For the past few decades, Newport, Rhode Island, has felt like a small town haunted by enormous empty mansions of the past. Many of the largest were taken over by the Preservation Society of Newport County and opened for public tours. But with the recent arrival of billionaires such as Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Guggenheim Partners C.E.O. Mark Walter, and—most recently—Blackstone C.E.O. Stephen A. Schwarzman, the small city by the sea is waking up to a new Gilded Age, complete with a social scene to match.
Schwarzman and his wife, Christine, purchased Miramar, a 30,000-square-foot French neoclassical-style estate, for $27 million in 2021 and embarked on a major restoration of the property.
