Actual cost of the new mansion, unfurnished and without fixtures, was $660,000. The total cost of all construction and improvements, from May 1895 to March 1899, has been estimated at $2,250,000. And this was an age when a man worked all day for a dollar.
Estate Development
During the period when work on the mansion was at a standstill, and while work on the smaller houses was progressing, a large force of men was engaged in improvement of the grounds. In the larger portion of the estate lying east of the Albany Post Road, the order was to leave nature undisturbed to the greatest extent possible. Following the natural windings of a forest path, a carriage drive was laid out. A few obstructing rocks and trees were removed, and brooks were spanned, but generally the route of the drive was marked by outcropping ledges, overhanging forest trees, masses of ferns growing down to the wagon tracks, and a myriad of wildflowers. Readers of the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier were regaled with this description of the drive: “As you wind along in the midst of its solitude and verdure, you might imagine yourself far away in the Adirondack forest, so sweet and still is the fragrant woodland....”
View of mansion from the north.
Brougham carriage used by the Vanderbilts.
White Bridge from the south.
