.

This was the statement that they were trying to make,

that they had made it,

and they were going to let the world know

that they were important.

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You can imagine coming into this room

in the evening, or any time of day,

and everybody who was anybody was here.

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Two groups have always built great homes,

the rich and the royal.

They understood that a house of fame and a claim

can write your name in history.

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Royalty ruled Europe for centuries.

The wealth and power of these dynasties was absolute.

While the United States was founded

on the rejection of Royal governance,

for America's rich and powerful

there has always been a deep fascination

with the lives of these legendary families of the past.

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The name Vanderbilt recalls a bygone era,

and this family of railroad tycoons built their legend

with the help of some gargantuan homes.

My name is Trudy Cox,

and I'm the chief executive officer and executive director

of the Preservation Society of Newport County,

which takes care of 11 magnificent historic houses

here in Newport, Rhode Island.

In the late 1800s,

building a personal palace was the height of fashion.

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It's in these gleaming American castles

that America's gilded age earned its name,

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and it all started here.

This is Marble House, and it was built by Alva Vanderbilt.

Why is this called Marble House?

Well, it is made with 500,000 cubic feet of marble.

Alva Vanderbilt got this house as a 39th birthday present

from her husband William.

He gave it to her with the opportunity of building

whatever she wanted to build.

Can you imagine?

Alva Vanderbilt was a woman who set trends

and broke barriers,

but her passion was for building grandiose houses.

When this house was being built,

Alva Vanderbilt and her husband really had an aim,

and that was to make a statement.

And what other way to make a statement

than to build a palace made out of marble.

In the late 1880s, early 1890s,

all of Newport was primarily a wooden community,

and along comes Alva, and she is not going to build

your typical colonial house.

She is going to build something palatial.

And she hires one of the best architects in the world,

Richard Morris Hunt.

Richard Morris Hunt

was the first American architect

to attend the School of Fine Arts in Paris,

the finest architectural school in the world at the time.

He'd designed the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty,

Fifth Avenue mansions in Manhattan,

and if you could afford him, he do your home too.

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When construction began in 1889,

100 marble specialists were imported from Italy

to make this dream home a reality.

Alva wanted her mansion to make a mark

in upper echelons of society, and add fame to her fortune.

Marble House was intended to be her work of art,

and she immersed herself in every aspect of the design.

Alva grew up in Mobile, Alabama,

and during the Civil War,

her family moved to Paris to escape the war.

And while she was in Paris, she became a real Francophile.

So this particular house is designed

after the Petit Trianon of Versailles.

Alva insisted on white Tuckahoe marble

for the exterior, but it proved too hard to shape.

So, famed Carrara marble had to be used

for the carved elements to finish this clean white exterior.

The marble wasn't limited to the facade.

When she set out to build a palace of marble, she meant it.

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So she loved marble, obviously.

Alva was very discriminating in her use of marble

and her choices of marble, selecting colors,

hues that were the right colors that she wanted

for a particular room.

We are surrounded by Sienna marble, which is from Italy.

She went with this wonderful beige tan hue.

I think it does add a warmth to the entranceway.

The main stairway is made of solid blocks

of the same stone.

If you're going into the dining room,

you're going to see a pink rose-colored marble

that comes from Algeria, and the colors of the wall

would have then the right kind of cast,

the right kind of glow on a woman's face,

which was of course very, very important.

And so I think that she probably thought

that that pinkish marble, that rose-colored marble,

was just absolutely perfect for an evening of dinner.

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From the dazzling ballroom

to the ornate bedrooms, each space was decorated

with furniture from across Europe,

and personally chosen and positioned by Alva.

She had a lot of help, but she had a wonderful eye.

This house is decorated perfectly.

The Gothic room, tremendously unusual and unique.

No room quite like it, anywhere in America,

that was Alva Vanderbilt saying, "I'm going to bring

an interior decorating style

of medieval architectural ornamentation into my house

with the Gothic room."

When it was finally finished

three years after it began,

the home was something of a sensation.

When the house was unveiled

and finally seen by the public, people were obviously wowed.

And in 1892, when the house warming party was held,

they strung electric lights all over the house

and the property.

Electrical lighting was still very new in this nation,

in the world, actually.

And so that glimmering against the marble made a statement

that of course was talked about at the "New York Times"

and talked about internationally.

Alva had made her statement.

But all this statement-making

came with an eye-watering price tag.

It's said that the house is about $11 million.

It was very expensive, especially, we're back to 1889.

So that was a huge price.

I'm talking about $11 million then,

translate that out to today's dollars

and it would be much higher.

This was a $300 million second home,

only used during the summers for five or six weeks a year.

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So how exactly did William K. Vanderbilt

afford such an extravagance?

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The Vanderbilt family fortune

came from a shipping and railroad empire

built by William's grandfather, Commodore Vanderbilt,

and father William Henry.

Their investments laid the foundation

for what would become the vast New York Central system.

Just imagine having the vision

to connect New York to Chicago

by a new form of transportation, railroad,

it dramatically changed this nation.

It opened up parts of this country

that had never been opened up before.

Chicago exists because of that train system.

It also made them fabulously rich,

rich enough to live like American royalty,

in castles they called cottages.

But Marble House took things to the next level

for the Vanderbilts.

In a lot of ways, it started not just a trend,

but maybe even a war.

So right after this house gets built,

William's brother, Cornelius, hires the same architect,

Richard Morris Hunt.

Cornelius wanted Hunt

to build him his own enduring work of architectural art,

one that incidentally was a little bigger

than his brother William's.

It is a bigger house, it's as palatial as this

in a different way.

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Dubbed The Breakers,

it was Cornelius' castle by the sea.

Breakers is open and airy, has incredibly high ceilings,

beautiful interiors, and ocean views

in almost every direction,

and at a mere $7 million, or around $200 million today,

it was a bargain.

And to this war of the houses, didn't stop here.

The Elms is built, Rose Cliff is built,

magnificent mansions are built in Newport,

completely changing the feel of this community.

This is where people from New York come for their summers,

people with money.

And that was the beginning of a new reputation

for Newport, Rhode Island.

It wasn't only holiday houses.

Between eight siblings, the Vanderbilts built 10 mansions

on Fifth Avenue alone.

And the biggest house in America, Biltmore,

was commissioned by George Washington Vanderbilt,

and designed by, you guessed it, William Morris Hunt.

I think the Vanderbilts were prolific builders of homes,

really because they were very much trying to send a message

to the world, that they had, look,

they were the richest people in this country.

I think that they wanted to show the world

that they were worth something,

and one way to do that,

just like in Europe hundreds of years ago,

the way to do that is to build the fanciest house

you can build, and buy the nicest objects

for your houses that you can buy.

If you're a little stunned

by the sheer lavishness of these places, you're not alone.

I think that the point was to be ostentatious.

And I think that it was understood,

even by the people who didn't have that kind of money.

And perhaps there was resentment,

but you have to step back for a moment

and say, "These are beautiful houses.

They're beautiful pieces of architecture."

Though Marble House is still standing

130 years on, William and Alva's marriage

didn't last quite so long.

Alva lived in this home, but not for very long.

She was one of the first high society women in the country

to file for a divorce.

And then about a year later,

she married a man down the street, Mr. Belmont,

and he owned Belcourt Castle.

And she moved herself into the new location,

held on to Marble House though.

When she moved, Marble House was boarded up

and neglected for decades.

In her later years, after her divorce,

she became a leading suffragette,

arguing for women's right to vote.

Alva Vanderbilt opens up this house

for people to take tours,

and then held rallies out on the lawn

facing the Atlantic Ocean.

And thousands of women would come to these rallies.

In 2020, we celebrate women's right to vote

past 100 years ago, and it's due in large part to Alva.

The glory days and the Gilded Age

could not last.

As their spending grew and their businesses declined,

the Great Depression hit hard.

There Fifth Avenue mansions were torn down,

and the Newport mansions, sold off.

When Alva finally sold Marble House in 1932,

the sale price was $100,000, or less than a penny

on every dollar it had taken to build.

The Vanderbilt empire crumbled.

But thanks to organizations

like the Newport Preservation Society,

we're still able to enjoy these iconic homes.

(uplifting music)

America's richest built business empires

that made their families wealthy for generations.

They built homes to reflect the power and magnificence

of their fortunes, and to last long after they were gone.

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But the dynasties the rich strove for,

European royalty had already invented.

As the great castles of Europe reveal family stories

that are as old as nations.

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(Jean speaking in foreign language)

It was the year 1137 that the Chateau Fontainebleau

made its sudden entrance into the annals of history

with a stroke of Louis VII quill.

Fontainebleau took its name from the fresh water spring

near the original settlement.

But it was the forests that drew royalty here.

When the first kings came to Fontainebleau,

they came to hunt.

(Jean speaking in foreign language)

A love for the sport of kings

ensured the Chateaux was bequeathed down

through generations of royalty,

but Fontainebleau has always been more

than just a place to get away.

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Over its long history, the chateau received honored guests,

hosted celebrations, influenced culture,

and served as the stage for diplomacy and politics.

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From relatively humble beginnings,

over the centuries, Fontainebleau underwent

a gradual transformation.

(Jean speaking in foreign language)

Francois the First built grand galleries,

inspired and designed by Italian Renaissance artists.

Henry IV had major fountains embellished,

and created a vast canal,

which became a spectacular setting for grand occasions.

Louis XIII's architect added

the iconic horseshoe-shaped staircase.

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Louis XIV preferred Versailles to Fontainebleau,

but he still found time to have the gardens redesigned.

Louis XVI built Marie Antoinette's stunning boudoirs,

supreme examples of the refinement

of the Queen's private tastes.

Fontainebleau was long celebrated

as a cultural capital of the kingdom.

But during the terror of the French Revolution,

extravagant palaces were considered a little passe,

but a certain general would bring the chateau

back into style.

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(Jean speaking in foreign language)

Napoleon Bonaparte first visited Fontainebleau in 1803.

Napoleon loved its lack of symmetry,

and it's centuries of history.

He called it the true abode of kings.

And after his coronation, the newly crowned emperor

resolved to make Fontainebleau his imperial palace.

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(Jean speaking in foreign language)

Living in a castle, you can admire the beauty,

soak up the luxury, or revel in the comfort they provide,

but at their core, they're about more than just showing off.

They're all about power.

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With most of life spent on military campaigns abroad,

or playing politics in Paris,

Napoleon made only three official imperial visits

to his palace.

His final visit was in 1814,

where he signed an act of unconditional abdication.

Napoleon the First would returned to France,

but never to Chateau Fontainebleau.

His nephew, Napoleon III, would eventually succeed him here,

but he was to be the last French Monarch.

While the Vanderbilts were building their American empire,

the time of French kings and emperors was ending.

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But from a palace steeped in centuries

of national and royal significance,

to mansions that take us back to a unique time and place,

together, the rich and the royal,

built some of history's greatest homes.

Over the great sweep of history,

dynasties end and fortunes disappear,

but these architectural and cultural achievements,

cherished and preserved, live on.