The house that Vanderbilt: Family in public spat over plans for the historic mansion.
But family mansion focus of feud with preservation group
NEWPORT, R.I. — The Vanderbilt family, once synonymous with American wealth and power, has fallen into a full-blown public spat with the organization that now owns their spectacular Rhode Island mansion.
The conflict includes intimations that the group might sue, or that it might evict the two Vanderbilts who still summer on the third floor of the house, called The Breakers.
“I’m waiting for them to throw my clothes out the window,” said Gladys Szapary, the great-granddaughter of the man who built the 70-room mansion in 1893, who has summered on the third floor her entire life.
In the late 1940s, her grandmother, Countess Szechenyi, agreed to lease the downstairs for $1 per year to the Preservation Society of Newport County, then a fledgling group that was trying to save the city’s famous but vacant Gilded Age mansions from the wrecking ball. The countess and her family moved into rooms on the third floor.
In 1972, Szechenyi’s heirs sold the house to the Preservation Society for $366,000. But her daughter, Countess Szapary, was invited to stay. After Szapary’s death, her children, Gladys and Paul Szapary, were invited to remain on the third floor, rent free.
Paul, 65, and Gladys, 62, said they feel a responsibility. And they, and others in their family, believe the home is not being run properly.
Their objections coalesced around a proposal put forth by the Preservation Society
to build a visitor center. The society said it would be tucked in a little-used portion of the 13-acre estate and would provide a sheltered and handicappedaccessible place to buy tickets, use the bathroom and purchase snacks.
But many neighbors and preservationists objected, saying it would detract from The Breakers’ status as a National Historic Landmark. They argue the proposal is an example of the society sacrificing its mission to preserve history as it hunts for new ways to make money.
Last month, 21 members of the Vanderbilt family, including designer Gloria Vanderbilt, wrote to the group’s board to express concern about the proposal, which they say is symptomatic of the group’s dictatorial management style. They said they won’t donate money or family objects to the nonprofit under “the current leadership climate,” which they said has alienated many supporters.
The president of the Preservation Society’s board fired back in a memo that the signers had contributed only $4,000 to the group in recent years. He made a veiled threat against the Szaparys, saying their occupancy “can be ended at any time.”
Then the Preservation Society’s lawyer threatened to sue a group the Szaparys belong to called Preservation Society Friends, which opposes the visitor center and is critical of the society’s management.
The Preservation Society’s leadership declined an interview request. They sent a written statement that opposition to the visitor center was by a small and vocal minority and that it was unfortunate the debate has become “personal and unpleasant.”
The Szaparys and Preservation Society Friends say if there is unpleasantness, it is emanating from the Preservation Society.
The Szaparys live in New York when they’re not staying at The Breakers, and both say their fight is not about retaining their residency on the third floor. What they care about most is keeping history alive.
“The Breakers was a house. It’s not just a mansion, a museum. Children played there. People got sick there. All the things that families undergo happened there. We think that people who visit there are interested in that aspect,” Paul said.