Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fra ...

, United States. Designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1940, it is owned and operated by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

. The property, historically known as Hyde Park, was one of several homes owned by

Frederick William Vanderbilt Frederick William Vanderbilt (February 2, 1856 – June 29, 1938) was a member of the American Vanderbilt family. He was a director of the New York Central Railroad for 61 years, and also a director of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and ...

and his wife Louise Holmes Anthony. The 54-room Vanderbilt mansion was designed by the preeminent architectural firm

McKim, Mead & White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm based in New York City. The firm came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in ''fin de siècle'' New York. The firm's founding partners, Cha ...

. It was built between 1896 and 1899. The house is an example of the

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Renaissance and ...

style. The interiors are archetypes of the

American Renaissance The American Renaissance was a period of American architecture and the arts from 1876 to 1917, characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance hu ...

, blending European architectural salvage, antiques, and fine period reproductions representing an array of historical styles. The site includes of the original larger property (once around 600 acres) situated on a bluff overlooking the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

and includes manicured lawns, formal gardens, woodlands, and numerous auxiliary buildings.

History

Historically known as Hyde Park, the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site is one of the area's oldest Hudson River estates. The earliest development of the estate began in 1764 when Dr. John Bard purchased land on the east side of the

Albany Post Road The Albany Post Road was a post road – a road used for mail delivery – in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It connected New York City and Albany (NY), Albany along the east side of the Hudson River, a service now performed by U.S ...

, where he built Red House and developed the agricultural aspects of the eastern section of the property that continued through Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt's occupancy. Bard family ownership continued through 1821 with his son, Dr. Samuel Bard (1742–1821), owning the property from 1799 to 1821. In 1828, Dr. David Hosack, president of the New York Horticultural Society, purchased the property from Samuel Bard's heirs, with André Parmentier helping to design the grounds. In 1840,

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting History of opiu ...

purchased the property from Hosack's heirs for his daughter Dorothea and her husband Walter S. Langdon. Their son Walter inherited and occupied the estate to the time of his death in 1894.''Historical and Genealogical Record Dutchess and Putnam Counties New York'', Press of the A. V. Haight Co., Poughkeepsie, New York, 1912
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Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

and Louise Vanderbilt purchased Hyde Park in May 1895 from Langdon's heirs. Attracted to the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley or Hudson River Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The region stretches from the Capital District (New York), Capital District includi ...

and the land on the east bank of the Hudson River, Frederick and his wife settled into their estate. The location offered quick and easy access to New York City on the Vanderbilt's own

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

. The house was designed and built between 1896 and 1899, and was primarily used as a vacation home for Frederick Vanderbilt's family. The previous owners of the estate had made it well known for its grand landscape and array of different plants and trees throughout the property. The ''New York Times'' described the Vanderbilt's estate as "the finest place on the Hudson between New York and Albany." Their niece, Margaret "Daisy" Van Alen, inherited the property when Frederick Vanderbilt died in 1938. Encouraged by President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

(who owned an estate nearby), Van Alen donated a portion of the estate, including the residence with most of its original furnishings, to the National Park Service in 1940. From 1941 to 1943, Roosevelt's

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

was housed in the basement and third-floor service areas, and some of the President's personal White House staff and friends occasionally stayed in the main bedrooms of the house, including those of Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt.

Mansion

The 54-room mansion is the work of the architectural firm

Charles Follen McKim Charles Follen McKim (August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909) was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the par ...

designed the plan in the Beaux-Arts style and

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses ...

assisted as an antiques buyer. The house has a classic Beaux-Arts plan, with the major public rooms on its ground floor – the central Elliptical Hall, Dining Room, and Living Room – all in one line, parallel to the

. North and South Foyers provide transitional space from the Hall to the Dining Room and Living Room. Five secondary spaces are located off the Elliptical Hall: the Lobby, Den, Gold Room, Grand Stair Hall, and Lavatory. The second floor rooms, comprising Mrs. Vanderbilt's suite of Bedroom, Boudoir and Bathroom (designed by Ogden Codman), Mr. Vanderbilt's Bedroom and Bathroom, Guest Bedrooms and Baths and the Linen Room, are disposed around the Second Floor Hall and the North and South Foyers. The third floor contains five additional guest bedrooms, and a Servants' Hall separated from the guests' rooms by a door at the main staircase. Supported by both concrete and steel, the Vanderbilt mansion was considered modern for its time. The mansion also included plumbing and forced hot air central heating and electric lighting which was powered by a hydroelectric plant built on the estate on the Crum Elbow stream. The Vanderbilt estate had electric lighting before the surrounding area.

Herter Brothers The firm of Herter Brothers, (working 1864–1906), was founded by German immigrants Gustave (1830–1898) and Christian Herter (1839–1883) in New York City. It began as a furniture and upholstery shop/warehouse, but after the Civil War became ...

and A. H. Davenport and Company were subcontractors who executed McKim's interior designs. The Vanderbilts also hired Georges Glaenzer and Ogden Codman to decorate several rooms. E.F. Caldwell & Co. manufactured the majority of the lighting.

Carriage house

When the Vanderbilts decided to replace cowbarns that dotted their extensive property, the couple chose Robert H. Robertson, a prominent architect who also designed Shelburne Farms, home of Frederick Vanderbilt's sister, Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb. Robertson's coach house, completed in the Queen Anne style, is in vast contrast to stoic mansion.

Gardens

The Italian gardens are detached from the house and incorporated formal elements typical of the Italian style. This meant that the beds were arranged in such a way that if you drew a line across the middle, either horizontally or vertically, one side of the line would mirror the other side. These formal gardens also consisted of multiple tiers, which depended on the type of plants. Each level was different. Frederick himself added the rose garden which contained almost 2000 vintage rose bushes along with other kinds of roses.

References

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