Vanderbilt houses

From the late 1870s to the 1920s the Vanderbilt clan employed America's best Beaux-Arts architects and decorators to build an unequalled string of New York townhouses and East Coast palaces in the United States. Many of the Vanderbilt houses are now historical landmarks.

The list of architects employed by the Vanderbilts is a who's who of the New York-based firms that embodied the syncretic (often dismissed as 'eclectic' styles of the American Renaissance: Richard Morris Hunt, George B. Post, McKim, Mead and White, Carrere and Hastings, Warren and Wetmore, Horace Trumbauer John Russell Pope, Addison Mizner were all employed by the descendants of 'Commodore' Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built only very modestly himself.

Some Vanderbilt houses

Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856-1938), 'Hyde Park,' Hyde Park, New York, 1896-1899; McKim, Mead and White, now Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site (website)

William Kissam Vanderbilt I (1849-1920), 'Idle Hour', Oakdale, Long Island, New York; built 1878-1879; Richard Morris Hunt (destroyed by fire, 1899), 660 Fifth Avenue, New York, demolished 1926.

William Kissam Vanderbilt I, 'Marble House', Newport, Rhode Island, built 1888-1892; Richard Morris Hunt (website)

George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862-1914), "Biltmore", Asheville, North Carolina, built 1888-1895; Richard Morris Hunt (website)

Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899), 'The Breakers', Newport, Rhode Island, built 1892-1895; Richard Morris Hunt (website)

Florence Vanderbilt (Mrs. Hamilton Twombly) (1854-1952), 'Florham', Convent Station, New Jersey, 1894-1897; McKim, Mead and White (now Administration Building, Fairleigh Dickinson University) (website)

External link

• The Vanderbilt houses