‘the Gilded Age’ Mansions You Can Visit in Real Life

Theresa “Tessie” Fair Oelrichs, whose family’s silver fortune earned her the nickname “Bonanza Heiress,” built Rosecliff in 1902 as her summer home.

Admission to tours of the 28,800-square-foot property can be purchased through the Preservation Society of Newport County.

Rosecliff features the largest private ballroom in Newport, measuring 40 feet by 80 feet. Scenes from “The Great Gatsby,” “27 Dresses,” and “Amistad” have also been filmed there.

Cornelius Vanderbilt II, heir to his grandfather’s railroad fortune, built the Breakers as a summer home in 1895. The name “Breakers” comes from the sound of waves breaking against the shores of the Newport property.

The Preservation Society of Newport County manages the mansion as a museum. Tours can be booked online.

The billiard room features a wrought-iron and bronze lighting fixture so heavy that it had to be attached to the structural beams of the home. In a scene in “The Gilded Age,” George Russell played a game of billiards in the room after a dinner party.

The music room also served as a film set for “The Gilded Age,” appearing as the Russells’ ballroom where they hosted Gladys’ debut ball at the end of season one.

Marble House is named for the 500,000 cubic feet of marble featured throughout the home.

When Alva Vanderbilt divorced her husband in 1895, she maintained ownership of Marble House and custody of their three children. She then married one of her neighbors, Oliver H.P. Belmont, in 1896, and became Alva Belmont. After his death, she leveraged her fortune to fund causes in the women’s suffrage movement and hosted suffrage conventions at Marble House.

The Preservation Society of Newport County operates tours of the property.

Consuelo Vanderbilt wrote that her mother had “forbidden the intrusion of my personal possessions” in her bedroom, according to the Marble House audio tour.

George Wetmore, who inherited the Italianate-style villa when his father died in 1862, served as the governor of Rhode Island and as a US senator representing the state.

Tours of the home are available through the Preservation Society of Newport County.

Chateau-sur-Mer appears in the show as the home of Mamie Fish, who hosted a doll tea party in the first season.

The stair hall is painted with the biblical Tree of Life, and the dining room walls are decorated with wallpaper made of Spanish leather covered in silver.

The Elms was modeled after the 18th-century French château, Château d’Asnières, and furnished with custom Louis XV-style furniture. The mansion sits on a 10-acre estate, where the Berwinds used to host lavish parties.

The Preservation Society of Newport County operates tours of the lavish home.

Sarah Herminie Berwind’s bedroom appears as Gladys Russell’s room in “The Gilded Age,” and the main kitchen serves as the Russell family’s kitchen where servants gossip and prepare meals.

Former New York City Mayor William Paulding and his wife, real-estate heiress Maria Rhinelander Paulding, built the mansion in 1842. Merchant George Merritt bought Lyndhurst Mansion in 1864 and built an addition onto the home, doubling its square footage to 14,000 square feet. Railroad tycoon Jay Gould then purchased it in 1880.

Tours are available to book on Lyndhurst Mansion’s website.

“The Gilded Age” has filmed scenes in Lyndhurst Mansion’s parlor, dining room, and art gallery.

The show also uses the mansion’s carriage house as the offices of The New York Globe newspaper and its 67-acre grounds as a stand-in for Central Park.

Howard Gould, son of the aforementioned Jay Gould, only lived at Hempstead House for a few years before selling it to Daniel and Florence Guggenheim in 1917.

Daniel was the brother of Solomon Guggenheim, for whom the Manhattan museum is named, and Benjamin Guggenheim, who died on the Titanic.

Hempstead House is located within Sands Point Preserve, which is open to the public and contains three mansions that can be toured. Tickets for a guided tour of Hempstead House can be purchased at the park’s welcome center.

George Russell conducted many of his business dealings in this room at Hempstead House, now the home’s library.

“The Gilded Age” isn’t the only project to have filmed here. You may also have seen Hempstead House in “Malcolm X,” the 1998 adaptation of “Great Expectations,” or “Scent of a Woman.”

Hunter House actually dates back to the colonial times, generations before the Gilded Age began. It even played a role in the Revolutionary War as the headquarters for the French fleet, per The Preservation Society of Newport County.

Keeping Hunter House in good shape led to the creation of the Preservation Society in 1945, per the Society’s website.

There are guided tours held daily (excluding Sundays and Mondays) from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

In the show, Raikes’ office is in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It’s one of the first non-New York City locations we see on the show.

This 50,000-square-feet, 60-room summer home was modeled after King Louis XIII’s hunting lodge at Versailles.

The property was known for its extensive stables and carriage space, which makes sense: You may recognize his last name from the Belmont Stakes, the annual horse race in Elmont, New York, that was named for his father, August Belmont Sr.

Belcourt is open for both guided tours during the day and candlelight walks and ghost tours in the evenings.

In a memorable moment in season one, Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) ends up sneaking around Belcourt (Beechwood, in the show) to avoid a run-in with Mrs. Astor.

Westbrook was built in 1886 in the Tudor Revival style. Inside, there are 60 rooms (and 20 fireplaces).

Westbrook’s main draw, though, is its gardens. The house is now located inside the Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park, which is home to 691 acres of plants, trails, and more.

There are separate guided tours of the arboretum and Westbrook available seasonally. There’s also the Hidden Oak Café, which is located inside Westbrook and offers the option to take “Victorian Tea,” complete sandwiches, scones, and tea.

The Cuttings were part of the famed “Four Hundred” list, which was published by The New York Times in the 1890s. It named the 400 most socially acceptable people living in New York City.

So, even though only their house has popped up on the show, the real Cutting family could too.

It was built for the financier John Bond Trevor, who was partners with James Boorman Colgate (yes, of those Colgates).

After the Trevors sold the home to the city of Yonkers, it became part of the Hudson River Museum, which is still open today.

The entry staircase at Glenview has appeared multiple times throughout the show.