Temples of unbridled luxury, the opulent Vanderbilt mansions epitomise the soaring wealth of the Gilded Age. Beginning in the late 1870s, the family's scions competed against each other to build the biggest, most lavish homes, with platinum walls, mountains of marble and even parts of New York's original Grand Central Station thrown into the mix. However, within a couple of generations, all but one of these properties passed out of the family's possession as their fortune dwindled. Click through to feast your eyes on the illustrious dynasty's most magnificent manses and uncover their intriguing secrets.
The Vanderbilt family legacy all begins with Cornelius “the Commodore” Vanderbilt, an ambitious business magnate who amassed an enormous fortune through his holdings in shipping and, most significantly, railroads. Working his way into a leadership position in the inland water trade, Vanderbilt became an early investor in the rapidly expanding railway industry, and, by the 1850s, had become the wealthiest man in the United States.
As railroads snaked their way across the US, dramatically altering the country’s geography and opening up new and expedited means of travel and trade, the fortunes of the few lucky business magnates who monopolized the industry skyrocketed. Unsurprisingly, Vanderbilt and his peers (pictured here in an 1882 political cartoon) drew criticism for their often ruthless business practices, and by the 1850s, newspapers had coined the term ‘robber barons’ to evoke the supposed corruption, manipulation, and bribery many believed were at play.
However, unscrupulous business practices aside, Vanderbilt’s fortune soon cemented a place for himself and his family at the very pinnacle of New York City society, though they still struggled to shake off the mantle of the ‘nouveau riche’ in the eyes of many. As Vanderbilt’s vast wealth began to trickle down his family tree, his children and grandchildren set about earning their societal stripes the best way they knew how: amassing a vast real estate empire of magnificent homes built for flaunting their fabulous riches.
By the time of his death in 1877 at the age of 82, Vanderbilt’s net worth was approximately $105 million (£86m), or roughly $3 billion (£2.5bn) in today’s money. After the Commodore's passing, the lion's share of the fortune passed to his eldest son, William Henry. It is William's youngest child, George Washington Vanderbilt II (pictured), who commissioned Biltmore, the largest and grandest private home in the US.
Having inherited millions from his father William Henry, who died in 1885, George Washington Vanderbilt II set about constructing the ultimate country estate in scenic Asheville, North Carolina. Beginning in 1889, over a thousand workers were hired to construct the colossal 178,926-square-foot residence on 700 parcels of land, totalling 125,000 acres, purchased by George W. The final bill came to an incredible $1.6 billion (£1.2bn) in today's money.
The 250-room mansion was designed in the palatial Châteauesque style by Richard Morris Hunt, the Beaux-Arts architect behind the Statue of Liberty pedestal and the Met Gallery's facade and Great Hall. George W named Biltmore after the Dutch town of De Bilt, where the Vanderbilts originated. Upon its completion in 1895, George W – who was an avid collector of art and antiques – packed the sprawling manse with extravagant furnishings and paintings dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries.
The estate hosted the great and good of American society, from presidents to writers such as Edith Wharton, but the family was actually looked down upon by old money individuals, at least initially. Wharton slammed the flashy clan for being “entrenched in a sort of Thermopylae of bad taste,” while established dynasties such as the Astors considered them vulgar nouveau riche arrivistes.
After George W died in 1914, his wife Edith would spend hours in the library speaking to her deceased husband; it is said that his ghost, along with that of Edith, and a phantom orange cat, haunt the property to this day. Adding to its notoriety, the manse is awash with secret doors and passageways, and features a sinister space filled with headless mannequins. If that weren't enough, in 1922 the estate was the scene of a grisly double murder.
The glorious abode was completed in 1882, garnering glowing reviews for its “distinction, elegance, dignity and even repose”. Critics were blown away by the finely crafted interiors, replete with treasures acquired from antique shops and hard-up European aristos. Highlights ranged from the 60-foot-long grand hall and the Gothic-inspired banquet hall, both of which were faced in Caen stone imported from France.
The salon was equally awe-inspiring. It was designed and assembled in Paris by prestigious interior decorating company Jules Allard and Sons and boasted a painted ceiling by celebrated artist Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry, as well as an ebony secretary that once belonged to the ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette.
To celebrate the chateau's completion, Alva organised a glittering costume ball in 1883, splurging a staggering $6 million (£5m) in today's dollars on the function, with the equivalent of $1.6 million (£1.2m) spent on champagne alone. Cunningly, she invited every New York VIP of note, apart from Queen Bee Caroline Astor, who rather humiliatingly was forced to virtually beg for an invite. Needless to say, the Vanderbilts had finally arrived and were no longer thought of as new money upstarts.
The power couple divorced in 1895, stunning high society, and the mansion was put on the market following William K's death in 1920. The Petit Chateau was sold to a banking trust, for what amounts to $39 million (£32.3m) today, when adjusted for inflation. The building remained vacant until 1925 when it was purchased by real estate developer Benjamin Winter, who promptly had the mansion demolished, erecting a multi-storey office block in its place.
William K dropped a whopping $317 million (£262.6m) in today's money on the 50-room manse, with an inflationary adjusted $202 million (£167.3m) spent on half a million cubic feet of marble. Presented upon its completion to his wife as a 39th birthday gift, the beautiful Beaux-Arts property was modelled after Queen Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon at Versailles, with nods to the White House.
Wonderfully decadent, the interiors were designed by Jules Allard and Sons, and dazzle with copious gilding, breathtaking 18th-century ceiling paintings, friezes by Giuseppe Moretti, exquisite Louis XIV furniture and wall-to-wall marble. The dining room for example features pink Numidian marble and a replica of the fireplace in Versailles' Salon d'Hercule.
Like many of the spaces in the mansion, the grand salon, which served as a ballroom and principal reception room, is Louis XIV in style. It positively wows with carved wood and gilt wall panels inspired by those in the Louvre's Galerie D'Apollon, as well as an 18th-century ceiling painting with a surround based on the Queen's Bedroom at Versailles.
That same year, Alva commissioned the Chinese Tea House, which emulates 12th-century Song dynasty temples. A tireless campaigner for women's voting rights, she regularly held suffragette meetings there. The socialite-turned-activist vacated the property in 1919 and it was bought in 1932 by stockbroker Frederick H Prince, who sold it in 1963 to the local preservation society, which has saved the manse for posterity.
Around the time the Petit Chateau was undergoing construction, William K's father William Henry Vanderbilt was building his very own statement mansion across the street at 640–642 Fifth Avenue. Completed in 1882, the imposing residence consisted of a single-family south section together with a two-family unit to the north, and was dubbed the “Triple Palace” by the press.
To design the palazzo, William H hired architects John B Snook, the man behind the original Grand Central Depot, and Charles B Atwood, who went on to create a number of monumental buildings for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. More than 600 skilled labourers worked on the project, which cost a total of $55 million (£45.6m) when adjusted for inflation.
Not to be outdone by his father William H and younger brother William K, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the favourite grandson of the patriarch of the clan, commissioned a showstopping Châteauesque mansion of his own on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and West 57th Street that would end up becoming the Big Apple's largest and grandest ever home.
Spurred on by his wife Alice, who reportedly wanted to go all out and “dwarf” her sister-in-law Alva's Petit Chateau, the pampered scion put the $5 million (£4.1m) he inherited from his grandfather in 1877 to good use, buying up and demolishing three brownstones on the corner the following year to make way for the gracious residence.
The red brick and limestone townhouse was completed in 1883 and certainly had the wow factor, but by the start of the 1890s, it was being surpassed by other robber baron manses on Fifth Avenue. Horrified that his home was being eclipsed, Cornelius re-hired Post and roped in Richard Morris Hunt to expand the property, splashing the modern-day equivalent of $92 million (£76.2m) on the project. Hundreds of workers grafted night and day to finish it.
Following Cornelius' sudden death in 1899 of a brain haemorrhage, Alice remained in the property until 1926. By this time, Fifth Avenue had transformed from a street resplendent with stately mansions to one lined with skyscrapers. Sold for $108 million (£89.5m) in today's money, the mansion was unceremoniously demolished and the Bergdorf Goodman department store was built in its place.
In 1883, Cornelius and Alice snapped up the Breakers, a Queen Anne-style “cottage” in Newport that had been built in 1878 for tobacco tycoon Pierre Lorillard IV. The couple paid around $13.5 million (£11.2m) in today's money for the property, which when they bought it was regarded as “unquestionably the most magnificent estate” in the salubrious resort town.
Absolutely zero expense was spared on the Italianate palazzo, which was finished in 1895 at an estimated cost of at least $198 million (£164m) in 2021 dollars. The largest and most lavish Newport “cottage”, it easily surpassed Marble House in splendour, brimming as it was with premium marble, extensive gilding and fixtures and furnishings lifted from some of France's finest châteaux.
An avid horse breeder and sportsman, Reginald Claypool Vanderbilt, the youngest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, added these equestrian facilities to The Breakers in 1860. The project took multiple decades to complete under the design and direction of architect A.S. Walker, but was finally finished in 1902, and came to be considered one of the most prestigious horse farms in America, according to Realtor.com.
Given his reputation for squandering his inheritance on gambling pursuits, it is no great surprise that Reginald spared no expense on the construction of the facilities, which are built from cypress beams, and boast three separate rooflines, offset by cupolas at the 60-foot peak of the riding ring. The rest of the initially 180-acre property features a 24-stall stable, a 15,000-square-foot indoor riding arena, “grooms’ quarters,” and a guest lounge.
The property, now reduced to six acres and known as Sandy Point Farm, is currently on the market for $5.83 million (£4.83m) with Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty. "The property has been such an iconic part of Portsmouth and American equestrian history for over a century now,” says listing agent Kylie McCollough, who clarifies that the facilities are not protected by the National Register of Historic Places, in spite of their pedigree. “We hope the next buyer understands the architectural and cultural importance of a property like Sandy Point.”
Together with his wife Louise, Frederick W acquired the storied 600-acre estate in 1895 and appointed legendary architectural firm McKim, Mead, & White – the company behind the sublime original Penn Station – to design an elegant 54-room Neoclassical manse. The building was completed in 1899 at a cost of $74 million (£61.3m) in 2021 dollars.
Charles Follen McKim was tasked with creating the elegant, perfectly symmetrical exterior, while Stanford White was handed $1.6 million (£1.3m) in today's money and dispatched to Europe to buy up furniture, fixtures and artworks from an array of antique dealers and stately homes, returning with a veritable treasure trove of items.
While fairly restrained by Vanderbilt standards, the manse was described by next-door neighbour Franklin D Roosevelt as “a hideous albatross in the Hudson River Valley”. Although the Beaux-Arts interiors are comparatively understated, they nonetheless exude grandeur with bounteous marble, exotic wood panelling, 17th-century tapestries and a bedroom that mimics Queen Marie Antoinette's boudoir at Versailles.
Louise passed away in 1926 and following Frederick W's death in 1938, the mansion was inherited by his niece Margaret Louise Van Alen. There was just one catch – the Vanderbilt scion didn't want it, and tried in vain to sell the estate, even going as far as to knock the price down to a bargain $250,000 (£207k), which translates to $4.9 million (£4.1m) when adjusted for inflation.
Dubbed the Eagle's Nest, the property was originally intended as a modest holiday home for the young heir and his first wife Virginia and actually started out as a compact English-style cottage, morphing into a sizeable Mediterranean-style villa over the following decades. During this time it hosted the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Coco Chanel and other VIPs. To design the house, Willie K turned to New York architectural firm Warren and Wetmore.
A keen yachtsman, Willie K spent his early years sailing around the world and collected a plethora of curios and artefacts on his travels. As might be expected, the interiors are fantastically eclectic, featuring everything from furniture salvaged from an Italian monastery to a 15th-century Portuguese mantelpiece and replicas of a bed and desk owned by Napoleon.
Willie K envisaged opening up the entire estate as a museum, “for the use, education and enjoyment of the general public”, and bequeathed the property - together with a $2 million (£1.7m) upkeep fund - to Suffolk County upon his death in 1944. The scion's second wife Rosamund died in 1947, and in 1950 the Eagle's Nest was reborn as the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum.
The couple had purchased 1,200 acres on the so-called Millionaires' Row in Madison, New Jersey, which was home to several famed Gilded Age estates owned by the Rockefellers, Mellons and other mega-rich dynasties. Chiefly inspired by Sir Christopher Wren's Hampton Court Palace extension, the 110-room stone and red brick manse is among the ten largest homes in the US.
In total, the grounds, manse and its contents set the Twomblys back a massive $165 million (£136.7m) when adjusted for inflation and cost the equivalent of $8.2 million (£6.8m) per year to run. Around 600 workers were brought over from Italy to work on constructing the building and extensive grounds, effectively founding the base for Madison's thriving Italian-American community.
The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also landscaped New York's Central Park, and contained Italianate gardens and a farm that supplied the estate with meat, dairy products and fresh produce. Equally impressive, the interiors were filled with coveted antiques and artworks, including Chippendale furniture, enormous crystal chandeliers, scores of paintings by important artists and 37 Barbarini Tapestries woven in 1640 for France's King Louis XIII.
The bathtubs were so big, they were later removed out of fear someone would drown in one of them, while the doorknobs and other fixtures were crafted from solid silver. The Twomblys resided in the property for just four months annually yet the manse had a year-round staff of over 100 that included Joseph Donon, “the world's richest and most famous private chef”. His annual salary amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in today's money and he even had his own personal chef.
Florence died in 1952, 42 years after her husband, and the estate passed to the couple's unmarried daughter Ruth. A free-spirited party girl – she once dressed as Cleopatra for a family bash and was carried into the function by hunky athletes – Ruth died in 1954. The estate was subsequently broken up, with some of the furnishings ending up in the White House, and the manse was bought in 1957 by Fairleigh Dickinson University.
William Henry’s second daughter, Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, was also a major player in the family real estate industry. In 1885, along with her husband, William Douglas Sloane, Emily commissioned the construction of Elm Court, which would become the largest shingle-style home in America. The property sits on a vast 89 acres of land, a parcel so large that it straddles the townships of both Lennox and Stockbridge in the leafy Berkshires county of Massachusetts.
Designed by the celebrated architecture firm of Peabody and Stearns, who also designed the first iteration of The Breakers, Elm Court boasts a spectacular 55,000 square feet, with a total of 106 rooms for opulent entertaining. Emily and William spared no expense when designing their luxurious Gilded Age home, and in fact continued to expand and renovate the sprawling Tudor-inspired property until the turn of the 20th century, when it finally met their specifications.
The home’s interiors are resplendent with architectural detail, clearly designed to impress guests from the moment they crossed the threshold. Indeed, over the years the house played host to an array of important visitors, from New York socialites, to politicians engaged in a series of meetings that were the precursors to the Treaty of Versailles. With an array of coffered ceilings, parquet floors, ornate plasterwork, gilded light fixtures, and opulent marble fireplaces, each room appears to have been designed to showcase the extravagant wealth and taste of the Vanderbilts.
Emily and William ‘summered’ at Elm Court until William’s death in 1915, though Emily continued to use the estate after his passing. In 1920, she remarried to a US ambassador named Henry White, but after only seven years of marriage, White, too, died. Emily lived on at Elm Court until her own death in 1946 at the age of 94, at which point her granddaughter, Marjorie Field Wilde, and her husband, Colonel Helm George Wilde, took over ownership of the estate, turning it into a glamorous hotel.
Marjorie closed the hotel in 1957, and the magnificent home finally passed out of Vanderbilt ownership. In fact, the property sat abandoned for some 40 or 50 years, slowly falling into disrepair, and falling prey to vandalism and looting. However, in 1999, Emily Vanderbilt’s great-great grandson purchased Elm Court, and began the painstaking process of restoring it to its former glory. Robert focused his restoration on the main entertaining spaces, like this gorgeous blue library, and operated the estate as a wedding venue for several years.
Though Robert managed to restore some 65 of the home’s 106 rooms, a daunting 30,000 square feet of space remains to be rescued. He ultimately sold the estate to developers who intended to transform it into a glamorous hotel and spa, plans which unfortunately never came to fruition. Just last year, Elm Court was placed on the market yet again for a whopping $12.5 million, but recently sold to a real estate developer for just $8 million. We can’t wait to see what the home’s next chapter will bring!
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