National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Historical Overview
his boathouse to have a hot dog roast and he said, "Fine, have a good time," and that was it
but we were walking around the circle in front of the house. We didn't keep out of sight. 420
In the hot summer months, estate employees spent their evenings swimming off the float
Mr. Vanderbilt kept at Bard Rock. A local Boy Scout leader from Millbrook named Henry
Wicker would occasionally use the boathouse for a sleep over. The estate employees would join
the Scouts for campfires where they would sing and tell stories. 421 The Vanderbilts were often in
residence during these outings and encouraged the use of the waterfront by employees and
others with permission. The estate also sponsored a baseball team that played in a league with
other estates. The men were occasionally given leave from work for a baseball game. 422 The
Vanderbilt team was one of the finest in the Valley in its day. 423
Louise sponsored parties at Town Hall for estate employees and village residents at
Christmas and hired musicians or entertainers as part of the program. On New Year's Eve she
usually gave a dance as well with an orchestra from Poughkeepsie playing until midnight
followed by refreshments. Often several hundred people attended, and Louise often mingled
with her guests. 424 Estate employees also were involved with clubs and events in the village.
Occasionally the Fire Company and the Drum Corps would sponsor shows at Town Hall, and
Cap and Everett Newman, the estate's cow and dairy men, would get a band together for a twonight
show with other town talent. The audience would fill the hall and the overflow crowds
would crowd near the door to listen. 425
The journals of Herbert and Marie Shears offer insight into their daily lives as an estate
family. Sunday was a day of leisure; they generally walked or drove the farm and park of the
estate and passed the day reading, napping, and writing letters. On occasion they dined or
attended a show or lecture in Poughkeepsie. The summer that they married, Frederick and
Louise were in the Adirondacks, and Marie noted in her journal in September, "Went to ride
with Herbert this afternoon. When the Vanderbilts come my riding will stop." 426 The use of the
horses was only when the family was not in residence and Herbert had the use of Frederick's
pony when he was not at Hyde Park. 427
Very little is known about the domestic staff and their leisure time, although Theresa
Farley remembered the maids playing the Victrola and dancing in the Service Dining Room
during their breaks. 428 And, the son of the Vanderbilts' second chauffeur recalled the
housekeeper inviting him through a third floor servant's room onto the west portico roof in
1917 to look through a very large telescope which staff had placed there for looking up and
down the river. 429
420
Peggy Newman, 11.
421
Peggy Newman, Side 2, 3-4.
422
Herbert Shears, 1903, 1904.
423
Snell, "Master Plan Development Outline," VII, 3.
424
Snell, "Master Plan Development Outline," VII, 3.
425
Peggy Newman, Side 2, 6-8.
426
Warren, 1902, 61.
427
Warren, 1902, 65.
428
Snell, "Master Plan Development Outline," 26. Snell cites Wire Recording No. 7 with Mrs. Farley.
429 Oakley.
83