National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
gutter and the cast faux slate curbs were most likely cast in place and not precast. 1091 On the
road leading from Route 9 over the White Bridge toward the house, grates are set into the gutter
to allow drainage in the low-lying terrain. The ledger books document supply of these grates
during the main period of construction. For example, on April 4, 1898, Poughkeepsie Foundry
and Machine Co. was paid $5.08 for four grates for the main drive. Again, on October 10, 1898,
the same company supplied sixteen grates and frames for the "creek road" and another twelve
for the garden. On December 5, 1898 there is an entry for "5 grates & frames, lower entrance" at
$3 each for a total of $15. 1092 These grates allow water to flow into a system of tile drains that
carry the water away.
This process of road building is documented in both the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier
and the ledger books. On August 4, 1895, the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier reported that ten
miles of new drives would be laid out and that the old wooden bridge over the "pretty creek"
would be replaced by a new one. 1093 In a lead article describing the ongoing development of the
landscape, the paper notes that "A large force of men is at work draining and grading." 1094 The
ledger books more specifically document ongoing purchases of drain tiles from Wm. A. Caire
and payments to J. Myers and Son for laying the tile. The ledger books also record continuous
large shipments of crushed stone during 1898 to the estate. Stone was purchased in three sizes:
two-and-a-half inch; three-quarters inch and gravel of five-eighths inch. These sizes give
credence to defining the roads as macadamized rather than Telford, in that the latter would also
require large rock-sized stones to serve as the foundation. However, the crushed stone would
also be used to resurface existing Telford roads on the property. 1095 Additionally, an existing
photograph confirms an NPS report that Vanderbilt had a stone-crusher located near the
sawmill. This was used until 1900, after which time all stone was bought commercially (see ill.
20). 1096
The gutters on the road leading up to and beyond the White Bridge are white, no doubt
to support the drama of the bridge approach. However, once the road shifts to the higher
elevation and approaches the house, not only are there no longer gutters, but the curbs
themselves are dyed gray to simulate slate. 1097 The NPS has maintained this pattern based on
extant examples of original road dating to the Vanderbilt era. Other roads on the estate, where
drainage is not a problem, have neither gutters nor curbing and rain water drains naturally into
the environs.
The process of road development continued through the end of the decade and into the
next. In 1897 Vanderbilt made improvements to the Albany Post Road near the house's
entrance. 1098 The ledgers show the greatest road building activity to have occurred between
May and November 1898. The Hudson River Stone Supply Co. supplied the two inch and
three-quarter inch stone while the gravel came from James A. DeGroat. The first roads to be
worked on were those around the house. Work progressed in June to roads leading to the
1091
Comments to author, August 18, 1999, Henry Van Brookhoven.
1092
Hyde Park Estate Ledger, 1898, ROVA Archives.
1093
Historian's Research Notes File, 146. Source: Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, August 4, 1895, 6.
1094
Historian's Research Notes File, 200. Source: Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, July 19, 1896.
1095
See Document Source Book for list of stone deliveries.
1096
"Barns," John L. Hover, "Documentary Study of the Vanderbilt Farms, " Vanderbilt Report 21, n.d.,
VAMA General File, ROVA Curatorial Division.
1097
Interview with Henry J. Van Brookhoven, May 17, 1999.
1098
Historian's Research Notes File, 261-2; 266.
194