National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
Vanderbilts' case, through the central stairway. There is also a large hinged panel cut into the
basement floor that could be opened to aid in the circulation of air.
The boiler itself had three distinct parts. It had a furnace to burn the coal, heating
surfaces to absorb the heat, and water circulating tubes or passages in these surfaces to separate
the steam from the water. 1213 The Vanderbilt ledger books document the purchase and delivery
of large amounts of coal, most often egg, stove, and shavings. Egg and stove refer to the size of
each piece of anthracite coal. Egg coal would pass through the mesh of a screen between 2
inches and 2 3/4 inches square or 2 1/4 inches and 3 1/8 inches round. Stove coal was smaller in
diameter, fitting through between a 1 3/8 inch and 2 inches square or between a 1 9/16 inch and
2 1/4 inches round mesh. Only anthracite or semi-anthracite coals were graded according to
size. 1214 The advantage to using anthracite coal was that it burned more slowly and therefore the
boiler only needed to be fired two or three times during a twenty-four hour period. 1215 Coal was
delivered through chutes to two separate coal rooms at the northeast corner of the subbasement.
The plans indicate that the southernmost coal room was designated for "range coal
and wood." Judging from the larger deliveries of egg than stove, most likely the boilers used egg
coal. This has some confirmation in a 1942 report that indicates the amount of egg coal used
that year for the boilers. 1216
Coal was also used in large quantities to heat the greenhouses. 1217 Entries in the Shears'
journal for April 18, 1898 and October 17, 1903 indicate that they used soft or bituminous coal
for the greenhouses. Shears stated, "Began to unload car of soft coal for greenhouses." Another
curious entry in the Shears journal for October 27, 1903 stated, "Finished unloading car of stove
coal and began to draw buckwheat to [xxxxx?]." Buckwheat is an even smaller size coal; the
sizes in descending order being grate, egg, stove, nut, pea, buckwheat, rice, and barley. 1218 The
entries for April 29 and 30, 1903 suggest a small story. On April 29, Shears wrote, "Finished
putting coal in Pavilion and began at Mansion." For the 30 th , he continued, "Mrs. Briggs had a
fit over coal going in Mansion yet had to continue." Perhaps the Vanderbilts were expecting
guests and the coal delivery, which would have generated considerable dirt, upset her schedule?
In the direct heating system, steam leaves the upper part of the boiler and circulates
through the steam pipes to the various radiators in the building. As the steam cools, it condenses
and falls back in the return to the boiler. Vanderbilt radiators were from the National Radiator
Company whose business office and manufacturing plant were in Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
with offices in New York and Philadelphia. 1219 National Radiator was a relatively new company,
begun with a single foundry in 1894. American Radiator Company of Chicago had been in the
1213
J. L. Mott Iron Works, Heating Homes (1917), 6. In the collection of the National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian Institution.
1214
Mott, Heating Homes, 10-11.
1215
Mott, Heating Homes, 12.
1216
Historian's Research Notes File, 52, Source: Memo for the Chief of Planning by Chas. W. Andrae,
May 6, 1942.
1217
See multiple entries in Hyde Park Estate Ledgers.
1218
Mott, Heating Homes, 10.
1219
National Radiator Company, Trade Catalog (1903 and 1917). In the collection of the National
Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
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