National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Analysis of Historical Significance and Integrity by Resource Type
Although the Vanderbilt Mansion was originally conceived with the same type of proposed
treatment, the insecurity of the existing foundation and walls necessitated the new design. This
fate allowed the architects and the patron a freer hand. While elements in the final design may
be based on the old Langdon house, it evolved into one of the purest expressions of the Beaux-
Arts in American country architecture.
Paul Baker's conclusion that the 1893 Columbian Exposition made Beaux-Arts design
acceptable in America appears to be accurate. This was especially true for urban architecture.
The records indicate that architects such as Hunt and McKim, Mead & White were designing
Beaux-Arts buildings for clients at the same time as for the exposition. These included not only
large public buildings that one would expect to find in cities, but also elegant urban townhouses.
One need only look to New York, Washington, Chicago, and Boston for examples. However, of
the thousands of country houses, seaside cottages, or vacation houses that were built in the four
or so decades prior to World War I, and at the watering holes of the New York social set, it
seems that few were constructed using Beaux-Arts attributes. In examination of the previously
cited list, clearly the majority of commissions were for other building types. The application of
Beaux-Arts theory appears to have been more suitably compatible to an urban environment, or
at least so believed the architects and their patrons.
The Beaux-Arts country house was perhaps too contradictory in its strict academicism
and monumentality in country park surroundings for many architects to suggest it. One might
say it was more apropos in the suburban setting of Newport, where other monumental
residences balanced the massing, and its academic classicism competed with a neighbor's lessacademic
house, suggesting a hierarchy of class. Clearly in Hyde Park and seemingly all along
the Hudson River, the Vanderbilt Mansion was unique. It so exquisitely related to its landscape
and was so successfully executed, yet beyond its academic classicism can be found a house that
is very livable and indeed most-loved by the Vanderbilts. It should be considered an
outstanding example of American Neoclassical Beaux-Arts residential architecture, especially in
the realm of the country place, and one of many tributes to Charles F. McKim's expertise. While
a less- experienced architect might have had a difficult time translating Beaux-Arts principles
into a house design for the country-place setting, in the firm's hands and specifically those of
Charles F. McKim, it appears as though it was easy.
THE VANDERBILTS (THIRD GENERATION ONLY) AND THEIR HOUSES
William H. Vanderbilt, son of the Commodore, fathered nine sons and daughters, all but
one (Allen 1846-58) of whom survived to adulthood. Cornelius was the oldest (1843-99),
followed successively by Margaret Louisa Shepard (1845-1925), William Kissam (1849-1920),
Emily Thorn Sloane White (1852-1946), Florence Adele Twombly (1854-1952), Frederick
William (1856-1938), Eliza Osgood Webb (18[60]-1936), and George Washington (1862-1914).
This generation of Vanderbilts and their respective spouses were a formidable force as
builders of great houses. They constructed or altered and enlarged New York City townhouses,
Newport seaside cottages, Adirondack camps, Bar Harbor cottages, and country estates in a
variety of places. In addition to new construction, Cornelius and Alice altered and enlarged the
first Breakers in Newport with the aid of Peabody and Stearns, the original architects, in
1885; 1428 George remodeled Charles Haight's Point d' Acadie in Bar Harbor, possibly with
1428 Foreman and Stimson, 244-48.
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