What Happened to Wakehurst in Newport?

Sometimes we are enthralled by the beauty of another culture, but what happens when your appreciation becomes an obsession? Today, we are exploring Wakehurst in Newport.
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
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Photos from Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/search/?q=Wakehurst
Creative Commons 3.0(creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Photos from: Wikipedia user: Diliff
Creative Commons 4.0(creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Photos from: Wikipedia User: SalveWebT

[@ThisHouse]

Photos from Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/search/?q=Wakehurst

[@paco7992]

Why would anyone turn down an inheritance? There is a story right there! I smell a scandal!

[@kh3612]

@Paco Inheritance taxes, maybe? ☮️

[@paco7992]

@@kh3612 if you have to pay 50% taxes you still get the other 50%. If you turn it down you get nothing. Property taxes I could see but just donate the building or tear it down.

[@brandonpiazza6210]

That 400 year old dining room was gorgeous! I’m kinda horrified to think college students might be having a food fight in it!

[@jaybarrows2526]

I know

[@gregoryferraro7379]

Napoleon's brother built a house in New Jersey?? Please tell THAT story!

[@jimwiskus8862]

Wow, so thrilled William had the foresight and the school had the wisdom to retain this amazing mansion.

[@StamperWendy]

How cool, that we still have it and it can be admired by students. Thanks, Ken!

[@christopherquinn1879]

Once again another great video of house and family I never knew about thank you.

[@christopherkraft1327]

Hello Ken, thanks for sharing another fascinating story of such an opulent estate from a different time. It's nice that the home still exists!!! 👍👍🙂

[@josephpearson2230]

Love these. Thank you! It’s pronounced: JACK-oh-be-an

[@Tristan_Nelson]

When appreciation becomes obsession, absolutely loved that line. Keep doing you!!

[@sandrawilcox4986]

I absolutely love your “What Happened to” videos. You do an incredible job! Thank you!

[@Donald_Shaw]

Great "This House" tour, Ken. Thanks so much for showing us around this fabulous mansion.

[@firecracker3911]

I love it when you do Rhode Island houses. Thanks

[@gloriaramirez4145]

Great historical content! Thank you!

[@desertsunman5880]

Hey Ken - Great Show, as usual - best room is the 'Gallery' - now that's a Foyer! Thx!

[@bonniebrown6960]

The chandeliers were beautiful. I love the look of an old bookcase around a brick fireplace. I was seaching for a picture of one, but I didn't see one. That's what brought me to your channel. I couldn't imagine living in a house that big. It was beautiful though. 😍

[@franceselainethurston1606]

I saw many of these old homes in Newport. They were gaudy as well as huge. Some though, did maintain taste.

[@lynnegaffney6209]

My daughter lived there as a Salve student in 2007. It is all chopped up and looks nothing like this grand home.

[@elaineburch5397]

I'm not sure which room was my favorite. I just love the whole house. You definitely know what your talking about and have the perfect voice for these videos. Hope to see many more mansions 😁

[@bigredc222]

There was a job called a Lamplighter, that was someone that lit and put out gas street lights. They used something called a Lamplighter's Lighting Stick, that same stick could be used in the home to light candles that were hard to reach. Some chandeliers were able to be lowered so the candles could be replaced and they could clean without using a ladder, they could also light the candles that way.

[@vickilindberg6336]

I was hoping that even if the new house looked old, they at least had new utilities but then you mentioned the chandelier. Whatever works if you have the money. They all see rather shallow.

[@marksletters]

JUG-Kobian 🎉🎉 that makes us chuckle. Thank you !!

[@stevemartin6934]

New port is my favorite place to enjoy the amazing gilded era ,,,,,,,,,,,

[@picasso7721]

Serious question sir. I love your content and I love everything about this channel, I just wanted to know are the beds in these houses shorter than the normal beds now?

[@AlloBruxelles]

Great video. But what a shame that it all got sold piece by piece! ! . . especially the Belgian Renaissance room, which was probably the oldest ensemble. I wish it all had stayed in Europe; it would still be intact today. It's a good thing that such spoiling of national heritages are no longer permitted in Europe.

[@henrylivingstone2971]

Probably not….even if it stayed in Europe it would’ve been sold to someone else or destroyed along with the building it belonged to. It was a time of demolition and disregard to history.

[@ML-xi2rt]

Excellent as always…

[@rutheliz75]

The smoking room is my favorite . Thanks for posting.

[@lawrenceflynn2447]

Thanks Ken

[@crescentmoonchild4031]

It’s sad how a lot of times the people didn’t live very long in these houses.

[@barbaraclark9423]

It looks brighter inside than expected 😊. Maybe due to photography lighting though 😂

[@windronner1]

It’s simply amazing the opulence of all these guilted age homes. Even by today’s standards.

[@9fiveb180]

There's something fishy about that monocle wearing man. A distinct lack of imagination, to the degree where he quite literally had entire rooms dismantled and shipped to his mansion that was also a copy. Which he had constructed where his fathers mansion stood. Which he immediately demolished after his "sudden passing" like he had it all planned out beforehand. Then he had them reconstructed along with the antiques furnishing the entire home. His wealthy heiress wife, dies during childbirth, and then her father soon after. Whom was not a fan of the chap from the start. Smells like murder most foul. MURDER I TELLS YA!

[@henrylivingstone2971]

You sound absolutely mad. Shipping entire rooms from Europe was a trend in the gilded age and he wasn’t alone in doing that. William Randolph Hearst and John D Rockefeller Jr did the same, they bought entire monasteries and had them disassembled and reassembled in the US. It isn’t unusual at all. Demolishing and rebuilding a house in the current style wasn’t uncommon either. In the gilded age it was common for the wealthy to destroy houses in outdated styles and rebuilding them in up to date styles. A lot of women died during childbirth in the late 19th century due to esoteric understanding of medical knowledge. It wasn’t unusual at all. Where did it mention the father of the wife passing shortly after? I’ve watched this twice and it made no mention of that.

[@TimothyLavallee]

Love your videos and wanted to offer a couple of friendly notes on pronunciations which aren’t clear if you’ve only read the words. The college name is “SalVAY” Regina, but you’re right that salve (Savv) is the thing used to heal wounds. And I’ve always heard Jacobean as “Jackah-BEE-in”, but I think that might be just a common rather than correct pronunciation.

[@henrylivingstone2971]

Jackah-bee-in is the correct pronunciation. As in deriving from the name Jacob in reference to the Catholic king James. The Anglicization of the name Jacob from its original Aramaic/Hebrew is Jay-cohb. Thus it is pronounced Jackah-bee-in.

[@chandlerbattaile5981]

Also should be ElizaBEEthen

[@DisneyMark]

I think Princess Helena was Queen Victoria’s daughter, not granddaughter. But still another cool house.

[@chandlerbattaile5981]

This home is not patterned after an England castle. There are no defensible elements. It is not a fortress. It is a copy of an English manor house.

[@patriciabuuck5277]

I feel sad when these beautiful homes are sold and turned into schools or abolished. All the love and money the original owners put into them and a way of life is just gone.

[@ohmoflife1]

Ego and lack of creativity doesn’t equate to love or any true appreciation. Just a personal thought :). Most of the houses were about ostentatious posturing, hoarding “ex centric” cultural collections, and were often tossed aside because of the lack of said love.

[@Sofus.]

monocles should come back into fashion

[@jamesdoolittle5756]

Easy on the "A", nice stories though.

[@robyndavis3043]

At least, the house was put to good usage

[@GetReady4LiftOff]

just a bunch of rooms

[@gandfgandf5826]

Who else hit pause to go ogle Point Breeze New Jersey?

[@jamessullivan9992]

A bit over the top for my taste.

[@asylumlover]

ARE THE INTERIORS STILL INTACT?????????? IN ANY CASE, DEFINITELY APPEARS TO BE ANOTHER DEMOLITION FREE ZONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@patricialong5767]

Classic, fascinating, but what about the future? A bit overdone, to my personal taste.

[@GetReady4LiftOff]

demolished his dads hse? even then kids didnt want parents hse, they want their own.

[@lizlittle1641]

I am not impressed with this house, so no favorite room.