National Historic Landmark-The Breakers

The Breakers is the architectural and social archetype of the Guilded Age, a period when members of the Vanderbilt family were the merchant princes of American life through their prominence in the world of finance, as patrons of the arts, and as vanguards of international society.

In 1895, the year of its completion, The Breakers was the largest, most opulent house in a summer resort considered the social capital of America.

It was built for Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899), a key figure in American railroads, philanthropy, and fashionable society, and designed by Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895), one of the founding fathers of architecture in America.

Courtesy National Park Service National Historic Landmarks

Photo courtesy Library of Congress Historic American Building Survey