National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
The Living Room survives with a high degree of integrity from the Vanderbilt
occupancy, though not from its earliest undocumented appearance. Changes include the
removal of one sofa, two armchairs, and a nest of six round tables. 666 In addition the finish of
the paneling was altered with the NPS program of oiling carried out in the 1950s. 667
Reception Room (Gold Room), 1897
The Reception Room is a reproduction of a mid-eighteenth French salon. It is entered
from the Elliptical Hall and is directly opposite the Den. It was most probably conceived as a
female counterpart to the more masculinely decorated Den. 668 Reception rooms were
traditionally associated with the entertainment of women, meant to be used for small teas,
sherry before dinner, and conversation.
French reception rooms in the United States date back to the early 1880s. Alva
Vanderbilt, Frederick's sister-in-law, had the Parisian decorator Allard install a Regency style
salon in her house at 660 Fifth Avenue in 1883. This room was remarkable at the time for its
authenticity in reproducing French decoration. Other members of the Vanderbilt family
followed suit: the Cornelius Vanderbilts had a Louis XVI Music Room created by Allard at 1
West 57th Street, and a true eighteenth century Louis XVI period Reception Room installed at
The Breakers in Newport. Alva and William K. Vanderbilt hired Allard again to design the Gold
Room at Marble House in Newport. The increased authenticity in reproducing the French style
of Louis XV and Louis XVI was part of the scientific eclecticism of the second phase of the
American Renaissance. In addition, the publication of books like The Decoration of Houses, by
Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, precisely at the same moment (1897) underlines the
timeliness of this kind of "tasteful" French room.
In keeping with Codman and Wharton's premise that architecture controls decoration,
Glaenzer designed the Reception Room based on the Hotel Soubise in Paris. The composition,
assembly, and furnishing of the Reception Room do not deviate from Louis XV taste; rather, it
moves decidedly away from the eclecticism of mid-century American decorative tastes. The
delicacy of design and execution clearly aims to replicate French workmanship. 669
Charles McKim seems to have determined the inclusion and location of the Reception
Room in the floor plan. He then asked White to look for architectural elements on his 1897
which currently faces the five-seat sofa, with the lamps on top. The sofa that is currently on the north wall
should be where the long table is. Thus there is a parallel arrangement on the east and west sides of the
room. The north wall of the room where the sofa is now might have been where the other piano was
placed. The octagonal table currently by the mantel on the east side would be in the center for a parallel
arrangement with the other octagonal table.
666
Curry Inventory, 1938 and Hopkins, 1940.
667
Albert McClure, Monthly Report, March, 1952.
668
Wharton and Codman, The Decoration of Houses (1897; reprint, New York: W.W. Norton & Co.),
123-125, present this distinction as the "salon de compagnie" and the "salon de famille." The salon de
compagnie is only needed in large houses where the drawing room is so large, as to necessitate a smaller
room for entertainment of smaller groups.
669
The archeological nature of this room and other salons of the period can be compared with Louis XV
style rooms of mid-century such as the ballroom at Chateau-Sur-Mer by Ringuet LePrince and Leon
Marcotte. While Ringuet LePrince and Marcotte were Parisian-trained, their room is clearly American in
its boldness marked by slightly heavier proportions in all of the decorative elements.
125