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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Vanderbilt Home - Hyde Park, New York

We had arrived in New York a day early and made a stop in Hyde Park. The Vanderbilt's had built one of their homes there and it is available to tour. The view as you drive into their former estate was beautiful.
One can walk the grounds for free, and they are vast. There is a gift shop and the office in one of the homes they had built for guests. This is the main house. We were able to tour it for a small fee, but no photos were allowed inside. It was something to see the beautiful woodworking, sculpted marble, painting on the ceilings....... They brought in skilled laborers from Europe and everything was done by hand.
They had a nice view of the river from the back of the house.


This was the back of the house.

It is something to see all of the detailed hand carving on the pillars and around the outside of the home.
They had several greenhouses at one time and vast gardens. Off to the left, there were terraces where they would have sat at on time.
In the back ground is the gardener's home. When the Vanderbilt's had lived here, there was a farm, as well. It's owned by a private individual and not part of the tour, but you can see the tunnel that went under the road and connected it to the main property. The farm workers would show the livestock at the Duchess County Fair.

At the back of the garden is a water feature that they had. The tour of the house is guided and it was informative. The rest of the grounds your are free to walk and look around.