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From the late 1870s to the 1920s, the Vanderbilt family 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 National Historic Landmarks. Some photographs of Vanderbilt's residences in New York are included in the Photographic series of American Architecture by Albert Levy (1870's).
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, Charles B. Atwood, Carrère 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.
Houses
- Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856-1938) built "Hyde Park" in Hyde Park, New York. Designed by McKim, Mead and White and built in 1896-99, it is now the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site. He built Rough Point in Newport, Rhode Island. [1]
- William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849-1920) had three houses designed by Richard Morris Hunt. His townhouse at 660 Fifth Avenue, New York, proved an influential example for other society mansions of the time, but was demolished in 1926. The mansion "Idle Hour" in Oakdale, Long Island, New York was built in 1878-79, and destroyed by fire in 1899. The third was the "Marble House" in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1888-92. [2]
- William Kissam Vanderbilt II, built "Eagle’s Nest", in 1910-36, at Centerport, New York. It was designed by Warren and Wetmore. [3]
- George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862-1914), constructed "Biltmore" in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1888-95. Designed by Hunt, it is the largest house in the United States [4]
- Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1879-1882), New York Residence constructed by George B. Post.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899), built "The Breakers" in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1892-95, which was also designed by Hunt [5]
- Florence Vanderbilt (Mrs. Hamilton Twombly) (1854-1952) built "Florham" in Convent Station, New Jersey, in 1894-97. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it is now the Administration Building at Fairleigh Dickinson University [6]
- Emily Thorn Vanderbilt (Wife of William Douglas Sloan) built "Elm Court" in Lenox, Massachusetts, in 1887. It is the largest shingle-style house in the United States. The 1919 "Elm Court Talks," held at Elm Court, led to the creation of The League of Nations and The Treaty of Versailles.
