Breakers Welcome Center: Groundbreaking Set for Thursday

NEWPORT, RI — Despite opposition from former trustees and members of the Vanderbilt family, the Preservation Society will move head with its plan to build a Welcome Center on the grounds of The Breakers mansion. The groundbreaking ceremony is set for Thursday, May 18 at 9 a.m. on the property, 44 Ochre Point Ave., Newport 02840.

According to the Preservation Society, construction is expected to take one year to complete. Behan Brothers, a Middletown construction company, won the $5.4 million contract to build the structure for indoor ticket sales, toilets, and food and drinks. Details about the other bidders were not released.

Representatives of the Preservation Society's Board of Trustees, project architect Alan Joslin of Epstein Joslin Architects, project landscape architects Doug Reed and John Grove of Reed Hilderbrand, and contractor Michael Behan will participate in the groundbreaking ceremony.

Friends of Newport Preservation, the opposition group, on Monday said it had appealed to Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to intervene.