National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Analysis of Historical Significance and Integrity by Resource Type
In studying the Vanderbilt Mansion as an example of Beaux-Arts architecture (see ills. 1-
4, 11-14), one need only compare it to some of the specific characteristics as described in the
definition presented at the beginning of this section:
� Monumental flights of steps;
� Arched and linteled openings, often set between columns or pilasters;
� Use of figure sculpture, in the round or in relief, which appears more frequently than in
any of the other classical styles;
� The planning and massing of buildings, strictly and sometimes elaborately symmetrical,
with clearly articulated parts; in large buildings a five-part composition, with a climactic
central mass dominating the wings and their terminal features;
� Fronts may be broken into advancing and receding planes, and a general tendency to
multiply re-entrant angles sometimes affects even the treatment of quoins;
� Clear articulation of functions and a hierarchy of major, minor, and cross axes;
� Classical pictorialism.
If some McKim, Mead & White designs are difficult to categorize as pure Beaux-Arts, clearly the
Vanderbilt Mansion is not. The one instance where it does not totally fulfill the requirements is
the third story, where the plan is less successful in articulating axes. Otherwise it is an excellent
representation of Beaux-Arts design.
Only two of the firm's country houses or seaside cottages are expressed in this
architectural vocabulary: Hyde Park and Rosecliff. Both are successful artistic designs, but
Rosecliff's success may rely more on the additional glitz of its dazzling-white exterior finish,
while Hyde Park succeeds purely on its design merit.
THE COUNTRY PLACE (AND SEASIDE COTTAGE) AND BEAUX-ARTS 1405
Thousands of country places and seaside cottages were built between the 1870s and
World War I. Initially the Italianate, French Second Empire, Shingle, Stick, and Colonial Revival
styles were popular. As at McKim, Mead & White, residential designs were usually a significant
part of the work at all of the architectural firms that were practicing at the time. Gradually,
architects turned to the more classical expressions that were exemplified by the more formal
Georgian and Federal Revivals and Renaissance Revival architecture, and occasionally the most
formal, Neoclassical. These latter styles were sometimes expressed with Beaux-Arts detailing.
The preferred architectural styles for country places were the more picturesque ones at first, but
as newly wealthy families improved their social status, they looked for a new way to display their
wealth. This was done with the more formal architectural styles and often with the increasing
sizes of houses. Families who had maintained their fortunes from earlier times competed with
the newcomers, and as the concept of the American Renaissance evolved, the more formal styles
expressed what the wealthy wished to convey: that they were the new American aristocracy,
patrons of the arts. Beaux-Arts ornamentation provided the aristocracy's crown for these more
formal and classical architectural styles.
1405 This discussion is limited to country homes and seaside cottages designed in the Beaux-Arts style
during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade and a half of the twentieth century.
The study locations have been limited to Long Island, New York, Newport, Rhode Island, the Berkshires,
Massachusetts, and New York's Hudson River Valley.
247