The Haunted Heiresses

Things go bump in the night in these mansions...

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The Gilded Age is remembered for its splendour. From vast fortunes to imposing mansions, and heiresses who crossed oceans to become duchesses overnight, we recall the era as one of glamour, economic revolution and the clashing of tradition and modernity.

But beneath the glittering chandeliers and marble staircases lurks a darker fascination: this was also an age of séances, spiritualism, and ghost stories, and many of the mansions standing today are said to be haunted still.

From Newport ‘cottages’ to English country houses, whispers of spirits cling to the walls where heiresses once entertained in diamonds and silk.

Some stories are grounded in tragedy and loss, others are later pure folklore, spun from the eerie echoes of the houses themselves. Either way, the following ghostly tales reveal how the larger-than-life characters of the Gilded Age never truly faded away—or, if reports are to be believed, rested…

The Breakers, Newport, Rhode Island

The Breakers, built between 1893 and 1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, is the most famous of Newport’s summer ‘cottages’. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Italian Renaissance style, it boasted seventy rooms and became the ultimate stage for Vanderbilt wealth.

Source: Photo of The Breakers ‘cottage’.

Cornelius Vanderbilt II died in the house in 1899, only four years after it was completed. His widow, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, and their daughters continued to preside over it until 1948. Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Breakers’ grandeur and the many tragedies suffered by the family within it have made it a natural subject for ghost stories.

Visitors and staff have reported unexplained footsteps and shadows, and some claim that the ghost of Alice Vanderbilt haunts the halls—perhaps reliving happier times before the untimely passing of her husband, and loss of three of her seven children.