GBVS Newport Weekend 2023

Just as with my post about the 2022 Greater Boston Vintage Society Newport Weekend, I’m posting about an event from last summer in the middle of winter. Sometimes it takes awhile to get to posting! Well, as before, late is better than never.

This year the weather was not as cooperative as in the past. It was raining on Saturday, the only full day of the event. Nevertheless, we made the best of it, choosing to still picnic outside, but in the covered areas of the porch.

It was a bit cooler than summer usually is, also due to the rain, so we added hot tea to our picnic spread. Yum!

Who doesn’t carry around a teapot in a picnic basket?

There was a break in the rain long enough for a few outfit photos. For Saturday I chose to wear my 1928 Egyptomania Inspired Dress and American Duchess/Royal Vintage Ginger shoes. The pop of color was nice on the rainy day.

I also added my 1917 Knitted Sweater of Angorina while sitting still. You can see it in the first photo of this post.

For the Saturday evening ball, I wore my 1927 Blush Sparkle Evening Gown and black American Duchess Seaburies. It’s always neat to wear these shoes in Newport — they are designed based on shoes in the collection of the Newport Historical Society!

On Sunday, I decided to go to a behind-the-scenes tour of The Elms. As with all of the Newport mansions, this one has a grand facade and all sorts of interesting (and expensive!) details to learn about.

For example, the rounded area of greenery (below) actually conceals a sloping driveway to the basement and servants’ entrance. This is where deliveries were dropped off, as well. With the greenery growing on a lattice above this area the family could carry on without needing to see the servants or delivery people come and go.

The servants had very nice quarters on the top floor of the house. They also had access to roof space that ran around the entire house — but of course this was concealed by a parapet. Just as with the servants’ entrance, the family wouldn’t want to see the servants taking leisure time on the roof.

For modern tours, there is a platform that lifts you above the level of the parapet so you can see the view of the grounds and harbor. It’s quite lovely!

Back at the entrance, I was very amused by the shaped trees. They reminded me of mushrooms!

So instead of the usual outfit photos, I chose to take some highlighting the trees and pretending to be a mushroom! The weather had completely changed from the rain the day before! It was warm, and I chose to wear my 1953 Dot Dress with comfy Crocs flats.

In addition to the servants’ area in the basement and on the upper floor, we also toured the boiler room in the house. It’s massive, with multiple boilers! Well, I guess it is a huge house!

Along the lines of the concealed delivery entrance I already shared, this house also has a tunnel that runs from a side street to the boiler room in order to move coal without the family seeing. This is the entrance to the tunnel in the boiler room. Look at the floor! They had ways to turn the carts around and everything!

Finally, after lots of walking around the house and up and down stairs, I finished the trip with a picnic lunch by the water in a new-to-me area in Benton Point State Park. It was lovely, breezy, and the geologic formations in the rocks are beautiful.

And that’s it! After that it was time to head home to await another future adventure.