National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Historic Resource Study (HRS) for Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site
addresses the architecture of the mansion, its furnished interiors, the mechanical systems of
the mansion and transportation systems of the estate, the cultural landscape, and occupancy
of the estate from the Vanderbilt period to the present.
Architecture of the Mansion
McKim, Mead & White was America's preeminent architectural firm by the end of
the nineteenth century. The house designed for Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt by
McKim, Mead & White is representative of the firm's Neoclassical Beaux-Arts architecture
from this time period. It is a clear, concise, and beautiful design, highly successful in its
interpretation of Beaux-Arts theory. Neoclassical structures with Beaux-Arts
ornamentation were rarely built for country-place architecture. While a few others of this
type survive in other locales, the Vanderbilt Mansion was the only one ever constructed in
the Hudson River Valley. In addition to its significance as a rare architectural design for the
country place, it is also a component of the whole of Vanderbilt grand-house commissions
from Frederick's generation of builders, an outstanding legacy left for America's heritage.
Furnished Interiors
The furnished interiors of the Vanderbilt Mansion at Hyde Park represent gilded-
age interior decoration of the highest level. The rooms are a combination of architectdesigned
interiors and decorator-designed interiors executed by Charles Follen McKim, the
architect of the mansion; and Ogden Codman and Georges Glaenzer, two successful
decorators of the period. The sub-contractors represent another level of participation: the
McKim interiors were executed by Herter Brothers and A.H. Davenport, prominent interior
decorators, as well as contractors. Stanford White served the interesting and perhaps
unique role of antiques dealer for Frederick Vanderbilt and was responsible for extensive
purchases in Europe in the fall of 1897. The mansion incorporates a number of different
styles, typical of gilded-age decoration. The formal public spaces were designed to emulate
old European rooms, while the Vanderbilts' private spaces imitated French and Italian
aristocratic room decoration. The interiors survive with almost all of the major furnishings
and provide a rich context for studying the taste and style of the Gilded Age.
Service Areas
The basement and third floor service areas within the Vanderbilts' Hyde Park
mansion are a rare survival of the complete range of interrelated work spaces and staff
housing of a gilded-age country place laid out on a Beaux-Arts plan. The symmetry and
balance of the floor plan, which was carried over from the first public floor of the house,
dictated the arrangement of service rooms around the central ellipse. Overall functional
efficiency, a hallmark of country house design, was sacrificed to ensure perfect architectural
balance. However, within each service floor, the assigned room usage resulted in a discrete
series of functional zones relating to household operations. These functional zones were an
architectural manifestation of the management system and daily operations of the household
departments as well as the socio-economic hierarchy within the household staff itself. The
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