National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
This included their rebuilt home, as well as an ambitious refinement of the architectural
ensemble associated with gardens relocated farther south of the mansion. For the garden
project, Walter Langdon, Jr. employed Boston architects Sturgis and Brigham to create a
greenhouse bracketed between a brick Gardener's Cottage and a complementary Tool House.
This greenhouse ensemble was accompanied by three freestanding ranges of production
greenhouses, as well as a large ornamental "Palm House" by the well-known Lord and Burnham
Company.
Work to the general landscape appears to have consisted of maintenance and sporadic
clean-up efforts in anticipation of the family's visits. The following account offers a narrative
vignette of the landscape at the time of Vanderbilt's arrival.
When Mr. Vanderbilt purchased it . . . the place was somewhat neglected and run down.
Mr. Vanderbilt found a beautiful park all grown up to underbrush. The lawns were
covered with the wild growth that nature puts forth under forest trees, and stone walls
appeared in all sorts of inappropriate places, the products of tramp labor, for Mr.
Langdon was very fond of providing employment for these gentry. There were hot
houses ample but empty, the stables and farm buildings were in a state of extreme
dilapidation, and the stately 40-room old mansion of purest Greek architecture was
painted a light pink. . . . The house was surrounded by a noble park of undulating
surface, and a lovely brook with many a curve and picturesque waterfalls went brawling
through the grounds . . . 1051
VANDERBILT LANDSCAPE OVERVIEW - EARLY MODIFICATIONS
By many accounts, Frederick Vanderbilt is described as being a quiet and unassuming
man. His grand-nephew went as far as to describe him as "notably timid." 1052 Yet he was the
first of the Vanderbilts to attend college, graduating from the Yale Sheffield Scientific School's
"Select" course of study in 1878. 1053 As an interesting aside, Vanderbilt's college affiliation was
shared by landscape architect John Charles Olmsted, who graduated in 1875. There is no
documentation of Louise Vanderbilt's interest or decisions regarding the landscape, and we are
left to assume that Frederick played the greatest role in its development.
Vanderbilt purchased the property for $125,000 in May of 1895 and proceeded rather
quickly to replace almost every structure on it. This program began with the replacement of the
Langdon coach house with the Pavilion that the Vanderbilts intended to occupy while the
existing mansion was renovated. The Langdon house proved structurally unsuitable for
renovation, and by August 1896, McKim, Mead & White were at work designing an entirely new
building. Predictably, the new dwelling would occupy the same happy prospect first chosen by
Bard. The construction of the new mansion by McKim, Mead & White, was accompanied by a
new and grand carriage house designed by architect Robert Henderson Robertson. Robertson
1051
Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, July 19, 1896, 2. As quoted in Snell, "Early History," 60.
1052
Frederick Vanderbilt Field, From Right to Left: An Autobiography (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill &
Co., 1983), 30.
1053
Conversation with Yale University Research Librarian, December 7, 1998. The "Select" course was a
rebuke to the once prevailing mode of classical studies. The Select course consisted of a curriculum of
practical subjects including science, business administration, as well as agriculture. It would be incorrect
to say that Frederick Vanderbilt "majored" in either horticulture or forestry.
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