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    America's Downton Abbey

    The wild stateside success of the British period drama about post-Edwardian aristocrats and their live-in help has piqued interest in the life of servants in the Gilded Age mansions of the seaside city. The nation's wealthiest families built Newport "cottages" in the 19th and early 20th centuries and would move their households here —servants, silver and all — from New York and elsewhere in the summer to enjoy the ocean breezes and society scene.

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    1. This Nov. 19, 2010 file photo shows the Elms mansion as seen through an opening in an iron fence, in Newport, R.I. Newly discovered photographs, documents and family histories have inspired the creat
    2. This undated photo provided by The Preservation Society of Newport County shows Grace Rhodes Birch, left, a cook at The Elms mansion in Newport, R.I., with her husband Ernest Birch, the mansion
    3. This circa 1920s photo provided by The Preservation Society of Newport County shows footmen on the front stairs of The Elms, a mansion in Newport, R.I. Newly discovered photographs, documents and fam
    4. This circa 1920s photo provided by The Preservation Society of Newport County shows butler Ernest Birch, center, surrounded by footmen next to the terrace of The Elms mansion in Newport, R.I. Newly d
    5. This circa 1940s photo provided by The Preservation Society of Newport County shows maid Nellie Lynch on the roof outside the servants
    6. Newport mansions
    7. Newport mansions
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