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The Grand Salon of the Marble House was very much that.
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Also known as the Gold Room for obvious reasons, the walls are covered in 22 karat leaf.
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Move the furniture and it serves as a ballroom as well.
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The decorative elements are borrowed from Versailles, that other simple cottage across the pond.
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Heading up the marble front stairs is an experience in itself.
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You tend to run out of adjectives and simply gawk.
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Here’s the husband, doing just that.
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It really isn’t hard to imagine giant skirted ladies, dripping jewels, floating down the stairs on the arm of someone fabulous here .
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Consuelo Vanderbilt’s bedroom. Eldest child, she married Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough.. and clearly loved the color red.
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The lady of the house’s boudoir.
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Alva married well and took New York and Newport society by storm, elevating the Vanderbilt name to the highest rung on the social ladder.
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Oddly enough she was a feminist and became heavily involved in the women’s suffrage movement, building a tea house on the property to hold rallies in support of women winning the right to vote.
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Her bedroom is ultra feminine and covered in silk.
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The HBO series The Gilded Age filmed in quite a few of the Newport cottages and used many of the rooms in Marble House as set decoration inspiration.
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River's world..... 
Wait. They had a room that served two purposes? And required the moving of furniture? How very gauche and working class!
But seriously, I’m happy to hear that she worked for my right to vote.
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All the houses we saw were like that. Multi purpose ballrooms.
Who knew?
🤣
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I’m sure the architecture is marvelous, but I’m not a huge fan of gold anything, real or gilt. It’s just a bit too much but the historic beauty is wonderful. I have a huge, gold framed mirror my mother gave me, and it’s an eyesore. The gold is just too 1970’s for me so I’m going to paint over the frame.
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I find you can’t look at these places with a modern eye. It’s certainly not my taste either, but the craftsmanship and extravagance are off the charts.
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Don’t let the current president see these pictures. He’ll try to remake the White House. It will be over the top with no taste.
I had one rich friend as a child. I started to walk into his living room and he stopped me at the doorway. It was all in white and children were not allowed. It was apparently a single purpose room, unlike the ballroom in your photo. He said it was only for his parents’ parties. I’m guessing no red wine was allowed.
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Or ketchup.
No…
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Or blood.
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I seriously think that place would give me a headache!
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All I can think of when looking at the marble floors and stairs is how much it would hurt your feet after a while.
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That fireplace!!
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I know.
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Everything is so over the top, way too much, but I suppose most of those people were ‘new money’, if I remember that properly and they were ready to show it off!
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That they were.
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Your line about “dripping jewels” is downright poetic.
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That fireplace is something else. I kept thinking about how hard it would be to dust those rooms, but they had plenty of servants to do it.
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Dusting, polishing, mopping… no thank you!
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👍🏼
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