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(bright upbeat music)
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What does it take to make a house
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one of history's greatest homes?
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Whether they're warm and cozy, or grand and drafty,
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when you're building your home,
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you're creating your own universe.
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And the most celebrated homes in history
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stood the test of time.
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This is Hampton Court Palace.
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It was a place for fun,
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and above all, as you can see, of magnificence.
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This is a spectacular palace, even today.
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We often describe it as an architectural autobiography.
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And so at Monticello, you get a true sense of the man.
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I think that the point was to be ostentatious.
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This was the statement that they were trying to make,
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that they had made it,
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and they were going to let the world know
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that they were important.
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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You can imagine coming into this room
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in the evening, or any time of day,
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and everybody who was anybody was here.
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(logo whooshing)
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(slow dramatic music)
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Two groups have always built great homes,
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the rich and the royal.
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They understood that a house of fame and a claim
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can write your name in history.
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(dramatic music)
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Royalty ruled Europe for centuries.
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The wealth and power of these dynasties was absolute.
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While the United States was founded
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on the rejection of Royal governance,
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for America's rich and powerful
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there has always been a deep fascination
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with the lives of these legendary families of the past.
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(dramatic music continues)
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(gentle music)
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The name Vanderbilt recalls a bygone era,
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and this family of railroad tycoons built their legend
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with the help of some gargantuan homes.
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My name is Trudy Cox,
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and I'm the chief executive officer and executive director
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of the Preservation Society of Newport County,
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which takes care of 11 magnificent historic houses
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here in Newport, Rhode Island.
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In the late 1800s,
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building a personal palace was the height of fashion.
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(dramatic music)
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It's in these gleaming American castles
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that America's gilded age earned its name,
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(gentle music)
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and it all started here.
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This is Marble House, and it was built by Alva Vanderbilt.
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Why is this called Marble House?
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Well, it is made with 500,000 cubic feet of marble.
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Alva Vanderbilt got this house as a 39th birthday present
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from her husband William.
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He gave it to her with the opportunity of building
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whatever she wanted to build.
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Can you imagine?
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Alva Vanderbilt was a woman who set trends
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and broke barriers,
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but her passion was for building grandiose houses.
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When this house was being built,
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Alva Vanderbilt and her husband really had an aim,
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and that was to make a statement.
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And what other way to make a statement
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than to build a palace made out of marble.
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In the late 1880s, early 1890s,
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all of Newport was primarily a wooden community,
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and along comes Alva, and she is not going to build
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your typical colonial house.
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She is going to build something palatial.
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And she hires one of the best architects in the world,
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Richard Morris Hunt.
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Richard Morris Hunt
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was the first American architect
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to attend the School of Fine Arts in Paris,
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the finest architectural school in the world at the time.
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He'd designed the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty,
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Fifth Avenue mansions in Manhattan,
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and if you could afford him, he do your home too.
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(dramatic music)
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When construction began in 1889,
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100 marble specialists were imported from Italy
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to make this dream home a reality.
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Alva wanted her mansion to make a mark
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in upper echelons of society, and add fame to her fortune.
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Marble House was intended to be her work of art,
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and she immersed herself in every aspect of the design.
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Alva grew up in Mobile, Alabama,
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and during the Civil War,
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her family moved to Paris to escape the war.
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And while she was in Paris, she became a real Francophile.
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So this particular house is designed
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after the Petit Trianon of Versailles.
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Alva insisted on white Tuckahoe marble
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for the exterior, but it proved too hard to shape.
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So, famed Carrara marble had to be used
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for the carved elements to finish this clean white exterior.
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The marble wasn't limited to the facade.
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When she set out to build a palace of marble, she meant it.
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(gentle music)
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So she loved marble, obviously.
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Alva was very discriminating in her use of marble
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and her choices of marble, selecting colors,
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hues that were the right colors that she wanted
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for a particular room.
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We are surrounded by Sienna marble, which is from Italy.
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She went with this wonderful beige tan hue.
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I think it does add a warmth to the entranceway.
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The main stairway is made of solid blocks
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of the same stone.
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If you're going into the dining room,
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you're going to see a pink rose-colored marble
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that comes from Algeria, and the colors of the wall
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would have then the right kind of cast,
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the right kind of glow on a woman's face,
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which was of course very, very important.
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And so I think that she probably thought
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that that pinkish marble, that rose-colored marble,
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was just absolutely perfect for an evening of dinner.
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(gentle music)
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From the dazzling ballroom
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to the ornate bedrooms, each space was decorated
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with furniture from across Europe,
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and personally chosen and positioned by Alva.
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She had a lot of help, but she had a wonderful eye.
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This house is decorated perfectly.
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The Gothic room, tremendously unusual and unique.
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No room quite like it, anywhere in America,
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that was Alva Vanderbilt saying, "I'm going to bring
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an interior decorating style
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of medieval architectural ornamentation into my house
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with the Gothic room."
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When it was finally finished
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three years after it began,
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the home was something of a sensation.
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When the house was unveiled
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and finally seen by the public, people were obviously wowed.
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And in 1892, when the house warming party was held,
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they strung electric lights all over the house
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and the property.
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Electrical lighting was still very new in this nation,
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in the world, actually.
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And so that glimmering against the marble made a statement
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that of course was talked about at the "New York Times"
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and talked about internationally.
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Alva had made her statement.
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But all this statement-making
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came with an eye-watering price tag.
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It's said that the house is about $11 million.
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It was very expensive, especially, we're back to 1889.
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So that was a huge price.
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{\an8}I'm talking about $11 million then,
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translate that out to today's dollars
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{\an8}and it would be much higher.
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This was a $300 million second home,
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only used during the summers for five or six weeks a year.
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(bright upbeat music)
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So how exactly did William K. Vanderbilt
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afford such an extravagance?
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(whistle trilling)
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The Vanderbilt family fortune
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came from a shipping and railroad empire
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built by William's grandfather, Commodore Vanderbilt,
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and father William Henry.
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Their investments laid the foundation
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for what would become the vast New York Central system.
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Just imagine having the vision
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to connect New York to Chicago
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by a new form of transportation, railroad,
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it dramatically changed this nation.
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It opened up parts of this country
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that had never been opened up before.
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Chicago exists because of that train system.
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It also made them fabulously rich,
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rich enough to live like American royalty,
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in castles they called cottages.
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But Marble House took things to the next level
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for the Vanderbilts.
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In a lot of ways, it started not just a trend,
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but maybe even a war.
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So right after this house gets built,
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William's brother, Cornelius, hires the same architect,
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Richard Morris Hunt.
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Cornelius wanted Hunt
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to build him his own enduring work of architectural art,
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one that incidentally was a little bigger
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than his brother William's.
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It is a bigger house, it's as palatial as this
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in a different way.
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(dramatic music)
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Dubbed The Breakers,
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it was Cornelius' castle by the sea.
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Breakers is open and airy, has incredibly high ceilings,
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beautiful interiors, and ocean views
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in almost every direction,
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and at a mere $7 million, or around $200 million today,
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it was a bargain.
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And to this war of the houses, didn't stop here.
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The Elms is built, Rose Cliff is built,
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magnificent mansions are built in Newport,
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completely changing the feel of this community.
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This is where people from New York come for their summers,
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people with money.
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And that was the beginning of a new reputation
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for Newport, Rhode Island.
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It wasn't only holiday houses.
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Between eight siblings, the Vanderbilts built 10 mansions
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on Fifth Avenue alone.
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And the biggest house in America, Biltmore,
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was commissioned by George Washington Vanderbilt,
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and designed by, you guessed it, William Morris Hunt.
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I think the Vanderbilts were prolific builders of homes,
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really because they were very much trying to send a message
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to the world, that they had, look,
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they were the richest people in this country.
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I think that they wanted to show the world
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that they were worth something,
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and one way to do that,
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just like in Europe hundreds of years ago,
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the way to do that is to build the fanciest house
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you can build, and buy the nicest objects
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for your houses that you can buy.
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If you're a little stunned
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by the sheer lavishness of these places, you're not alone.
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I think that the point was to be ostentatious.
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And I think that it was understood,
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even by the people who didn't have that kind of money.
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And perhaps there was resentment,
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but you have to step back for a moment
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and say, "These are beautiful houses.
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They're beautiful pieces of architecture."
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Though Marble House is still standing
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130 years on, William and Alva's marriage
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didn't last quite so long.
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Alva lived in this home, but not for very long.
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She was one of the first high society women in the country
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to file for a divorce.
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And then about a year later,
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she married a man down the street, Mr. Belmont,
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and he owned Belcourt Castle.
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And she moved herself into the new location,
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held on to Marble House though.
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When she moved, Marble House was boarded up
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and neglected for decades.
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In her later years, after her divorce,
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she became a leading suffragette,
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arguing for women's right to vote.
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Alva Vanderbilt opens up this house
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for people to take tours,
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and then held rallies out on the lawn
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facing the Atlantic Ocean.
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And thousands of women would come to these rallies.
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In 2020, we celebrate women's right to vote
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past 100 years ago, and it's due in large part to Alva.
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The glory days and the Gilded Age
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could not last.
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As their spending grew and their businesses declined,
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the Great Depression hit hard.
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There Fifth Avenue mansions were torn down,
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and the Newport mansions, sold off.
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When Alva finally sold Marble House in 1932,
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the sale price was $100,000, or less than a penny
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on every dollar it had taken to build.
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The Vanderbilt empire crumbled.
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But thanks to organizations
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like the Newport Preservation Society,
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we're still able to enjoy these iconic homes.
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(uplifting music)
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America's richest built business empires
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that made their families wealthy for generations.
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They built homes to reflect the power and magnificence
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of their fortunes, and to last long after they were gone.
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(dramatic music)
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But the dynasties the rich strove for,
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European royalty had already invented.
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As the great castles of Europe reveal family stories
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that are as old as nations.
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(dramatic music continues)
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(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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It was the year 1137 that the Chateau Fontainebleau
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made its sudden entrance into the annals of history
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with a stroke of Louis VII quill.
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Fontainebleau took its name from the fresh water spring
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near the original settlement.
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But it was the forests that drew royalty here.
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When the first kings came to Fontainebleau,
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they came to hunt.
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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A love for the sport of kings
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ensured the Chateaux was bequeathed down
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through generations of royalty,
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but Fontainebleau has always been more
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than just a place to get away.
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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Over its long history, the chateau received honored guests,
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hosted celebrations, influenced culture,
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and served as the stage for diplomacy and politics.
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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From relatively humble beginnings,
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over the centuries, Fontainebleau underwent
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a gradual transformation.
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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Francois the First built grand galleries,
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inspired and designed by Italian Renaissance artists.
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Henry IV had major fountains embellished,
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and created a vast canal,
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which became a spectacular setting for grand occasions.
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Louis XIII's architect added
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the iconic horseshoe-shaped staircase.
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(dramatic music)
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Louis XIV preferred Versailles to Fontainebleau,
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but he still found time to have the gardens redesigned.
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Louis XVI built Marie Antoinette's stunning boudoirs,
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supreme examples of the refinement
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of the Queen's private tastes.
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Fontainebleau was long celebrated
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as a cultural capital of the kingdom.
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But during the terror of the French Revolution,
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extravagant palaces were considered a little passe,
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but a certain general would bring the chateau
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back into style.
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(dramatic music)
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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Napoleon Bonaparte first visited Fontainebleau in 1803.
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Napoleon loved its lack of symmetry,
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and it's centuries of history.
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He called it the true abode of kings.
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And after his coronation, the newly crowned emperor
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resolved to make Fontainebleau his imperial palace.
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{\an8}(dramatic music continues)
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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Living in a castle, you can admire the beauty,
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soak up the luxury, or revel in the comfort they provide,
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but at their core, they're about more than just showing off.
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They're all about power.
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{\an8}(Jean speaking in foreign language)
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{\an8}(slow dramatic music)
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With most of life spent on military campaigns abroad,
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or playing politics in Paris,
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Napoleon made only three official imperial visits
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to his palace.
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His final visit was in 1814,
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where he signed an act of unconditional abdication.
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Napoleon the First would returned to France,
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but never to Chateau Fontainebleau.
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His nephew, Napoleon III, would eventually succeed him here,
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but he was to be the last French Monarch.
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While the Vanderbilts were building their American empire,
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the time of French kings and emperors was ending.
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(dramatic music)
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But from a palace steeped in centuries
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of national and royal significance,
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to mansions that take us back to a unique time and place,
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together, the rich and the royal,
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built some of history's greatest homes.
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Over the great sweep of history,
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dynasties end and fortunes disappear,
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{\an8}but these architectural and cultural achievements,
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{\an8}cherished and preserved, live on.
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