Southern end of the Vanderbilt Mansion at Hyde Park, Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site

Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, New York, was built by Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt. It is the only National Park property centered around a Gilded-Age home. It is also the first historical home in the National Park system that came with furnishings. Everything in the house other than the carpets visitors walk on and the drapery are original to the house. Overall, the mansion is 45,000 square feet in size, has six floors (two below ground and four above), more than 54 rooms (ten of which were guest bedrooms), 14 bathrooms, and 22 fireplaces. The home also had electricity, which was generated at an onsite power plant. All of this was for a couple who had no children. They did, however, have sixty employees who took care of the house and property, which included a dairy farm and vegetable garden on the east side of Albany Post Road.

Despite its size, the mansion was only used as a spring and fall residence. Frederick and Louise owned other mansions in New York City, Bar Harbor, Newport, and the Adirondack Mountains, and even a hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and they moved between them depending on the season. The Hyde Park mansion was typically occupied from Easter through July 4th, and then again starting Labor Day through the end of November. The Vanderbilts did visit on occasion during the winter, usually for weekends and at Christmas to enjoy sleighing and other winter sports. The mansion was closed at this time, so they stayed in the Pavilion, a guest house that now serves as the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site Visitor Center.

Frederick Vanderbilt, grandson of Commadore Cornelius Vanderbilt (the first American-born multi-millionaire), purchased his Hyde Park property in 1895 from the heirs of Walter Langdon Jr. for $125,000. Homes with breathtaking views of the Hudson River had been prized long before the Vanderbilts came to Hyde Park. In fact, the property had been home to two other wealthy families prior to the Langdons, dating back to 1764 when Doctor John Bard (George Washington’s doctor) first built a house on the property.

View of the Hudson River from the back porch of the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site

In 1795, John Bard’s son, Samuel, who had inherited the estate from his father, built a modest home on the spot of today’s Vanderbilt Mansion. In 1828, Dr. David Hosack purchased the property and proceeded to enlarge the Bard house into what became the first of the opulent Hyde Park mansions. In 1840, five years after Hosack’s death, John Jacob Astor purchased the property for his daughter Dorothea, who was married to Walter Langdon. When the Hosack Mansion burned down in 1845, the Langdons built a new one on the same spot in 1847. Walter died that same year, and in 1852, Dorothea’s son, Walter Langdon Jr., purchased all interests in the estate from his mother and siblings. Shortly after his death in 1894, the Vanderbilts purchased the Langdon estate.

The Vanderbilts’ original plan was to renovate and expand the existing Langdon mansion. Work began in early 1896, but structural faults were found rather quickly, so Frederick decided to tear it down and build a new one. He hired the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, one of the top firms of the time. The White in the firm’s name is the infamous Stanford White, a member of high society who was known for seducing young women. He was murdered in 1906 by millionaire Harry Thaw over an earlier affair that White had with his wife, Evelyn Nesbit. Deemed the “Trial of the Century,” White’s character was torn to pieces by the press, while Thaw was largely seen as a defender of womanhood. The jury was deadlocked for the initial trial in 1907, and at the conclusion of a second trial in January 1908, Thaw was found not guilty on grounds of insanity and sentenced to life in a mental hospital until well. He was eventually deemed sane and released in 1915. Popular belief was that he paid off the right people. The murder was the subject of the 1955 film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, which starred Joan Collins as Nesbit, Ray Milland as White, and Farley Granger as Thaw. Marilyn Monroe was originally cast as Nesbit but was replaced over a contract dispute.

The Langdon Mansion was torn down in August 1896, and construction on the new Beaux-Arts style mansion began in October. It would take over two years to complete—the Vanderbilts moved in for the spring season in late April 1899. In the meantime, in order to enjoy their property sooner, they had the Pavilion built in late 1895 (finished in two months). After the main mansion was completed, the Pavilion served as a guest and entertainment house for Frederick’s male friends. There were two other guest houses built on the property, but they no longer exist.

The new mansion cost $660,000 to build, and the Vanderbilts spent an addition $1.5 million of furnishings and decorations. Despite this, they were not one-hundred-percent happy with the house. They eventually hired another architectural firm to renovate the main halls on the first and second floors as well as the living room (aka drawing room). These were the only major changes to the mansion from its original layout.

Reception Room in the Vanderbilt Mansion at Hyde Park, Vanderbilt National Historic Site

On the surface, the Vanderbilts seem like any other Gilded-Age millionaires who spent money frivolously, oblivious to the lives of the common man. However, they gave a lot back to the Hyde Park community. Louise knew nearly every resident by name. If she heard of anyone having financial difficulty, she sent food and coal for the fire. If someone was sick and could not afford medical care, she sent her own doctors to provide treatment. She built a clubhouse for the teenage boys, held events for the children, and gave out presents to every child at Christmas. Frederick gave millions to charities and educational institutions, and when he died, he even left money to his servants, with his favorites getting a substantial inheritance (millions in today’s money).

Louise Vanderbilt died in 1926 while in Paris. Afterwards, Frederick spent more time at Hyde Park, for this was his favorite house. He died in 1938 at age 82 in his upstairs bedroom. He had $78 million dollars at the time (worth nearly $2 billion in today’s dollars). The Hyde Park estate went the couple’s niece, Margaret Van Alen, for she was the closest thing they had to a daughter.

Margaret was a rich socialite herself with her own mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and she did not want the Vanderbilt estate and the upkeep costs and property taxes that came with it. She put it on the market but was unable to sell it. Being the tail end of the Great Depression, and with war breaking out in Europe, finding someone who needed a 45,000-square-foot home was a hard thing to do, even with an original asking price of only $350,000. She eventually lowered the price to $250,000 and still had no takers. In fact, the highest offer she got was $80,000. She was able to sell all of the property on the other side of Albany Post Road for $20,000, which included the Vanderbilt’s farm, servant village, and a guest house. This was turned into a housing development.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who lived just down the road, suggested that Margaret donate the estate to the federal government. He had already planned on having his home in Hyde Park turned into a National Park, and he didn’t want to see the adjacent areas also becoming housing developments. Margaret took his advice and donated the 200-acre estate, which included the mansion and most of its furnishings, on May 21, 1940. The grounds and gardens, which were still in decent condition at the time, were opened to the public that July, but it wasn’t until December 18, 1940, that Congress authorized the creation of Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site.

Today, the Vanderbilt Mansion is open for daily tours. There is an entrance fee, and this covers the tour and access to the grounds and Formal Gardens. The gardens are the closest thing to a major city botanical garden in a National Park and well worth the visit. It is here that you will find the only remaining pre-Vanderbilt structures on the estate: the Tool Shed, the Gardener’s Cottage, and the Potting Shed. All were built by the Langdons in 1875.

Tool Shed in the Formal Gardens of the Vanderbilt Estate in Hyde Park, Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site

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