NEWPORT – The $1 million initial phase of a multimillion dollar grounds restoration project at The Breakers has been completed.
The project, part of The Breakers Master Plan, aims to restore the sightlines, vistas and “original layered look and feel of the grounds as created to adorn the property in 1895,” according to the Preservation Society of Newport County. The plan includes the mansion’s entire 13-acre site, and is expected to take up to five years to finish.
State and local officials gathered in Newport today to mark the restoration of the mansion’s service drive, complete with an American Disabilities Act-compliant entrance and exit ramp. More than 10,000 hand-cut macadam blocks were used for repaving, and an anti-icing system installed beneath the drive is made of 12,000 feet of underground tubing.
The property’s landscaping also underwent restoration. Using archival photos and plant lists as a guide, Reed Hildebrand Landscape Architects and Robinson & Associates created a cultural landscape report to act as a guide for creating a landscape similar to its appearance in the early 1900s, according to the Preservation Society.
Marzilli Landscape Contractors installed phase one of the landscaping project.
“Today we open the first part of the serpentine path and a thoroughly rebuilt Breakers exitway,” Preservation Society CEO and Executive Director Trudy Coxe said Thursday. “The goal for this phase was to improve visitors’ arrival and departure experience by taking them on a circuit through the landscape after exiting the building via the service drive.”
The serpentine path originally connected The Breakers with two other properties. The only surviving portion of the route is on The Breakers’ grounds. Phase two of the restoration project will complete the path to its end at the estate’s southern corner adjacent to the Cliffwalk. The work is scheduled to begin next spring.
The mansion’s landscaping was severely damaged during a hurricane in 1938, and has not since been restored to its original appearance.
The landscape restoration is the second phase in a series of improvements at The Breakers, where a $5.5 million visitors center was completed last year, despite protests and a court challenge that made its way to the R.I. Supreme Court.
Elizabeth Graham is PBN staff writer. She can be reached at Graham@PBN.com.
