National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
1898 when Vanderbilt first purchased seven dozen rhododendrons. 1059 Records also detail the
repeated purchase of several hundred pounds of grass seed. Grass seed purchases included fine
blends for the lawn and "terrace" and a coarser blend noted for the Farm. 1060 This planting
program was enhanced by the availability of hundreds of tons of highly organic "muck" recently
dredged from the pond on Crum Elbow Creek. 1061 Incredibly, this natural fertilizer was
supplemented with purchases of over two hundred tons of manure and ten tons of peat moss
during the same year. 1062
A REFINEMENT OF PRIVACY
Following the initial flurry of landscape activity on the heels of the estate's purchase, a
subsequent phase of improvement took place. These changes occurred during the years
immediately prior to and following the sale of the Vanderbilts' Rough Point property in
Newport, Rhode Island. At this time the Hudson River's lower environs were showing promise
of scenic improvement. During 1900, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission had been
created, and was soon making headway in the acquisition of the scenic escarpment that had
been so defaced by stonecutters. 1063 The development of this new park would have improved
the scenic approach to Vanderbilt's estate from New York City, especially by water.
This later campaign of changes to Vanderbilt's Hyde Park estate may also have been
precipitated by the opportunity to acquire the neighboring Sexton Tract, which had been
divested by the Hosack heirs in 1842. Vanderbilt's reintegration of the Sexton Tract into the
Hyde Park estate worked to further perfect his privacy; the subsequent removal of the Sexton
outbuildings from the middle ground of the view, recaptured a romantic and idealized view of
the Hudson River.
Three major projects undertaken during this time brought the Hyde Park estate to
essential completion. As mentioned above, the most fundamental change was the reunification
of the Sexton Tract with the historic parcel. Complementing the reassembly of the estate's
historic boundaries, was the creation of an extensive screen tree planting along Albany Post
Road and provision of a subterranean passage below the public road. The creation of the
subterranean "subway" afforded safe and private access to the farmland to the east, and further
(Arthur J. Jennings, The Complete Home Landscape [New York: A.T. Delamare Co. 1929], 65.) The use of
dynamite for planting is also covered in Robert Cridland's book, Practical Landscape Gardening (New
York: A.T. Delamare Co. 1925).
1059
Cash Book, Hyde Park, June 3, 1898, Hyde Park Estate Ledgers, ROVA Archives.
1060
There are extensive purchases of grass seed for the "park" noted in the account books and in one case
during April of 1902. The relative composition of seed for the lawn versus that for the farm's meadows is
provided: Lawn seed, 2 bushel mix: 36lbs Fancy Redtop, 36lbs Kentucky Bluegrass, 36lbs Rhode Island
Bentgrass, White Clover. Farm Mix: 26lbs Fancy Redtop, 26lbs Timothy, 42 lbs Sheep Fescue, 12lbs
White Clover. (Cash Book, "Hyde Park October 1901 thru December 1902," Hyde Park Estate Ledgers,
ROVA Archives.)
1061
Cash Book, "Poughkeepsie National, 6 August 1895-3 August 1896." During May of 1896, Vanderbilt
purchased over twenty tons of limestone for mixing with the sediment dredged from the pond.
1062
Cash Book, Entry of August 8, 1896: C.B. Green (peat moss). Entry of December 23, 1896: Black
Brothers (manure).
1063
Raymond. J. O'Brien, American Sublime: Landscape and Scenery of the Lower Hudson Valley (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1981), 239.
186