Vanderbilt Mansion
NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
HYDE PARK, NEW YORK
MAY 1960 NH5-VM-7000

[High-resolution Version]

Note: Estate Boundary extended about ¾ mile east at the time of Mr. Vanderbilt’s death in 1938.

BARD ROCK BOATHOUSE BOAT LANDING DOCK BOATHOUSE HUDSON RIVER HYDE PARK RAILROAD STATION GATEHOUSE COACHMAN’S RESIDENCE COACH HOUSE GREENHOUSE TOOLHOUSE THE GARDENS GARDENER’S COTTAGE VANDERBILT MANSION THE PAVILION PARKING TENNIS COURT MARIANETTA CREEK CRIM FLOW CREEK POWERHOUSE THE WALES HOUSE ENTRANCE RESIDENCE SHERWOOD POND ALBANY POST ROAD ST. JAMES CHURCHYARD EXIT DAIRYMAN BARN GARAGE CARPENTER BLACKSMITH HOWARD MANSION

She was interested in young people and saw to it that they had facilities for learning the domestic and industrial arts in the local school. For young men 13 and older, she organized and maintained a completely equipped clubroom in the village. For the young women in whom Mrs. Vanderbilt took a personal interest, she furnished funds for their complete education.

Each summer Mrs. Vanderbilt gave the school children of Hyde Park either a strawberry and ice cream festival or a cruise on the Hudson on a chartered steamer. Sometimes she joined forces with other wealthy residents and invited all the citizens of the town for a steamer cruise on the river; on one occasion this involved more than 700 people.

Through the Sunday Schools of the village, she arranged for each child to have needed clothes and toys at Christmas. And on Christmas day she would drive through the village in a sleigh loaded with gifts that she handed out to the children she met.

A reading room attached to St. James Chapel was established and maintained by Mrs. Vanderbilt for the people of the village. She was also responsible for bringing the Red Cross movement to Hyde Park in 1911; and in 1917, she was a prime mover in the establishment of the District Health Nurse Service.

With the outbreak of World War I, the Vanderbilts, James Roosevelt (a half brother of Franklin D. Roosevelt), and Thomas Newbold equipped, clothed, and armed for a 2-year period a Hyde Park Home Defense Company of 65 men. The Vanderbilts also arranged educational lectures, bringing to the townhall eminent authorities on various subjects. In 1920, Vanderbilt and Archibald Rogers jointly donated the money for a motion picture projector, thus bringing the first movies to Hyde Park. Other community projects drew Vanderbilt’s support, including an $18,000 donation for Hyde Park’s first stone bridge over Crum Elbow Creek on the Albany Post Road, just north of the village.

For their employees, the Vanderbilts sponsored a baseball team that, in its day, was one of the finest in the valley. Holiday parties for children and adults were held each year. Mrs. Vanderbilt sometimes visited the parties in person, mingling freely with the guests. Gifts to employees were the custom at Thanksgiving and Christmas.