Meet the Wideners, Philadelphia tycoon George and wife Eleanor, seen here in 1910. As one of America’s wealthiest couples, it was only natural that they were keen to build a summer residence in fashionable Newport, Rhode Island's vacation playground for America's elite.

In 1911, George commissioned sought-after Gilded Age architect Horace Trumbauer, (also in the picture far right) to design a “summer cottage” on a piece of land he had purchased overlooking Rhode Island Sound at Newport.

George and Eleanor shared a keen interest in French architecture, art, and furniture. In 1912 they decided to take an extended trip to France to source lavish furnishings for the property and headhunt a chef for George's new Ritz-Carlton hotel in Philadelphia.

Explore the palatial Miramar estate built by a Titanic survivor