Attendance up, wait gone at The Breakers mansion

A well-received audio tour of The Breakers and the planned opening of a visitors’ center at the nation’s oldest synagogue are two of the newest attractions designed to bring visitors to Newport this summer.
Attendance is up 8 percent compared to one year ago at The Breakers and the other 10 mansions overseen by the Preservation Society of Newport County, according to John Rodman, director of museum experience at the society.
He attributes the increase in part to the success of the new audio tour at the Vanderbilts’ one-time “summer cottage,” an icon of the Gilded Age.
Previously, visitors to The Breakers were taken on guided tours, scheduled at specific times, which as Rodman noted often resulted in long lines that could keep tourists waiting as long as 45 minutes on a busy day. Now, the audio tour allows visitors to check out the mansion at their own pace and, Rodman said, long lines have been eliminated because there is no need to wait for tour guides.
About four years ago, the preservation society began collecting zip codes to find out where mansion visitors were from. “We expected to see what everybody else claims is happening,” Rodman said, referring to tourists staying close to home due to the recession. “But that’s not what we’re seeing. We get visitors from every state every year and the distribution of where people are coming from is not changing for us.”
The 11 mansions receive more visitors from Massachusetts than any other state, Rodman said, followed by Connecticut and New York in a tie for second and third places, with Rhode Island and New Jersey tying for fourth and fifth. California, Florida and New York are among the top 10 states.
At the Touro Synagogue, a letter written in 1790 by then-President George Washington will be a central exhibit when the synagogue opens the Ambassador John J. Loeb Jr. Visitors Center to the public on Aug. 3. On that date, the center will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and visitors will be admitted free of charge. In a letter to the “Hebrew Congregation in Newport,” Washington said the new nation of America would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance” so that “everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
Touro Synagogue, built starting in 1759 and dedicated in 1763, is the oldest building of its kind in the U.S. and continues to serve Congregation Jeshaut Israel, organized in Newport in 1658. According to information on the synagogue’s Web site, the center will house an information desk, introductory exhibits and visitor facilities, as well as permanent and changing exhibits related to the history of Newport, the Rhode Island colony, the Founding Fathers and the role of Jews in Colonial America and during the American Revolution.
The center is named for Loeb, a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School who has been engaged in the world of finance all of his life and served as ambassador to Denmark in 1981-83 and delegate to the United Nations in 1984. He is a lifelong philanthropist and student of history, particularly Jewish American history.
Designed by Peter Harrison, one of the most well-respected architects in Colonial times, the synagogue was used as a hospital for British troops during the Revolutionary War, as a meeting place for the General Assembly and state Supreme Court in the early days of the nation, and was the site of a town meeting in 1781 when Washington met with French generals Lafayette and Rochambeau. •