The Breakers - Newport, RI

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Newport is famous for its gilded age mansions. The biggest and grandest mansions in Newport is The Breakers. It belonged to the Vanderbilt family, who made their money from the railroad business.

Vanderbilts owned New York Central Railway which eventually merged with Penn Central, which later was merged with other bankrupted private rail companies to become today's Amtrak.

The Breakers is a 70 room 125,000 square feet mansion which is based on Italian Renaissance architectural style. The house itself is situated in 1 acre in a 14 acres land overlooking Atlantic Ocean.

The front side of the building

The front gate of the mansion:

The side view of the mansion:

Great Hall

Living room

Library

Music Room

Staircase

Kitchen

Backside view of the mansion

Boston - The City

Flying into Boston, just before landing Boston International Airport, a beautiful sight of the city skyline

We stayed at the W Hotel, Boston, a hip and trendy hotel in Downtown Boston

"Fake News is not your friend"

Edgar Allan Poe statue

Copley Square

Boston skyline view from Cambridge side

Boston Harbor Hotel

Trinity Church

Boston Public Library

Boston Children's Museum

King's Chapel

Massachusetts State House

Old State House

Omni Parker Hotel - the oldest continuously working hotel in United States

The little free library

Hop on, Hop off

Old South Church

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Boston South Station (Amtrak Train station)

Old State House

Old State House Museum is the most important historic buildings in Boston. Built in 1713, this building served as the seat of colonial government in Massachusetts. It is one of the oldest public buildings in America, and is now designated a National Historic Landmark. It is from the balcony of this building, the Declaration of Independence was read to the jubilius Boston public.

The infamous Boston Massacre happened right in front of this building.

The building currently serve as a museum, and is open to the public. The building was restored to its old glory.

The Lion and Unicorn symbol - the Colonial insignia of British government

The seat of colonial government in Boston

The meeting room - restored

Boston Public Library

Friday, July 13, 2018

Boston Public Library - is the municipal library of Boston, and is also a state library. Every resident of Massachussets can borrow from this library - free of cost. It is the second largest library in United States (after Library of Congress in Washington DC). It is situated in the Boston's famous Copley Square.

For visitors, BPL offers a regular tour of the building free of cost. The main building is know as McKim Building. (picture above)

Grand Staircase - The entrance and staircase is know as Grand Staircase. The walls are painted with murals and there is a beautiful chandelier right above the staircase. (The murals were painted by the French painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, who is considered one of the greatest muralists of 19th century)

Bates Hall - Central Library Reading Room of the library. Its an impressive room of 50 foot high ceiling. The furnitures and bookcases are still from the 1800s.

Abbey Room - This room served as a book delivery room where the patrons had waited for the books they requested. The librarians and delivery boys would go inside and pickup the books while the patrons waited in this room. This room is adorned with mural paintings, which depicts Sir Galahad's Quest for the Holy Grail.

I tried to capture the mural paintings in this room with a panoramic view, with little success. Here it is! This picture do not do justice to the real thing!

Sargent Gallery - One will wonder why a Public library have this type of space. This gallery is on the top of library building and had ornate paintings. The Gallery is named after the artist, who spent 29 years of his life painting this room! The theme of the room is Triumph of Religion, though I personally wonder why such a theme was chosen for a public library building! The murals and iconography includes images from Egyptian and Assyrian styles, and stories from Judaism and Christianity. The installation of a synagogue imagery created a public debate - anti-semitism was (and still is) prevalent in United States at the time.

Jewish Side portraits & paintings: