Rosecliff is one of Newport's Gilded Age mansions, designed by Stanford White, modeled after the Grand Trianon at Versailles, and completed in 1902. Newport's mansions served as "summer cottages," offering respite from the heat of New York, Philadelphia or Boston, and were empty during the colder months.
Today many of the mansions are owned by the Newport Preservation Society and open to the public, offering a glimpse into the lives of America's industrial aristocracy -- Astors, Vanderbuilts, Berwinds, more -- when Newport, Rhode Island was the playground of the famous and impossibly rich.