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The Elms – Newport, Rhode Island
Yesterday, Nora and I visited The Elms in Newport, Rhode Island and took The Servant Tour. It’s not like your typical mansion tour, but instead shows you the behind the scenes workings of the mansion, and how the servants would have lived. The Elms was built as a “summer cottage” for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind. Nora waited patiently outside for our tour to begin:
We did get a peek at the front of the house, which you can see while purchasing your tickets. The Elms is modeled after an 18th century French chateau, and we’re told was specifically designed for highlighting the art on display. This is as much opulence as we were witness to on the tour:
When our tour began, we started by climbing to the top floor of the building – one you can’t even tell is there when looking at the structure from the outside.
Mr. Berwind felt none of the help should be seen, and in fact there would be no evidence of the entire dormitory that exists on the third floor. We spent the first 1/2 of the tour hearing quite a bit on how the servants lived, small like dorm rooms:
Down one long hallway – rooms on both side with 1 bathroom for the entire floor of (~15 to 20+) servants who would have lived there:
One nice advantage of this specific tour is that we got to step out onto the roof of the Elms for a view:
After seeing the living quarters for the servants, we headed to the basement, where we saw the workings of the house. Doing laundry was considered the worst work; while Berwind was big into new technology, laundry was still done via 8-10 large sinks with boiling water, wash boards, wooden agitators, and stove heated irons. Laundering the bed linens, table linens, and clothing for a household of two adults
(the Berwinds – who had no children), the guests they had, and the household staff of about 15 to 25 (house staff, gardeners, stable and carriage house staff). A full-time laundress with one or two helpers kept this area running.
The Elms had a central heating system of forced hot air fueled by coal. The house was heated with three boilers which we see next. To fuel these boilers, coal was brought in through an underground tunnel – Mr Berwind thought it too unsightly to have the coal brought in close to the house, so it was brought in at a location across the street via a tunnel with coal carts:.
The room these carts would empty into was for coal delivery and storage. Forty tons of coal would be delivered to the house each season. In the winter of 1918, The Elms had so much coal stored that the city of Newport requisitioned some of the supply to keep the city residents warm during the rationing of World War I.
The coal was used to fuel these boilers. Even though the “summer cottage” was shut down during the off-season, it was heated all year:
Mr Berwind enjoyed technology, and had his own room for making ice. There was an entire room designed for making large sheets of ice, which would be stored in an adjacent icebox room. Many Newport households relied on ice cut from local ponds during winter which was then stored for the year. However, Mr. Berwind was always keen on controlling distribution and delivery; he even held the monopoly on his own ice.
Of course, there was a full kitchen in the basement – here’s a partial shot of a huge stove:
After finishing the tour inside, we were urged to take a walk behind the mansion. We headed to the back where we were greeted with a great perspective of the size of this mansion:
Very fun tour – would recommend to anyone who is used to seeing the typical front side of mansions.
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