Throughout HBO’s The Gilded Age, currently airing its third season, there are frequent references to Newport, Rhode Island. For the rich socialites of New York, Newport was a popular summer holiday, and in the show, we see several characters get together for tennis matches, card games, and lavish parties at their vacation homes.
The latest episode of The Gilded Age, titled “Love Is Never Easy,” visits Newport again when Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), an ambitious writer and socialite Agnes van Rhijn’s secretary, goes to Newport with her parents to stay with a cousin as she recovers after a long illness. Peggy ends up being courted by the doctor who treats her, and learns that his family is prominent in Newport’s Black community.
Here’s what to know about the history of this popular seaside city and its residents.
How Newport became a summer destination for the rich
As early as the 18th century, wealthy southerners headed north to Newport to escape the malaria and yellow fever outbreaks on plantations. The third season of The Gilded Age takes place in 1884, which is when Newport “begins to become the ultimate summer destination for the rich of New York,” according to Nicole Jeri Williams, Curator of Collections at The Preservation Society of Newport County.
The show portrays a singular period in time. Back then, “really rapid industrial growth created the immense fortunes of the robber barons,” Williams explains. “There was also a lack of government oversight and regulation–a really laissez faire economic environment. And there was no federal income tax, so all of that produced the massive industrial fortunes of the Gilded Age. A lot of these folks wind up summering in Newport.”
During the Gilded Age, elite New Yorkers who made their fortunes in railroads, mining, steamships, and finance were drawn to Newport’s ample properties…
