ROAD COACH “LIBERTY”
Body painted maroon and black, red wheels. Trimmed in leather.
This famous road coach LIBERTY was built in Paris by Million et Guiet and is a reproduction of the old royal mail coaches used in England. It was built especially for Mr. James Hazen Hyde, one of the outstanding “whips” of the coaching revival, who had it brought over here and ran it as a public road coach from Holland House in New York city to Laurel-in-the-Pines, Lakewood, New Jersey.
In 1901 Mr. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and Mr. Hyde made a record run in the LIBERTY to Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia from Holland House in New York and return in the time of 19 hours and 35 minutes. Seventy-eight horses spaced along the route were used in this record-breaking run.
The LIBERTY was also driven up the St. Bernard’s Pass to the Monk’s Monastery in Switzerland by Mr. Hyde, a feat which more than justified his claim to the title “gentleman coachman.”
Gift of Mr. J. Ford Johnson, New York, New York.
(Courtesy New York Historical Society, New York City)
(Above) Road coach LIBERTY crossing the bridge near Turkey Blue Ball, New Jersey on its New York-to-Lakewood run. Watercolor by Max Klepper painted 1903, one of a series of twelve showing the different views along the route. These paintings may be seen at the New York Historical Society—gift of Mr. James Hazen Hyde.]
(Below) Pen and ink water color by Crafty showing the road coach LIBERTY in France. Gift of Mr. James Hazen Hyde to Shelburne Museum.]
