We should all be so fortunate to have a husband who gives us a $11 million “cottage” on our 30th birthday. Yet that’s what Kenneth Vanderbilt, grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, did. The mansion was modeled after the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Built between 1888 and 1892, the structure used 500,000 cubic feet of marble at a cost of $7 million. The Marble House set the stage for Newport to transform from a quiet village into a playground filled with grandiose summer homes for the wealthy. The mansion soon became a landmark in Newport society.
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