Thursday, July 25, 2013

Day 281 July 22 Vanderbilt Mansion

 
Monday morning and time to tour Hyde Park NY......Enterprise is in Poughkeepsie so a driver picks us up at the marina.....Nice service when your transportation is a bicycle....
Our first stop is the 50-room Classical-style mansion built in 1898 by Frederick William Vanderbilt, a grandson of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt - the shipping and railroad magnate and richest man in America during his lifetime.
 

 
First stop is the Visitor's Center for tour tickets
 
 
Vanderbilts only came here during the spring and fall
 
 
The limestone facade features columns on all four sides
 
 
We were allowed to take pictures but no flash....so
 
 
Entrance Hall
 
 
Receiving room with marble walls
 
 
The contents remain unchanged from the time the Vanderbilts lived here
 
 
The Ladies sitting room with painted Venetian walls and ceiling
 
 
15-century Flemish tapestries and Ming vases
 
 
Dining room with two fireplaces
 
 
Park service is doing some work
 
 
Mr Vanderbilt's room with a model of his yacht Vedette II
 
 
Mrs Vanderbilt's room
 
 
Sky light with the antique carved ceiling
 
 
Guest Room...they had no children
 
 
Dumb Waiter in basement
 
 
Staff of 60 maintained the house and grounds year-round
 
 
Side of the mansion
 
 
Looking at the Hudson from the grounds
 
 
Since 1940 the 211 acres has be open to the public and maintained by the NPS
 
 
Coach House and Stable
 
 
Now used by the NPS to maintain the property
 
 
Crum Elbow Creek
 
 
One of the first steel and concrete bridges in the country
 
 
Landscaped grounds, a formal terraced garden, expansive lawns, carriage roads, and a three-mile-long riverside hiking trail........the Vanderbilt's called this their "Country Home" and the property as a  "Gentleman's farm".........let's just call it the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site....what a visit!
 
 
 
 
 
 
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