National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
While the house's structure was of a fireproof nature, the furnishings were not and thus
remained vulnerable to fire. There did not appear to be any other means installed in the house
to combat fire. For example, at Mills Mansion, which had incorporated the old wood
Livingston house into the central core of the renovation and additions of 1895, fire hoses were
placed at strategic locations throughout the house. 1232 These were most likely connected to
water pipes fed by an attic cistern, accessible by the turn of a knob or switch. The Historians'
Research Notes File quotes an unattributed 1956 source thus about the Vanderbilt house's fire
protection:
This area is without fire protection of any kind, with the exception of 3 old and practically
useless one-quart carbon-tetrachloride extinguishers located in the Mansion.
So far as is known there has been only one fire in the Mansion since it was built. That
occurred in the servant's quarters on the third floor. Nevertheless, the dander is always
present and some means of fighting small fires should be on hand. It would be virtually
impossible to replace most of the furnishings in the Mansion should they be damaged. 1233
The house's construction followed the most up-to-date precautions against fire, but the
hazards from the cook ranges, fireplace fires, and smoking remained.
COMMUNICATION
As with so many of the house's technological systems, very little information is available
on the internal and external communication systems. During the 1890s, the telephone was
finding a place in American businesses and homes as a way to communicate from a distance. 1234
Before the telephone's introduction, annunciators, or remote signaling devices, had become
common in hotels and large homes after their introduction in the late 1820s. The earlier devices
were mechanical. A person in his or her room would pull a cord that was at the end of a wire
that led to a central office, where the tug on the cord rotated a cylinder that in turn caused a
hammer to ring a bell to alert the service person to look to a master board where a "shaking
spindle" would indicate which room called for service. 1235 These devices eventually took
advantage of electro-mechanical technology that developed with the telegraph in the midcentury.
In the 1890s, several different remote communication systems existed side-by-side,
complementing one another in their tasks and competing for dominance in the market place.
Therefore, the existence of several communication technologies within the house, i.e. speaking
tubes, external telephone service, estate telephone service, and an annunciator system, was not
unusual and representative of a time when various communication technologies were in the
process of sorting themselves out. The 1940 Curradi report states:
The only building having outside telephone service is the mansion. The line for this service
is underground to the Post Road.
There is a service phone system (metallic circuit) connecting the mansion, power house and
garage. The line from the mansion to the power house is underground, and from the power
1232
Visit by author, December 1998.
1233
Historian's Research Notes File, 62. Source: none. Source of note 61: Report of Physical Survey of
Mansion by Daniel D. Merrill.
1234
Fischer.
1235
This description is based on a patented system devised by Boston bell hanger, Seth Fuller. See
advertisement for Seth Fuller, Evening Transcript, March 24, 1831; and William Havard Eliot, Description
of Tremont House (Boston, 1830), 35-6.
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