History

History information is some background and history about the location. This is meant to be a basic summary. Below the history records you will find sources in which you can click on to find out more information. There may be multiple history records per location.

It can be described as being the oldest Gilded Era Newport, Rhode Island "Palatial Palace" villa. Astor's Beechwood Mansion was one of the Newport's first "summer cottages," that later became the center of social activity for the Newport high society circle of wealthy people who summered in Newport, Rhode Island.

The original mansion, that began its existence as an Italianate villa, was built in 1851, by a wealthy merchant, Daniel Parrish, from New York City. He hired the talented architect and landscaper, Andrew Jackson Downing, and his associate Calvert Vaux; a pair of talented men who specialized in building Gothic and Italianate villas for the wealthy, cottages for the normal American and farm houses for farmers. When this beautiful villa burned down in 1855, a replicate mansion was simply rebuilt in its place. Although Andrew Downing was killed in a boat fire in 1855, his partner, Calvert Vaux used the same plans to re-construct the villa.

The next owners of this property were real estate mogul William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and his wife, Caroline; who preferred her nick name; "Lina". The Astors bought the Parrish Mansion in 1881, for their summer escape vacation home. Seeing it as fixer-upper, William and Lena hired up and coming, brilliantly talented architect, Rhode Islandchard Morris Hunt, spending 2 million dollars improving this mansion, now called Beechwood Mansion, for their own social needs and obligations; reflecting their wealth and social status. Expanding the original Italianate villa to be 24,000 square feet, additions included a large ballroom, a library, dinning room and a music room with wall paper imported from Paris. The third floor was like a huge apartment, and housed the servants. The numerous separate bedrooms, were off a main living room and common areas.

For 25 years, Lina Astor spent 8 weeks in the summer hobnobbing with fellow wealthy class friends and neighbors, by hosting some of Newport's most important cultural activities, events, including many dinner parties, and an annual summer ball, not to be missed. Of course, to be included, your family must be of old money, having at least 3 generations of American roots. Certainly not any of the new wealth folks, new to high society were invited to Mrs. Astor's social events. Throughout Lena's life, it was imperative for Lena to be seen as being not only the social queen of New York City, but also the social queen of Newport as well.

It would be safe to say that the Astors' Beechwood Mansion magnificent renovations and expansions were most enjoyed by the Astor family and their friends, making their 2 million dollar investment well worth the money to them, though Mr. William B Astor avoided Lena's social events.

Apparently, Mr. William B Astor didn't like social functions much, probably because of the snootiness and showcasing of wealth by all that was put on display. Sadly, as the years passed, William lost interest in being with his wife, Lina, and focused instead on his other interests, such as horses, boating, other homes and trips to Europe. William B. Astor died on April 25, 1892, in Paris, France, because of a brain aneurysm. After his death, Lina became more intense about being the social event queen, wherever she was staying.

The Astors had four daughters; Emily, Helen, Charlotte, Caroline, but only one son, John Jacob Astor IV. What is interesting is that the Astors named their son, John Jacob Astor IV; using the name of William B's older brother, John Jacob Astor III, despite the fact that the brothers didn't get along. Yet, the brothers lived next door to each other for 27 years on 5th Avenue, in New York City.

William and Lena's son, John Jacob Astor IV, joined the military as a young man and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the Spanish American War, before retiring from the military. Although John Jacob Astor 1V eventually inherited his father's wealth, which was the custom of the day, John Jacob Astor 1V wasn't content simply to live off his family's money, but made his own fortune working as a businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, and writer.

All of William B. and Lena Astor's daughters married very well indeed, though wealth didn't safeguard the Astor family from life's tragedies. Their eldest daughter, Emily, died as a young woman at 27 in 1881, leaving not only a husband, but several young children, who were no doubt well taken care of by other members of the family.

The animosity that existed between younger brother William B. Astor, and older brother John Jacob Astor III continued on in the following generation after deaths of William B, John Jacob Astor III, and his wife, Mrs. Astor. It had nothing to do about money or inheritance, but social ranking. This social squabble began when Lena Astor had assumed that since she was the last of the older generation, she felt that she was next in line to inherit the social title of "Mrs. Astor", and took it, letting go of her own long held social title; Mrs. William Astor.

John Jacob Astor III's son, William Waldorf Astor, didn't agree with his Aunt Lena. William Waldorf Astor insisted that his own wife be known as "Mrs. Astor", a social title his mother had been known as in society, being married to the eldest son, John Jacob Astor III ! A rather intense turf war ensued between William Waldorf Astor, and Lina and her son, Col. John Jacob Astor 1V, who of course backed up his mother. Lina won that battle! Though William Waldorf Astor moved his family to Europe IN A HUFF as a result of his defeat, he had a plan of revenge to get back at his Aunt Lena. William Waldorf Astor tore down the family mansion on 5th Avenue, that was located right next to Lena's 5th Avenue mansion, and built a huge 13 story hotel, that he called The Waldorf Hotel. Because it was built to resemble a German Renaissance Chateau in architectural style, this massive building overshadowed Lena Astor's mansion, as well as all the other properties in their 5th Avenue neighborhood.

After awhile, Lena couldn't stand living next to this huge, commercial hotel, and thought about tearing down her mansion too, and building stables to create the proper aroma to express her feelings. But cooler heads prevailed, and she and her son, Col. John Jacob Astor 1V, built instead an equally huge hotel, called The Astoria. The two hotels merged at some point, becoming one grand hotel, known as The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, as the families must have mended bridges at some point, and ended this silly feud. However, in 1928, both hotels were torn down to make room for The Empire State Building.

After losing her long-time family home on 5th Avenue, Beechwood Mansion became more important to her than ever. Upgrades were made to Beechwood Mansion, so the family could live there year round, if desired. Lina continued on, as the ultimate, gracious hostess, until 1906, when she retired, and spent her last years quietly living at her beloved Beechwood.

Waiting until his mother, Lina, passed away on October 30, 1908, to spare her the grief and shame, John Jacob Astor 1V, divorced his first wife, Ava Lowell Willing, and married an 18 year old girl, Madeleine Talmadge Force in 1911, in the Beechwood Mansion ballroom. To escape the scandal of his divorce and remarriage, John Jacob Astor 1V and Madeleine went to Europe, for an extended honeymoon. When Madeleine became pregnant, the couple caught the RMS Titanic in France to return home, as they wanted their baby to be born in America.

Uh oh! Not a good idea! While Madeleine, and her maid survived, as they made it into the life boat, John Jacob Astor 1V and his butler went down with the doomed Titanic. John Jacob Astor 1V was killed by a falling smoke stack, while trying to free another life raft. Interestingly, John Jacob Astor 1V, one of the richest men on the Titanic, has been portrayed as the hero who put two immigrant children on one of the life rafts in several film productions depicting the sinking of the Titanic; a truthful fact that has been long remembered.

Madeleine inherited Astor's Beechwood, and turned the entire third floor into her walk-in closet. She raised their son, John Jacob Astor V there, who in-turn inherited Beechwood Mansion when his mother died. John Jacob Astor V figured out a way to help bring in money to help with the upkeep of Beechwood Mansion. He opened a living history museum, Astors' Beechwood Mansion. During off-season months (February to May), servants of the Astor family provided tours of the estate as if they are still living in 1891, dressing in period attire. Tourists were treated like they were "applicants" for a summer job on Mrs. Astor's 1891 staff, and were introduced to all positions that were vital to the running of the household, including personal assistants: The jobs of the gardener, footman, butler, chef and his staff, and housemaids, as well as others, were portrayed and explained.

During the seasonal months, beginning in June, actual members of the Astor family would give tours of their mansion, treating visitors as if they were members of Lena's, exclusive, 1891 "400 Club", for families from old money. In later years, actors and actresses from the in-house Beechwood Theatre Company, were hired and had a field day portraying both family and servants in their daily lives there in 1891, at Astors' Beechwood Mansion, and in later years of the following generation as well. Family history was also shared. Of course, visitors were warned not to mention to Madeleine Astor about the sinking of the Titanic, or the fact that she was John Jacob's second wife, because John Jacob divorced his first wife to marry her.

For many years, Astor's Beechwood Mansion was a living history museum, a venue for upscale weddings, murder mystery plays and special shows by the Beechwood Theatre Company, and Christmas events, but recently had been put on the real estate market, and is now back in private hands, not open to the public as of 2010. The new owner plans to keep his large collection of art here. Hopefully the new owner will do a great job keeping Astor's Beechwood Mansion up to snuff, and will care about preserving this glorious mansion as much as the art collection. If not, he may get some "guidance" and encouragement from the spirits who now reside there.

Added by: mmizenko on 02/01/2015 DB#:211
Source(s):
http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/ri/astors-beec...