Vanderbilt Mansion (Hyde Park)

We left Rhinebeck, New York, in late August 2018, but not before taking a guided tour of the lavish Vanderbilt Mansion. Built in 1896-1899, during the Gilded Age (the period following the Civil War to the turn of the century), this was a time of unparalleled growth in industry, technology, and immigration. The Vanderbilts, who made their fortune in the railroad, were among the captains of industry who amassed unimaginable wealth, while the average annual income in the US was under $400. William and Louise Vanderbilt bought the mansion, referred to as Hyde Park, to use as their spring and fall country estate. They hired top architects to design the mansion in the neoclassical style with all the latest innovations: electricity, central heating, and indoor plumbing. Furnishings and construction costs totaled around $2,250,000.

Louise loved to entertain, throwing lavish weekend parties with horseback riding, golf, tennis, and swimming followed by formal dinners. Guests would mingle in the home’s foyer before sitting down for a seven-course dinner, a different wine being served with each course. The men and women would then split off to two separate parlors; women to discuss fashion, men to discuss business. They would then convene in the drawing room before heading off to bed at midnight.

The most important guests, determined by name and wealth, would sleep on the second floor where Fredrick and Louise also slept. Desiring to live like royalty, Louise’s room mirrors Marie Antoinette’s chambers at the Palace of Versailles in France. Of the 19 rooms on the third floor, 11 belonged to servants. The others slept on the basement level, where laundry and cooking were done. Each morning, floors were cleaned, silverware, polished, porches swept and 50 to 60 bouquets of fresh flowers were arranged throughout the home.

William and Louise did not have any children, and in 1938 the mansion was left to a niece, Margaret Louise Van Alen, who did not want it, the 30 outbuildings on the property, or the almost 70 acres of land. Following 50 years of opulence and encompassing the rise and fall of a family empire, Vanderbilt Mansion was nothing more than a relic of the Gilded Age of America. Van Alen tried to sell it for $350,000, then for $250,000, but no one bought it. This was during the end of the depression, and people couldn’t afford it, or didn’t want to live so lavishly. Upon the suggestion of her neighbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Van Alen donated the property to the National Park Service.

It was mind boggling imagining this family’s wealth, how they lived, and how their fortune was won and lost. Our tour guide captivatingly portrayed this part of history, this family’s history, in vivid terms and great detail, as we strolled the grounds and toured the house. Here are some pictures of our visit.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Childhood Home, Lifetime Home

There was so much to see on the historic grounds belonging the Roosevelts, we had to divide our visit over a couple of days to take it all in. Following the tour of FDR’s presidential library, we took a guided tour of his family home, Springwood, where he was born and raised, and which became a beloved lifelong home to him. In 1943 he began the process of deeding his home to the National Park Service, ensuring that it would be available to future generations.

Franklin’s father, James Roosevelt, purchased the 110-acre estate in 1867 for $40,000. The property included a house overlooking the Hudson River and a working farm. FDR was born in this house on January 30, 1882 and was the only child of James and Sara. During Franklin’s growing up years, he developed a love of the land and the trees, and in later years expanded the land holdings to nearly 1,500 acres and planted over half a million trees. 

When Franklin and Eleanor married in 1905, they resided in both this house and their New York townhouse. After having six children, Franklin supervised the expansion and redesign of the house to accommodate his growing family, as well as his political ambitions. After contracting polio in 1921, paralyzed from the waist down, the multi-level home was adapted to his needs with ramps, and the trunk lift became his transportation to the second floor. During his 12 years as president, Roosevelt continually returned to this home seeking strength and relaxation.

Our tour was limited to the first floor only, and we weren’t allowed to take flash pictures, making it difficult to capture all the detail in the darker areas of some of the rooms. I found the interior both ornate, yet simply furnished, crowded, but friendly, and overflowing with family photographs. It was fun to imagine how the family spent their time in the house, based on what we saw in the rooms – no television, of course, but there was radio; Eleanor was known to be a ceaseless knitter; there were innumerable books, filling entire walls, stacked on shelves, piled on end tables; and chairs set up circular fashion to encourage visitation.