This Tour Reveals Secrets About Servant Life in the Gilded Age
Did you see my first post about “Newport Mansions – The Perfect Tours for Downton Abbey Fans“? There I shared a little about what life was like “upstairs’ for the wealthy families and their guests in Newport, Rhode Island during the Gilded Age. Today we’ll walk through The Elms Mansion in Newport “downstairs” in the basement and on the 3rd floor to learn the secrets of what servant life was like in America during that time.
These upstairs-downstairs relationships are what remind me most of Downton Abbey. The Gilded Age mansions in Newport capture the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A time that’s a little bit later than the latest Downton timeline in England. The wide gap between the wealthy families and their working-class servants’ is much the same as at the Grantham era in England.
Are you a Downton Abbey fan? Did you know there’s an upcoming American series about the Gilded Age, also written by Julian Fellowes? The HBO series will explore similar upstairs-downstairs dynamics in America. It will take on issues of wealth and class in turn-of-the-century New York City. And where did the wealthy spend their summers? At their “cottages” in Newport of course. There are rumors that Mr. Fellowes visited Newport earlier this year. Could he have been scouting locations?
Servant Life Compared to Downton Servants
It was a rainy day when I took the tour of The Elms, so our route was a little different than normal. In most cases, the tour guide makes a point to walk visitors around to the side servants’ and delivery entrance (photo below) because servants never entered the house through the main entry door.
The servants, tradespeople, and deliveries all came in through a circular drive on the side of the house that led to the ground floor working area. The driveway is still covered with wisteria vines just as it was when the Berwind family lived there.
This helped in a few ways. First, the view of the servants and delivery wagons and trucks was blocked when guests looked out the windows from the main house. The thick leaves looked like a carpet of green from above. The vines also helped to muffle the sounds of the noisy trucks that made deliveries throughout the day. It would have been totally unacceptable for all that noise, commotion and dirt to be brought in through the main entrance upstairs. Remember the back entrance at Downton Abbey? The same rules applied there. Servants and workers never came through the front door.
Servant Life Tour “Downstairs”
The Elms Mansion opened in the summer of 1901. There were 27 outside staff people to care for the building and grounds, and 16 inside servants at that time. It seems like a high number considering the Berwinds didn’t have any children. Most of the servants came from England and Ireland where they likely received training before leaving their home country. The chef was from France, of course.
There was a difference between American and European servants. Even though many servants were from Europe, they had more hope for a way out in America. Once they were here it was a stepping stone to bigger and better things outside of domestic service. There wasn’t the expectation or social restrictions that a servant would stay in service to a family for life, as it was in Europe.
The Berwind’s British Butler, Ernest Birch is one of the exceptions. He stayed with the family for several decades. You can see his name on the census in both 1915 and 1925. When Mr. Berwind died in 1936, he left $5000 to Mr. Birch. That’s equivalent to about $85,000 today. While I’m sure Mr. Birch sacrificed much for the Berwind family, it’s nice to know that there was extra appreciation shown for his commitment.
In 1936 Edward Berwind left the Elms mansion to his sister, Julia. She continued to summer there with a full staff until her death at the age of 96 in 1961. It’s rumored that when she didn’t have a 4th person for a game of cards she asked her butler to “stand in”. Out of respect for Ms. Berwind and the other guests, he played the game standing up. Can you imagine Mr. Carson sitting down with Lord Grantham for a friendly game? Of course not!
Moving the Household Each Season
Most of the servants and staff traveled on a similar schedule to the Berwind family. Every summer they moved from their home on 5th Avenue in New York City to The Elms Mansion in Newport. The servants always went days earlier to get the house opened up, cleaned, stocked and ready for the family to arrive. The Downton Abbey process was much the same. I learned on the tour that even the family silverware and silver service traveled back and forth. It was stored in a massive walk-in safe, as big as a bank vault.
Long Hours and Lots of Stairs
The servants had to be available at a moment’s notice at all hours of the day and night. This contrasted with the families’ endless leisure activities and lounging between multiple changes of clothes. Servants generally had only one evening and one afternoon off each week, not necessarily on the same day
In an article about American Maids from the Readex Blog –
“The lady’s maid was expected to bring her mistress breakfast in bed, help her dress and undress (as many as five times a day), maintain and select her mistress’s wardrobe and jewelry, and style her hair. A skilled lady’s maid was much valued. Such a woman often served as a beautician and stylist.
This annunciator box below is in the basement kitchen area. It shows that someone had been called to the “Louis XV Room”. This system is a slight improvement over the Downton Abbey call system. The Berwinds had the capability of speaking to the servants over the “phones” to explain what they wanted before they set out.
Servants’ Spaces Like Downton Abbey
Just as in Downton Abbey, the back stairs are where the magic happened. Servants climbed up and down countless times from the basement kitchen, laundry, and storage areas to the main and 2nd floors where the family lived. Then climbed the stairs once more at the end of their long day to get to the 3rd-floor servants’ quarters.
The servants’ floor at The Elms has 16 good-sized bedrooms and 3 large shared bathrooms. It was a co-ed space where only single servants lived. Married couples either lived off-site or in cottages on the grounds, similar to the Downton Abbey estate. The servants were given reasonably sized bedrooms for the time, but they were actually quite small and plain compared to the lavish family bedrooms that we saw in the last post.
In the photo below you can see the skylight (that I talked about in my previous post). The sunlight streams through the roof of the servants’ quarters, then down through the glass block on the floor. This lights up the hallway in the 2nd-floor family area. Electricity was a new invention and bulbs still weren’t very bright, so the extra sunlight was a welcome addition and energy saver.
Notice the painting of a landscape at the end of the hall? That’s the view from the roof just outside the servants’ quarters. The tour group usually has a chance to step outside onto the roof to enjoy the view, just as the servants did. Unfortunately, our rainy day made that a little too risky.
A Rail Line in the Cellar
One luxury that the Berwind family had that was probably not available in other homes, was a private coal delivery system. Mr. Berwind’s “new money” wealth came from the coal industry. That made it important for him to have access to every comfort that coal power could provide. When he built the Elms he also built an underground tunnel from the street to the lowest level of the basement. This way coal could be brought directly to the furnaces without disrupting other areas of the estate.
Learn about Life Upstairs for the Family
If you haven’t already, be sure to read my post about how the other side of the household lives “upstairs”. Newport Mansions – The Perfect Tours for Downton Abbey Fans
Tour Info
I hope this gives you a taste of just some of the things you’ll learn about servant life in the Gilded Age of America and how that compares to Downton Abbey. If you’re planning to visit Newport, Rhode Island, the Elms Mansion guided Servant Life Tour tickets can be purchased in advance online here. Please note that the Servant Life Tour is a separate ticket from the main self-guided Elms Mansion tour. Be sure to get both if you want to see the contrasts between upstairs and downstairs life.
You can find out all about the operating schedule and ticket info for all 11 mansions at the Newport Mansions site here. Hours, tours and home availability change seasonally, so be sure to check before you go. Some tours are guided by volunteer docents, while others are self-guided. The self-guided tours offer free headsets and easy-to-use devices that are packed with information and stories about the homes and the people who lived in them.
Have you ever been to the Newport Mansions? What do you think about those class differences? Would you have been willing to be a servant in a strange country to get a fresh start and have access to those gorgeous homes of the rich and famous?
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Category: New England States, United States
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What a fascinating tour that must have been. I’ve seen some of the great houses in England but never the “below-stairs” parts. It reminds me of the tenement museum in New York City in a way. Great post!
Thanks for stopping by, Lesley! I think it’s so interesting to see how the staff lived in those grand homes. They were the ones that really made everything work after all.