National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
heating apparatus business since 1874. 1220 It was unnecessary for the Vanderbilts to purchase
fancy radiators because they appeared only in the service areas. By the 1880s, manufacturers
could easily cast metals into decorative designs and so radiators typically abounded with scrolls
and other cast decorative elements. 1221 Vanderbilt radiators came in four shapes and sizes:
either one or two loop units in either a tall or short height, depending on the heating needs of
each room.
Rooms heated by the indirect system benefited from better ventilation and the absence
of unsightly radiators. As explained by J. L. Mott:
The heat is supplied entirely by the changing of the air of the room, that is, by displacing the
air that may be in it with fresh air that has been brought from the outside to an indirect
radiator or stack placed in a box or chamber beneath the room, and from there, when
heated, it is conducted through pipes to a register that should be placed in the side wall of the
room, and if in a residence, as near the floor as possible. 1222
Mott also stated that this kind of heat required more than double the boiler power than
required for direct radiation. Using direct heating in the service areas, then, accounted for
considerable savings. The Vanderbilt house has decorative grates in all the public rooms, guest
rooms, and family and guest bathrooms. The indirect radiators can be seen inside the large
ducts located in the sub-sub-basement.
Returning to Clermont's description of the "air-conditioning" system, such a system
was devised by "steam engineer" Alfred R. Wolff of New York City. Wolff's reputation was
cemented by his 1889 ventilation system of Carnegie Hall, in which he placed racks of ice in
the air-supply ducts to furnish cool air during hot weather. In 1893, Wolff began using a
split-distribution system, which involved a plenum, or mixing chamber, of tempered air for
ventilation and direct radiation to provide heating. He also adopted cheesecloth filters to
clean the incoming air supply. In 1893, he designed the heating and ventilation system for
the Cornelius Vanderbilt residence in New York City. 1223 While there is no evidence to
support whether or not the Vanderbilt house incorporated such a system, the Clermont
recollection would seem to suggest it.
The specifications for Florham, the Twombly estate, describe a heating system similar to
that of the Vanderbilt house. Moreover, they indicate some of the desired results of its
operation, such as noiselessness and an ideal temperature of seventy degrees. They state:
All the rooms, corridors and apartments . . . will be heated by indirect and direct radiation;
the direct radiation being used only in the servants' apartments, as more particularly
indicated on the plans.
The apparatus is guaranteed to work noiselessly during operation, and to heat all portions of
the building having heat sources to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the coldest weather; and all
water of condensation shall return to either or both boilers by gravity.
Certain rooms in the servants' portion, which have no chimney flue, and the bath rooms, as
indicated in blue, will have ventilating flues carried to the attic and there connected to one of
the chimneys, the chimney being enlarged by the owners to accommodate the same.
1220
American Radiator Company, Trade Catalog (1897 and 1899). In the collection of the National
Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
1221
Elliott, 282.
1222
Mott, Heating Homes, 7-8.
1223
Cooper, 11-12.
215