National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
influence of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but also the influence of his tutelage under H.H.
Richardson, his interest in classical precedents, and his experience in expressing them:
By the late nineteenth century the school [Ecole des Beaux-Arts] had a long-established
approach to design. The curriculum instilled in the students a feeling for grandiose axial
formality in both planning and composition, articulation of building mass, and a predilection
for pictorial extravagance. The magnificently rendered presentations in plan, section and
elevation captured the essence of their educational goal. 478
The architectural historian Marcus Whiffen classifies Beaux-Arts classicism as reaching
its "zenith" between 1890 and 1915, and categorizes it as "historical eclecticism" with a "trend . .
. toward academics and the 'correct,'" meaning correct classical interpretation. 479 It is similar to
the Neoclassical style in its generally-large massing, but differs from it in that it is more
elaborate. 480 An important step in design was also the plan: "the façade was to follow on the
plan; there was to be no 'false front.'" 481
While the general plan and majority of exterior detailing were completed by the end of
1896, the interior detailing followed many months later. The new Vanderbilt design certainly
presented a formal axial arrangement, an articulated building mass, and extravagant ornament.
The main axis was arranged north-south, with the main entrances aligned along the east-west
axis. The symmetrical wings were recessed slightly from the main block, all surmounted by a
roof balustrade. The structure took a commanding place in its setting, oriented near the edge of
the topographical drop to the Hudson River, and was complemented by the openness of
landscape directly around its perimeter. Except for the more elaborate ornament, these same
characteristics were shared with the now-demolished Langdon Mansion.
The documentation suggests that the earlier designs were to be clad in stucco, but the
final house was to be built in limestone. The Vanderbilt Mansion's exterior limestone came from
the Indiana Limestone Company. This is based on a letter to McKim, Mead & White from a
man requesting copies of the mansion's plans to complete his collection: he had read of the
mansion's existence in a book published by the Indiana Limestone Company. 482 McKim, Mead
& White's bill books indicate that the supplier was R.C. Fisher Co. 483
No recognizable changes have occurred to the exterior of the structure since its
construction, most likely due to the durability of limestone as a building material, and the
difficulty in altering a monumental structure erected in stone. Additionally, it will be shown that
the Vanderbilts altered very little in the house after their first decade of occupancy.
The new Vanderbilt Mansion exterior, fashioned in the Beaux-Arts manner, was
completed between 1898 and 1899 (see ills. 16-17). Unlike its predecessor, it displayed a full
478
John Milnes Baker, American House Styles (New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.), 98.
479
Marcus Whiffen, American Architecture Since 1780, A Guide to the Styles (Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press, 1969), 147.
480
Whiffen, 167.
481
Edmund V. Gillon, Jr. and Henry Hope Reed. Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York, A Photographic
Guide (New York: Dover Publications, 1988), vii-ix.
482
Letter to McKim, Mead & White from Wm. L. Hutchinson, Folder "McKim, Mead & White," ROVA
Archives. From The New-York Historical Society, File M-16
483
McKim, Mead & White, Bill Book #6 (August 5, 1896-June 17, 1899), McKim, Mead & White
Collection, The New-York Historical Society. From research by Nina Gray.
94