“Bellerophon Estates. Home to the rich and paranoid. Gracious living, ocean views, and state-of-the-art security, including local patrols, and multi-code-keys needed at all entrances and exits.”
-Wash, ‘Trash’
Newport, on Rhode Island’s coastline, has been a center of commerce (and occasional acts of piracy) since its founding in the seventeenth century. In the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during “The Gilded Age,” wealthy families began to build summer “cottages” in Newport, gilded mansions with many rooms for receiving and entertaining their guests. Edith Wharton’s novel “The Age of Innocence” is partly set in Newport’s social scene.
Browncoats on the Companion Track will have an opportunity to visit some of these glorious mansions and to explore this beautiful and elegant seaside city. There will be plenty of time for each visit so you can savor the beauty and elegance of these amazing homes.
Several movies, both period pieces and modern, have used the various mansions as backdrops and for main sets. Perhaps you’ll recognize some of them on your tour.
You will take a tour of two mansions with lunch in between. Depending on how many people sign up for this track, we will either have lunch and some sightseeing in the famous Newport Harbor where you can visit local museums, parks, monuments, historic places and the visitors’ center; or take everyone to the spectacular cliff walk near the mansions and the Shindig Track’s guest house. If you wish, there should be enough time to take a tour of an additional mansion on your own. We’ll have the final itinerary posted later this week.
