Saturday, June 6, 2009

The Elms

No, this is not a post about "The Elms" where I lived my sophomore year of BYU :-) This is the much more upscale Elms in Newport, RI. There are 11 total properties operated by the Newport Mansion Society and since it took us several hours to just see the Breakers, we decided to only do one other mansion. One of the cashiers recommended that we try the Elms to have a slightly different experience.

They also had an audio tour of this property which was owned by Edward Julius Berwin, one of the major coal suppliers for the nation. The mansion was definitely more "understated" than the Breakers with its platinum walls, but still pretty opulent with beautiful artwork and amazing moldings. But the best portions of the home was the conservatory which reminded me of the Orangerie in Kenzington Garden in London and the gardens. We even saw a wedding party taking photos in the gardens- always a good sign of a beautiful place.

We were so impressed by this giant willow tree that we walked around it to get a closer look and found out . . . .

that is was actually made up of four or five trees.

We found these opulent houses to be in stark contrast to the John Adam's homes that we saw the day before. So just imagine 9 more properties just as opulent as well as several others just like it that aren't owend by the society and that sums up Newport.

1 comment:

mj said...

oh come on. the provo elms are nearly up to par with this place, don't you think? :)