We decide to head over to the Vanderbilt Mansion today. We’ve been to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville and we’re interested to compare the two residences. The scooter ride there takes us through the heart of Hyde Park. It looks like a charming town and, as we’ve seen, it’s full of national history. We get to the property and see the front of the house. It looks big, but very small in comparison to the Biltmore.
We sign up for a house tour at the visitor’s center. We have about 30 minutes to spare so we decide to walk around. I’m not much of a historian, and I may be all wrong, but the Snoopy sticker in the window just doesn’t look period correct. Am I wrong??
We enter the house on the first floor of six. We learn that the first floor is used primarily for entertainment with a dining room on one end and a sitting room on the other. The guide said that this particular house was among the smallest in the Vanderbilt “collection.” Alas, they would only be able to comfortably seat up to 16 for dinner. The 45,000 square foot home has 6 floors, 54 rooms, 14 bathrooms and 21 fireplaces, after all it’s just a spring and fall cottage for the Vanderbilt’s to enjoy.
The first floor is filled with European tapestry, vases and artwork. The second and third floors hold bedrooms and are similarly decorated.
Louise Torrance married Frederick Vanderbilt in 1878 and above is a picture of her room. She designed her room off of Marie Antoinette’s private rooms at Versailles. Yes, private fence around the bed and all. That poses all sorts of questions, doesn’t it?? There were several rooms for guests on the second floor and apparently, the closer you were to the Vanderbilt’s bedrooms, the more affluent and liked you were. We didn’t see the third floor, but there were guest rooms up there also.
As we get ready to descend the stairs to the basement where the servant quarters were, I happened to look up and this is what I see. Yeah, going down the dark stairs to the basement is less creepy now.
The worker’s living quarters were actually pretty nice. And, for that period in history, it was quite an honor to work at the Vanderbilt home. The steady, above average pay and working conditions kept many folks on for years.
After touring the house we went for a stroll around the gardens. I think the heat over the past week did a number on most of the plants, but the gardens were still gorgeous. Adorned with lots of flowers, ferns and ground cover it was a treat just walk and relax looking at all that was around us.
We get back to our scooters and get ready to go. We notice this tree behind the bike rack and see that it appears to have been split several times but is still thriving. I think I mentioned in a post while we were in Cape May; nature always finds a way.
Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt never had children. Louise passed away in 1926, Frederick in 1938. Their net worth was around 80 million when he died. He donated most of his fortune to various charities and causes, and gave the house to his wife’s niece, Margaret Van Alen. Interestingly enough, they didn’t give any inheritance to family members that had the last name of Vanderbilt. Anyhow, Margaret didn’t care at all about having the house and it was the neighbors up the road, the Roosevelt’s, that suggested she donate it to the National Park Service, which she did in 1940.
Next we head south to cross the Walkway Over the Hudson Park. The above map shows various points of interest around the Walkway and what you can see. The point labeled Quiet Cove Park, in the upper right hand corner, is just south of the marina. The walkway is a rails to trails bridge over the Hudson River. The bridge runs east to west and is over a mile long, 6768 feet to be exact. And, don’t tell Mom, but it stands 212 feet above the river.
You can see for miles from the bridge, so of course, we had to look for our boat. Can you spot it in the picture above? That’s actually 2 boats, ours and a looper friend and the boats are on a dock facing the river. We have found that around 12:30am a tugboat comes through NOT honoring the no wake zone. And, like clockwork, at 12am and then again at 2:30, the trash train comes through. The train is right behind the marina and it goes to New York every morning to get trash and take it away from the city. It’s funny the things you get used to, they don’t even bother us anymore.
Not to rub it in for the folks at home, but it got down right chilly here today so we put on our coats to get to the Walkway bridge this afternoon. That’s the mid-Hudson Bridge behind us.
Doug finds Aloy’s Italian restaurant that’s close to the entrance to the walkway, so we scooter on over there for dinner. The food is really good and we share a salad and lasagna. We get back to the marina and button everything up. Tomorrow is another travel day, we head to New Baltimore, NY and will stay at Donovan’s Shady Harbor marina.
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