Where Is ‘The Gilded Age’ Filmed in Newport? Location Manager Shares the Real Places (and Which They Faked)

New York’s robber barons and society ladies provide the drama in season two The Gilded Age but almost nothing of the show was filmed in the city.

Upstate New York’s Troy and Albany are often 1880s Manhattan, but many of the show’s most transcendent scenes are set in Newport, RI—the summer playground of the upper class.

The seaside town’s carefully preserved mansions, ironically called “houses” by their original owners, provided such a rich period-appropriate setting, many of the show’s New York scenes were also shot there, according to location manager Lauri Pitkus.

“There’s a big layer of New York and Newport locations,” she explains. “Because we have these beautifully decorated, unique and original bedrooms to choose from, we shoot most of the ones in Newport and cheat them because they exist in New York homes.”

Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski in ‘The Gilded Age’.

Alison Cohen Rosa/HBO

The bedrooms of patrician Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) are real in Chateau-sur-Mer, and the cotillion of heiress Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) was filmed in The Breakers.

Almost every set, which includes the iconic Elms, Marble House and Newport Art Museum, is open to the public to tour.

The New England town’s history and architecture have made it a popular filming location for decades.

IN The Great Gatsby (1974) The 1902 Rosecliff Estate stood in for mansions on the North Shore of Long Island for Robert Redford’s Jay Gatsby. Wes Anderson’s 2012 film Kingdom of the Rising Moon (2012) was filmed in and around Aquidneck Island, including Trinity Church, which became St. Jack’s. And in 1997 Amistad (1997), directed by Steven Spielberg, was filmed in Washington Square and Colony House, as well as in mansions on Bellevue Avenue.

Elms

mourning

This limestone mansion is home to the nouveau riche Russells, including matriarch Bertha (Carrie Coon), pictured below with her cocky Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane). The show is decorating the exterior to look like it’s on the water, but it’s actually landlocked, Pitkus says.

The Elms’ magnificent basement kitchen is also a frequent setting in the series, but not in the Newport scenes. It is being used as the Russells’ New York kitchen, Pitkus reveals.

Barbara Nitke/HBO

Travel tip! While many locations are only open in the summer months, several of the most popular palaces, including the Elms, reopen in December with their halls decadently decorated for the holidays.

NEWPORT CASINO

RGB Ventures / SuperStock / Alamy

This shingle-style complex designed by McKim, Mead & White is referred to by locals (on the show even today) simply as “the casino.” Despite the name, it actually has nothing to do with gambling. It houses the International Hall of Fame and a pristine grass center court where Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) attends a spirited match for Dashiell Montgomery’s (David Furr) side.

Barbara Nitke/HBO

Travel tip! Take a seat at the adjacent restaurant La Forge and enjoy the view of the courtyard, suggests Pitkus.

KINGSCOTE

mourning

Built in 1841, “it’s one of the earliest” and most modest castles on display, Pitkus says. Now a National Historic Landmark, it is the site of an illicit affair between aspiring architect Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) and the elderly recent widow Mrs. Blane (Laura Benanti).

Barbara Nitke/HBO

Travel tip! Visitors today will see an addition to the house similar to the one Larry planned on the show.

2nd season The Gilded Age currently airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on Max.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education