National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Kitchen Maid
Historical Overview
In addition to working in the scullery washing dishes and assisting the cooks, the kitchen
maid would determine how many were eating in the Service Dining Room at meals and set the
table just before mealtime. Extra place settings were set on the serving table. 379 The service staff
helped themselves to serving dishes placed on the table during the meal. 380
Housekeeper
The housekeeper, while working in close cooperation with the butler and the chef, had
authority over key household materials and expenditures, making hers a powerful position on
the household staff. The housekeeper hired and supervised the female staff, kept the household
linens under lock and key, and ordered supplies and food for the mansion, at the chef and
cooks' request. A closer examination of the surviving ledgers and accounts might reveal the
relationship between the housekeeper's "discretionary" expenditures and the superintendent's
overall management of the estate budget at Hyde Park. The housekeeper supervised four
chambermaids, a parlor maid, three laundresses, and any additional maids hired from the village
for a short term. 381 These short-term maids were generally hired for three weeks to prepare the
house before the Vanderbilts' arrival in the spring and fall seasons. 382 Edith Wharton describes
the ritual of house opening in its extreme,
The first two weeks after her return represented to Mrs. Peniston the domestic equivalent of
a religious retreat. She 'went through' the linen and blankets in the precise spirit of the
penitent exploring the inner folds of conscience; she sought for moths as the stricken soul
seeks for lurking infirmities. The topmost shelf of every closet was made to yield up its
secret, cellar and coal bin were probed to their darkest depths and, as a final stage in the
lustral rites, the entire house was swathed in penitential white and deluged with expiatory
soapsuds. 383
While the lady of the house's intimate involvement with the cleaning is perhaps unusual, the
ritual is not.
There must certainly have been a series of household records including linen
inventories, guest room registers, order books, and other accounts kept by Hyde Park's
housekeeper. Sadly, these have not survived, and no comparative sources from a similar estate
have been located. It should be noted that the household payroll records appear to have been
centralized in the superintendent's office.
Mrs. Marian F. Smith was housekeeper at Hyde Park from the time of Martin's arrival in
1909 until Mr. Vanderbilt's death. 384
379
Doug Crapser, notes of interview, January 25, 1979, 2.
380
Margaret Partridge, "Furnishings Plan for the Kitchen, Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, New York,"
January 4, 1971, Resource Management Records, ROVA Archives.
381
Snell, "Preliminary Report," 31-34.
382
Theresa Farley.
383
Wharton, The House of Mirth, 98.
384
Martin, taped interview.
77