Phase by phase, the landscape surrounding The Breakers in Newport is moving closer to its late 19th-century roots.
Designed by landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch in the 1870s, much of the work was destroyed by the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.
More than 80 years later, a multiyear rehabilitation project aims to return the opulent grounds to their appearance during the Gilded Age into the early 1900s.
“The landscape is really an extraordinarily significant piece of the whole Breakers experience. Since the 1938 hurricane, there haven’t been the resources to undertake this kind of true rehabilitation,” said John Rodman, director of museum experience at the Preservation Society of Newport County.
The work, Rodman stresses, is not a restoration. There will be clear differences between the grounds that wealthy socialites strolled through more than a century ago and those that modern-day visitors to The Breakers experience.
Trees that weren’t on the lawns in the late 1800s won’t be cut down, and plants will be selected for their ability to thrive in current conditions.
“We can’t use the same plant species [original designers] used because those flourished in direct sunlight, and now we have deep shade,” Rodman said. Still, he added, landscapers are relying on old photographs and other documentation to create a strong resemblance to the Beaux Arts mansion’s original surroundings.
“The sightlines and contours are very much what you would have seen” during Newport’s heyday as a society town, Rodman said. “Plants were various heights and planted at various differences” for texture and visual effect.
Funded by donations and grants, the estimated $4 million project will likely take five years to complete, according to Jim Donahue, curator of historic landscapes and horticulture at the preservation society.
Phase one of the work was finished last month, over about 3 acres on the property’s northwest quadrant. The $1 million, three-month phase included restoration of a portion of a serpentine path and reworking the section’s surrounding plantings.
A landscape report done four years ago by Cambridge, Mass.-based Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects and research and consulting firm Robinson & Associates out of Washington, D.C., became the starting point for the work, Donahue said.
The lengthy report meticulously documents the history of The Breakers’ grounds as they originally appeared in the mid-1870s through the early 1900s, and the economic and social factors that played into the landscape’s design.
The 13-acre grounds surrounding The Breakers, which was built in the 1890s after the original Queen Anne-style villa on the property burned, used plants to highlight the property’s oceanfront views. Flowers and plants along the winding walking path were “planted in a layered manner, with low flowering annuals and herbaceous perennials lining the path, backed by arcs of evergreen shrubs of varying heights. Plant types changed as one moved along the path and arced with the meandering configuration of the path, providing a cinematic experience through a variety of defined garden spaces with controlled views of the palazzo and ocean,” the report said.
Originally designed by Bowditch as a complement to the Italianate mansion, the grounds featured “a series of garden rooms that opened and closed as you walked along,” Donahue said.
Landscapers will likely use numerous layered evergreen species and Asian plants to replicate the look.
“To see the vistas open gives you a sense of the magic that this place possessed when it was first built,” Rodman said.
Completion of the gravel serpentine path down to its endpoint near the Cliff Walk is planned for phase two of the project, which will likely cost between $500,000 and $600,000, Donahue said.
Specifics on phase three haven’t yet been determined, although it’s expected to include the replanting of the north or south terrace adjacent to the main house.
Rehabilitating the landscape is meant to give visitors an idea of the importance the mansion’s original designers gave to its surroundings.
“The house itself was designed by Richard Morris Hunt to be part of a landscape,” Donahue said. “You really can’t have one without the other; it was designed as an indoor-outdoor space.”
Work on the grounds began after the construction of a Breakers visitors center, which was challenged in court by a Newport residential association before it received approval from city officials.
Upcoming projects on other Newport mansions include a $600,000 upper roof replacement at The Elms, a $1 million roof and balustrade replacement at Rosecliff and a $1 million roof replacement at Marble House, Rodman said. Repair work on windows and doors on the third floor of The Breakers is needed as well.
The projects are in the fundraising stage prior to going out for bid. About $2 million has been raised so far, Rodman said.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.
