Back in 1878 the first Breakers rose along the Cliff Walk on Ochre Point Avenue, right where you are. Built in 1878 as a Queen Anne–style cottage, it was designed by Peabody and Stearns for Pierre Lorillard IV. Construction began in 1877 and finished in 1878 at a cost of $90,000, while Lorillard had paid $96,147 on August 28, 1877 for the ten acres from Governor William Beach Lawrence through Alfred Smith.
The landscaping was laid out by Ernest Bowditch. In 1883 visitors called it "unquestionably the most magnificent estate in Newport. The Lorillard connection reaches deeper: Lorillard, of the Lorillard Tobacco Company family, even named their most popular cigarette after the town, Newport.
Cornelius Vanderbilt II acquired the house in 1885, but the original cottage burned in 1892 and was replaced by the current Breakers; the first Breakers was therefore extant for only fourteen years. Even so, it was widely known in the nineteenth century and continues to attract the attention of architectural historians today. Notice the sweep of the Cliff Walk and Ochre Point Avenue stretching past you.