National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
house to the garage it is overhead. At the present time the line from the mansion to the
power house is out of order. 1236
The Historians' Research Notes File, which cite the 1940 Curradi Report on Existing
Utilities, states that "There is no telephone connection in the Pavilion." 1237 However, the 1897
Hiscox Utilities map shows a telephone connection from the house to the Pavilion and to the
Power House, but not to the Stable. The line, though, that represents the telephone on the map
is very faint and nearly impossible to decipher. In an oral interview with Alfred E. Martin,
Martin states in a description of the Butler's Pantry, "In the other corner, on the west side, was a
little cupboard where the private phone was kept to call the Garage or Power House and the
Pavilion; just a private line." It seems likely that the Pavilion had telephone service and that it
was disconnected at some point prior to the time the NPS took over the property.
Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone invention in 1876. By 1893 and 1894,
when the Bell patents ran out, about one in every 250 people had a telephone. Early telephone
subscribers were mostly commercial; only about one-third of telephone customers were
residential. With the expiration of the Bell patents, independent companies entered the market,
rates plummeted, and the number of subscriptions soared. 1238 Even so, in 1900, residential
telephones were still a luxury limited mostly to elite families and some of the more comfortable
middle managers. 1239 In New York City, in 1899, 1,000 telephone calls per year cost $99. 1240
Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt each had a telephone at their bedside. These must have been
added at a later date because the telephones themselves carry an August 1, 1900 patent date.
There are no other distinguishing markers that identify the telephone's manufacturer. These
telephones were desk models in which there is a mouthpiece/transmitter on the candlestick
body with a hanging ear piece receiver. A common-system battery supplied power from a
central exchange to all telephone customers. Lifting the receiver signaled the switchboard
operator that one wished to place a call. There was also a telephone in the Butler's Pantry
mounted on the wall where all the communication systems came together in one place. This
telephone was a wall-mounted box-like apparatus with hanging ear piece,
mouthpiece/transmitter, and bells on the top of the telephone box.
In addition to the telephone, the house also had two other intra-communication systems.
One was a set of speaking tubes that led from each of Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt's Bedrooms to
the Butler's Pantry. From the Butler's Pantry's three speaking tubes connected to the Kitchen
and Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt's Bedrooms and are marked to indicate which tube went where.
The Kitchen speaking tube connected to the Butler's Pantry and is unmarked. That there are
three tubes in the Butler's Pantry indicates that each speaking tube was dedicated to a certain
location, rather than allowing for choice. In other words, Mrs. Vanderbilt could not call both
the Kitchen and/or the Butler's Pantry. The speaking tube in the Kitchen has a lever on one side
that got switched to allow air into the tube to signal the "call."
The second communication system within the house was a deVeau annunciator system
with push-buttons in many of the rooms that connected to two central boxes, one mounted on
1236 Curradi, 4. Also quoted verbatim in Historian's Research Notes File, 6, 38, 85.
1237 Historian's Research Notes File, 66. Source: Curradi Report of Existing Utilities.
1238 Fischer, 42-3.
1239 Fischer, 301.
1240 Fischer, 48.
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