The Elms Mansion In Newport Opens To Public For The Holidays

NEWPORT, RI — The Elms mansion in Newport will open for Holidays at the Newport Mansions, beginning Saturday.

With the opening, the mansion joins the Breaks and Marble House in inviting guests with lavish decorations, including dozens of Christmas trees, wreaths, garlands, fresh floral arrangements, poinsettias, holiday ornaments, antique toys, and more.

The Elms has been closed to the public for the past several weeks as HBO filmed scenes there for season 3 of Julian Fellows’ Emmy Award-winning series “The Gilded Age.” In its place, Chateau-sur-Mer has been open and decorated for the holiday season for the first time in more than 20 years. Chateau-sur-Mer will close after the Elms opens, while the Breakers and Marble House will remain open daily and decorated as they have been since late November.

All Preservation Society houses and properties will close early (at 2 p.m.) on Dec. 24 and will remain closed on Christmas Day. Holidays at the Newport Mansions continues through Jan. 1, 2025.

The Elms was the summer home of the Philadelphia-based Berwind family until the early 1960s, when it was acquired at auction by The Preservation Society of Newport County to save it from almost-certain demolition. Highlights of the house during Holidays at the Newport Mansions include the decorated tree and mantel in the spacious, French-style ballroom, and the upstairs sitting room with its display of Santa Claus figures made from around 1870 to 1910 in Germany, Russia, and the United States.

The guide-led Elms Servant Life Tour will be offered daily at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., illuminating the lives and labors of the people who worked behind the scenes to support the luxurious Gilded Age lifestyle of the rich. This tour explores the servants’ living and working spaces but does not include the main part of the mansion.

Admission to the mansions during the holiday season is by the Newport Mansions’ regular-admission tickets – The Breakers, One Property, Duo, Trio or Access Pass – or is free with membership in the Preservation Society. See www.newportmansions.org/events/holidays-at-the-newport-mansions for more information.

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