Inside the Mansion: A Demand for Style

The Reception Room on the 1st floor is decorated in 22 karat gold leaf.   Indiana Limestone roof detail on the mansion.

"Frederick William Vanderbilt of New York," reported the New York Times in 1895, "who has recently joined the little colony of millionaires up the river, is getting ready to make extensive improvements on his house and grounds." When the Greek Revival house he had purchased proved structurally unsound, the Vanderbilts built a new house on the site. They moved into the mansion late in 1898, although European craftsmen did not complete the interior plastering and woodcarving until the next spring.

The 50-room dwelling was designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead, and White to evoke the ancestral home of a noble European line. The classical style and gleaming Indiana limestone facing belied the modern steel and concrete supports beneath. Everything was up-to-date, including the central heating, the plumbing, and the power supplied by a hydroelectric plant on the estate. It was also virtually fireproof, an important consideration since an earlier house on the site had been destroyed by fire. Just as the Vanderbilts had retained the services of the country's premier architectural firm to build their home, they sought the top names to design its interior. The furnishings and decoration were more than double the cost of the house itself.

In the principal rooms of the first floor, the hand of Stanford White is as clear as if he had signed his name. The flamboyant partner of McKim, Mead and White influenced the house plan from its inception by furnishing a carved wooden dining room ceiling. To be incorporated as a whole, the ceiling must have dictated the proportions of that room and thus its opposite wing, the drawing room. White probably purchased the ceiling - along with the large Isphahan rug and stone chimney breasts in the dining room, the Renaissance chairs in the entrance hall, the marble columns in the drawing room, and assortment of tapestries - on one of his expeditions abroad. He searched Europe for relics which he shipped home. He was then prepared to supply clients with original works of art that lent authenticity to the background he was designing for them. In 1897 White traveled to London, Paris, Florence, Rome and Venice in search of articles for the mansion at Hyde Park. Thus the antique pieces in the Vanderbilt Mansion are found almost exclusively in White's first floor rooms.

| home | what's new? | finding us | directions | fees | hours | | reservations | park facilities | history | events | virtual tours | | cultural resources | natural resources | press room | | park rules & regulations | links | | ParkNet |

Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites 4097 Albany Post Road Hyde Park, NY 12538 Last updated: February 9, 2001 http://www.nps.gov/vama/style.html Author:ROVA Webmaster