Product Details

• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 6
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1998
• Run Time: 300 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304061226
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,949 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

They were the royal residences of the American aristocracy: lavish mansions built by railroad barons, oil tycoons, industrialists and financiers. Featuring stunning works of art and lavish furnishings made from the finest rare woods and marbles from around the world, they were sprawling monuments to status and power and a life of luxury that is difficult for most of us to imagine. America's Castles has gained exclusive access to the finest of these extraordinary estates in this remarkable collection featuring these 6 programs:Newport MansionsHudson River Valley EstatesFlorida's Grand EstatesGrand PlantationsGold Coast EstatesAdirondack Camps

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SURPRISINGLY ELEGANT AND WEIRDLY DECADENT, July 20, 2005

By 

Robin Simmons (Palm Springs area, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: America's Castles: The Grand Tour (DVD)

If you're involved in a re-fi to remodel or re-decorate, you owe it to yourself to get a bigger perspective of just what a fine home can be. AMERICA'S CASTLES THE GRAND TOUR (A&E/NewVideo) is a glorious look at a handful of the most extraordinary American homes; grand estates that reflect the life and times of the original owners.

This two disc set features dozens of unique landmarks that will astonish you with their exuberantly inventive splendor. Experience Rockefeller's fabled estate in the Hudson Valley, the breezy elegance of the Newport mansions, the wooded seclusion of the grand Adirondack "camps," Donald Trumps Mar-A-lago in Palm Beach and many more including the fabled Vanderbilt estate.

America's Castles is an open door invitation to the exclusive and spectacular addresses that not only reveal the exteriors and interiors but remarkable lives of the denizens who dwell, and dwelled within.

I was dazzled at the opulance and the indulgent decadence. This is a great documentary on the far end of material success America offers to the lucky and the blessed. And the criminality of the lords of industry.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Places in America, April 17, 2009

By 

Estelene F. Bodenhamer "retired English teacher" (Macomb, Il.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: America's Castles: The Grand Tour (DVD)

Our daughter and I have visited many of these houses and plan to visit more on future trips. The photography in the series is excellent as are the choices of what to show in the houses and on the grounds. This DVD adds to our photos and diary accounts of the places we have seen.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love this series!, January 24, 2011

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: America's Castles: The Grand Tour (DVD)

"The Grand Tour" is a 2-disk compilation of six episodes from the A&E series "America's Castles," which was produced in the mid-1990's Using historical footage, the show highlights properties built during the Gilded Age when rapid economic growth created a new kind of wealth - the industrialist. The homes are oppulent and ostentatious, a true showplace to display their fortunes before taxes made them unmanageable to operate. Each episode has a certain theme such as "Florida's Grand Estates" highlighting the beach front homes of several northern industrialists to south Florida or the "Gold Coast Estates" which highlights luxurious Hamption homes on New York's Long Island sound, concentrating on two to three homes per episode. Providing history of the family that built the original home, and in most cases, the persons who brought the property back to it's original glory after years of neglect. The original owners are a who's who of the Gilded Age including super-rich industrialists and financiers such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew W. Mellon, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Flagler, J.P. Morgan, and of course the Vanderbilt and Astor families.

One of the standout segments is included in the "Grand Plantation" episode - Longwood, an octagonal plantation featuring a Byzantine onion dome that is breathtaking on the outside and completely unfinished (except for the basement where the family lived during construction) on the inside. Construction started in 1859 and halted with the outbreak of the Civil War, the family's loss of fortune, and the loss of the patriarch.

I love the America's Castles series - and wish that A&E would continue to produce quality programming like this instead of the many tacky reality series that now make up their programming like Family Jewels, Billy the Exterminator, and Storage Wars.