Fans of the HBO Max series, “The Gilded Age,” are given glimpses into what New York looked like during this extravagant and innovative era. However, other parts of the United States have their respective ties to the Gilded Age and remaining buildings dating from this area.
Here is where to find The Gilded Age across the United States.
Newport Mansions, Rhode Island
Newport is heavily associated with the Gilded Age, as wealthy families owned summer retreats in this coastal community. Various scenes from the HBO Max show were filmed throughout the Newport Mansions, a collection of timeless estates where notably wealthy families headed to.
This collection of mansions turned museums include The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff, Chateau-sur-Mer and Hunter House.
At the Marble House, the bedroom of real-life Consuelo Vanderbilt was used as the one for the fictional George Russell, and the bedroom of the real-life Alva Vanderbilt was used for his wife, Bertha Russell.
In its current season, Peggy Scott and Dr. William Kirkland are depicted strolling on the Cliff Walk, a popular Newport location.
Other Newport spots include the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which is situated within the Newport Casino and was shown in the HBO Max TV series. The casino was first opened in 1880 as a social club for Newport’s Gilded Age summer elite.
Learn more about this legacy through Inside “The Gilded Age” Tours, which is offered of The Mansions on Fridays and Tuesdays from August 15 through September 30. Purchase tickets in advance.
Feel like a Vanderbilt at Hotel Viking, once a hotspot for wealthy guests. Also, The Vanderbilt (Auberge Resorts Collection) is a Gilded Age estate converted into a hotel still conveying the “gilded” vibe.
Chicago, Illinois
The Windy City made its architectural mark amid the Gilded Age.
The Palmer House, a Hilton Hotel initially began as an extravagant wedding gift from Hotelier Potter Palmer to his wife, Bertha Honoré Palmer. The property was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire 13 days after its grand opening, and Palmer spent the next several years rebuilding the hotel. It reopened on November 8, 1873.
The Palmer House had hospitality “firsts” of the time –incorporating an elevator and lightbulbs and telephones in guestrooms.
Now a National Historic Landmark, the John J. Glessner House was a radical departure from traditional Victorian architecture. It served as a source of inspiration for some of the greatest architects of all time, including Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe and a young Frank Lloyd Wright. You can tour the Glessner House from coach house to courtyard and more than 16 family and servant spaces.
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is named for the Chicago philanthropist who restored the mansion to its Gilded Age splendor and converted it into a museum to preserve its legacy. Originally completed in 1883, for banker Samuel Mayo Nickerson, the house turned museum explores the art, architecture and design of the Gilded Age period and is open for guided tours and special exhibits.
The Rookery Building was once one of the tallest buildings in the world. Designed by the firm of Burnham and Root, it was an engineering marvel at the time. Architect John Wellborn Root devised a “grillage foundation”—iron rails laid in a crisscross pattern and encased in concrete that supported the building’s immense weight.) The building’s Light Court lobby is open to the public or book a tour with The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust.
Arbor Lodge State Historical Park, Nebraska City
The centerpiece of this 72-acre park is the Arbor Lodge Mansion, the Morton family’s original home. In the late 19th century, Nebraska’s largely treeless grasslands inspired Morton Salt Company founder J. Sterling Morton to advocate for mass afforestation, an effort that led to the first Arbor Day in 1872.
With 52 rooms and a vast collection of period artifacts, the mansion tells the story of how one family’s vision helped spark a nationwide conservation movement. The surrounding grounds feature an arboretum, Italian terraced garden, walking trails, a whispering bench, over 200 varieties of lilacs, a historic log cabin and a carriage house.
The Arcade and other venues, Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland was quietly forging its own empire of industry, innovation and wealth during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The city emerged as a powerhouse of steel, oil, shipping and finance – home to tycoons like John D. Rockefeller, Marcus Hanna, Amasa Stone and Samuel Mather.
Opened in 1890, at a cost of about $875,000, The Arcade was America’s first indoor shopping center, modeled after Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. After its conversion into a boutique hotel and shops, it remains a lavish Gilded Age landmark open to the public.
Founded in 1872 by 81 Cleveland leaders, The Union Club of Cleveland became a hub for social, cultural and civic life. It boasted members like Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley and Taft. It remains active today and periodically opens its historic Euclid Avenue quarters for events and tours.
Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue was known as Millionaires’ Row—the “Showplace of America”—lined with grand mansions of industrial titans. Rising taxes and development in the early 20th century pushed these families to the suburbs, and many homes were demolished by the 1950s. Today, only a few survive, including the Brush mansion at Cleveland State University, with markers helping visitors imagine the original boulevard.
Established in 1869, Lake View Cemetery is one of the finest remaining examples of a Victorian garden cemetery in the United States. Its winding roadways, landscaped settings and ornate mausoleums complement its role as the final resting place of figures like Rockefeller, Garrett Morgan and Leonard Hanna. Its centerpiece is the James A. Garfield Memorial, in addition to the Wade Memorial Chapel. Built in 1901 to honor Jeptha H. Wade, philanthropist and founder of the Western Union Telegraph Company, the chapel’s interior was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
This resort town in southern Wisconsin rose to prominence in the late 19th century as a Gilded Age lakeside retreat for magnates of business and industry in Chicago. The Wrigleys, Wackers, Chapins, Drakes and Schwinns are among many wealthy families who built lavish summer mansions on the lake.
More than 100 of these homes still remain and can be viewed on boat tours. A 21-mile walking path circles the lake, providing a closeup look these historic estates.
Another way to experience this period in Lake Geneva is at Black Point Estate and Gardens, built by Chicago beer baron Conrad Seipp in 1888 as a family getaway. Today’s guests arrive at Black Point by boat, just as the family did in a bygone era.
Jekyll Island, Georgia
Jekyll Island’s connection to the Gilded Age is as the location of the Jekyll Island Club, a winter retreat for some of America’s wealthiest families. Up until World War II, the island served as a haven for the likes of the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Pulitzers, who built lavish “cottages” there. Today, the property is known as the Jekyll Island Club Resort, which still holds these cottages.
Walk around the National Landmark Historic District or go on a Landmark Trolley Tour of this district that includes entry into a historic cottage.
Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, Florida
Henry Morrison Flagler, an industrialist and a founding partner of Standard Oil, is credited as “Father of Modern Florida” with making the Sunshine State a major destination. In the late 19th century, Flagler built resort hotels from Jacksonville to Miami and the Florida Keys, linked by his Florida East Coast Railway.
His namesake museum was originally built as Whitehall, a winter home for him and his wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler. The couple resided here from 1902 until Henry’s death in 1913.
Flagler’s influence can still be felt in downtown St. Augustine. A free Flagler’s Gilded Age Tour, led by period costumed figures, tells stories of when the city became a playground for the rich and famous.
St. Augustine is the location for his final resting place, the Flagler Mausoleum. Other related sights include the former Hotel Ponce de Leon, now Flagler College, and the former Alcazar Hotel that’s now Lightner Museum and St. Augustine City Hall. Learn more through Flagler College Legacy Tours.
Frick Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh during the Gilded Age was fueled by the industries of steel, coal and oil and the rise of industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick.
Frick Pittsburgh is a five-acre complex of museums and landscaped grounds, which includes Clayton, the home of Henry Clay Frick. Frick lived here from 1882 to 1905 and be sure to go on the museum tour, “Gilded, Not Golden,” Additionally, the Mansions on Fifth hotel and the Omni William Penn offer accommodations that serve as a testament to Gilded Age elegance.
Bramwell, West Virginia
At the height of the coal boom, Bramwell was home to more than a dozen millionaires who constructed turreted Victorians, English brick manors and sprawling estates with ballrooms, leaded stained-glass windows, copper roofing and even early indoor vacuum systems.
Bramwell’s entire downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its brick-lined streets are a living museum, where preserved landmarks include the 1893 Bank of Bramwell, the 1889 Town Hall, and the old Bryant Pharmacy, now The Corner Shop, a beloved soda fountain serving milkshakes amid antique charm.
While many homes remain privately owned, guided mansion tours are offered twice yearly during the town’s spring and Christmas Heritage events. Bramwell is a stop along the National Coal Heritage Trail and includes an interpretive center sharing real stories of the region’s coal barons, company towns, and industrial legacy.
Other Gilded Age Sites In The U.S.
Other noteworthy Gilded Age mansions include Bellosguardo in Santa Barbara, a 24-acre Italianate villa that was the summer retreat of the reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, subject of the New York Times bestseller, “Empty Mansions.”
The Hayes Mansion San Jose, Curio Collection by Hilton was originally the Mission Revival estate of the Hayes family, prominent figures in the city’s agricultural, political, media and social circles.
Also in San Jose, the Winchester Mystery House is the beautiful but bizarre Victorian-style mansion built by Sarah Pardee Winchester, heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune. Construction began in 1884, and didn’t stop for 38 years until her death in 1922. Said to be tormented by the guilt of victims lost to the Winchester Rifle, Winchester built the dizzying structure with many odd and mysterious features. Daily guided tours of the estate are offered.