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The largest and most opulent of Newport's Gilded Age mansions, The Breakers sits on 13 acres overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. A 12-foot limestone and iron fence borders the property on three sides, flanked by dense plantings of rhododendrons and ornamental dogwoods. The grounds are home to several rare tree varieties, including weeping beeches and Blue Atlas cedar. The Preservation Society of Newport County
At the pinnacle of American society’s Gilded Age, few figures embodied the duality and competing impulses of the era more vividly than two sisters-in-law. While Alva Vanderbilt Belmont wielded wealth as an instrument of power, Alice Vanderbilt could not have been more different.
Alice was, in many ways, the conscience of the Gilded Age Vanderbilts. Born into a prominent but modest Cincinnati family with roots stretching back to early colonial America, she brought to the Vanderbilt dynasty something no amount of money could buy: genuine grace.
Sarah Isak-Goode is a writer and art historian rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Her name—pronounced EYE-zik-good and meaning "good laugh"—hints at the warmth she brings to everything she does. Equal parts scholar and storyteller, Sarah brings the past to life through a distinctly human lens, exploring what connects us across the centuries. Away from her desk, she feeds her curiosity through traveling, painting, reading, and hiking with her dog, Thor.
