National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Butler 364
Historical Overview
The butler, or first man, supervised a second man and a third man and was assisted by a
parlor maid. His primary responsibility was for service of lunch, tea, and dinner as well as care
of the Dining Room and Butler's Pantry including all china, glassware, and the silver in the silver
safe. The butler moved with the Vanderbilts among their houses and lived for two months in
the spring and two months in the fall in the Butler's Room in the basement of the Hyde Park
house.
The butlers at Hyde Park were James Chapman, from before 1909 to circa 1911; Charles
Terry, from circa 1911 for several years; Mr. Lund, after Terry; Mr. Huddleston, after Lund; Mr.
Steveson, after Huddleston, until he was dismissed after Louise's death in 1926. With
Huddleston's departure, Edward Nelson, who served as second man and Frederick's valet, was
promoted to the position, though he never moved from the Second Man's Room into the
Butler's Room.
Second and Third Man 365
An oral interview with Alfred Martin, who served in both positions, provides some
remarkable detailed description of these staff positions. The second and third men were on fullday
and half-day duty on alternating days. Following breakfast in the Service Dining Room,
both men began to prepare the Dining Room for the day's meals. They opened the blinds and
windows in the Dining Room to air the room. They cleaned the room including polishing the
floor and tables. Usually the cleaning took about one hour. Next they went to the second-floor
linen closet to get the day's linen from Mrs. Smith, the housekeeper. They removed the silver
cups, mugs, and bowls from the silver safe in the Butler's Pantry to decorate the sideboards and
dining table. They polished the silver before placing it on display and polished the silver on view
in the first floor rooms on the writing tables, ashtrays, and side tables. All this happened before
9:00 a.m.
At 11:00 a.m., the full-day man went to his room to change into uniform: plain black
pants and black cut-away coat with a white vest, shirt, and bow tie. He returned to the panty at
11:45 a.m. to take official duty for the half-day man, who had prepared the luncheon table and
was off-duty until 1:15 p.m., when he returned, along with the butler, to serve lunch at 1:30 p.m.
The full-day man remained on duty after luncheon was cleared to attend to bells,
telephones, and occasionally walk the first floor to check that all was in order, pull shades on the
sunny side of the house, and prepare tea trays. For tea, platters were sent down to the kitchen
on the Dumbwaiter to be filled with cakes, and the full-day man prepared the trays for the butler
who served tea at 5:00 p.m. Tea was served in the Living Room on formal occasions and in the
Den for intimate friends.
The full-day man prepared the dinner table after tea and arranged the flowers. The
butler and half-day man arrived at 7:30 p.m. to serve dinner. The full-day man attended the
Dumbwaiter, taking serving dishes from it to a nearby serving table behind the screen in the
Dining Room. The butler served the main dish and another man followed with vegetable dishes.
364 Except where otherwise noted: Martin, Oral interview; Martin, Letter, October 1, 1970.
365 Except where otherwise noted: Martin, Oral interview; Martin, Letter, October 1, 1970.
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