National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
Doherty, the plumber, of this city, has a contract to lay 10,000 feet of water pipe through the
grounds." 1148
The 1897 Hiscox map of the utility lines shows the distribution of the water system. A
series of three- and four-inch mains led from the Power House to various points on the
estate. 1149 Four-inch mains led from the Power House to the Stable, the Wales House, the Tool
House, the farm buildings, the Howard House, and the standpipe. A three-inch main connected
the Vanderbilt Mansion and the Pavilion to a valve situated near the subway. A second valve
was located southwest of the west end of the White Bridge. A third valve sat directly in front of
the house within the circular lawn. A main led from that valve to four hose boxes due south
between the house and the gardens.
The water pump pumped water to a standpipe located at the estate's highest elevation, a
site on the farm property approximately 2,200 feet east of the Albany Post Road. This structure
measured fifty feet tall with a fifteen foot diameter with a capacity of 66,000 gallons. 1150 It was
made of riveted iron plates with a scalloped wooden element around the top. It still stands,
although the site is now private property and is obscured from view by at least sixty years of
unmanaged tree growth. 1151 An 1896 Engineering Magazine article describes the way in which a
standpipe works:
Instead of pumping all the water used into an elevated tank and distributing it thence to the
different lines in the house, the water is pumped into a comparatively small stand-pipe that
does not serve in any considerable way to provide storage, but rather acts as a pressure
regulator for the pump to act directly against and maintain the supply and head of the water
used in exact accordance with the amount used, thus promoting simplicity and directness,
and virtually applying to a domestic installation the system long ago adopted for municipal
water-works and known as the Holly system. 1152
Water needed to be pumped into the system as fast as it was used in order to maintain
regular pressure. The stand-pipe system, described in this article was a closed one; the
Vanderbilt stand-pipe was open at the top. Thus, it is surmised that the wooden element at the
top enabled the property engineer to see from a distance that the stand-pipe was overflowing, as
the water cascaded through the scalloped openings.
Standpipes required regular maintenance in the form of cleaning and painting. An 1899
article in the Journal of the New England Water Works Association recommended painting
standpipe exteriors every five years and interiors every two years. In order to paint the interior,
the water needed to be drained and the interior cleaned and scraped. This was the most
expensive part of the process. The article also recommended not using professional painters
because professionals knew how to cover the most surface with the least amount of paint,
whereas novices tended to slap on heavy coats that served the standpipe well. 1153 The 1940
1148
Historian's Research Notes File, 243. Source: Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, May 2, 1897.
1149
Hiscox Map, 1897.
1150
Historian's Research Notes File, 98. Source: "Report on Existing Utilities on the Frederick W.
Vanderbilt Estate," by Associate Engineer Alfred D. Curradi, April 30, 1940.
1151
On site inspection, December 1998, conducted by Molly Berger, Henry Van Brookhoven, and
Duncan Hay.
1152
"A Stand-Pipe Plumbing System," Engineering Magazine 11 (1896): 929-31.
1153
Byron I. Cook, "Standpipes," Journal of the New England Water Works Association (December 1899):
124-32.
204