The Breakers was built between 1893 and 1895 as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy United States Vanderbilt family.
It is built in an Italian Renaissance style. Designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, with interior decoration by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman, Jr., the 70-room mansion has a gross area of 125,339 square feet (11,644.4 m2) and 62,482 square feet (5,804.8 m2) of living area on five floors.
Cornelius Vanderbilt II purchased the grounds in 1885 for $450,000 ($12.0 million today). When the previous mansion on the property owned by Pierre Lorillard IV burned on November 25, 1892, Cornelius Vanderbilt II commissioned famed architect Richard Morris Hunt to rebuild it in splendor. Vanderbilt insisted that the building be made as fireproof as possible and as such, the structure of the building used steel trusses and no wooden parts. He even required that the boiler be located away from the house, in an underground space below the front lawn.
The designers created an interior using marble imported from Italy and Africa, and rare woods and mosaics from countries around the world. It also included architectural elements (such as the library mantel) purchased from chateaux in France.
