A less crowded alternative to The Breakers, this house checks box if anyone interested in the Gilded Age. This house also permits checking out the grounds. I enjoyed the audio tour, as I did The Breakers, and liked that, because I had paid full price for 1 house, I could upgrade my ticket the next day for $9 and tour a second property. These houses may seem like relics, but they do represent a time and place, and are part of our American history. Well maintained and furnished, the Preservation Society has done a great job.

The grounds of The Elms no longer contain elm trees, as they succumbed to Dutch elm disease. Today, the Elms would be better called The Weeping Beeches. Before the tour, get the free user friendly App so you can follow along with your Airpods. As with all the mansions, the history is fascinating. Coal baron Edward Berwind, from Philadelphia, built his new "cottage" because his first Newport residence was too small for entertaining his friends, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. The Elms was one of the first in America to be wired for electricity. His wife Sarah would spend twenty summers there, and Edward would commute on weekends from New York. His sister Julia took residence when Sarah died, and was willed Elms upon Edward's passing. In 1961 when Julia died, The Elms was one of the last Newport cottages to be run in the fashion of the Gilded Age. Upon her passing, the estate was sold to a developer who was to demolish it before the Preservation Society stepped in and saved it. Some scenes from "The Gilded Age" were filmed in The Elms. Each room seems to offer more opulence than the previous. After your tour and a visit to the well stocked gift shop, be sure to tour the grounds as it's one of the best.

We liked it better than The Breakers. Trip to Newport with my husband. Bought the duo ticket for The Breakers and a second mansion. Visited Rosecliff as the second and were so disappointed that we upgraded our tickets for a third mansion and went to The Elms. Great choice! It’s a beautiful house which has been carefully restored with period appropriate furnishings including some of the originals. The Newport Mansions app audio tour is very informative and entertaining. The grounds are wonderful with amazing trees. Take the time to walk all around to back of the estate. Be sure to check out the chaise-percee adapted for the flush toilets!

The Elms is a wonderful house but I think the grounds are the crowning glory here. The 14-acre property with its gardens, its folly and all of the fountains and statues is fantastic. It's hard to believe that this property almost became a shopping center but it seems that only an economic downturn that forced the developer to sell the property to the Preservation Society kept it standing. We would have lost so much! At 31,401 square feet, it is the 19th largest historic house in the United States and the 3rd largest of Newport's "cottages" behind The Breakers and Ochre Court (now the main administration building for Salve Regina University).

It's hard to picture the actual use of all these Newport mansions when you are touring them, but it must have been an incredible sight to see a party at one of them. The Elms, like all the others, is decorated to the hilt and it's a bit overwhelming to see all the art and furnishings and take it all in. It's easy to book your tickets ahead of time and you can bundle all the mansions together on one ticket.