History
The earliest development of the estate began during 1764 when Dr. John Bard purchased land on the east side of the Albany Post Road, where he built Red House and developed the agricultural aspects of the eastern section of the property that continued through Frederick Vanderbilt's occupancy. Bard family ownership continued through 1821 with his son, Dr. Samuel Bard (1742–1821), owning the property from 1799 to 1821. During 1828, Dr. David Hosack, president of the New York Horticultural Society, purchased the property from Samuel Bard's heirs, with André Parmentier helping to design the grounds. During 1840, John Jacob Astor purchased the property from Hosack's heirs for his daughter Dorothea and her husband Walter S. Langdon.
Frederick W. and Louise Vanderbilt purchased Hyde Park during May 1895 from Langdon's heirs. Attracted to the beauty of the Hudson Valley and the east bank of the Hudson River, Frederick and his wife settled comfortably in their new 600-acre (2.4 km2) estate. The location was ideal, offering quick and easy access to New York City on the Vanderbilt’s own New York Central Railroad. The estate was primarily used as a vacation home for the Vanderbilt family. The previous owners of the estate had made it famous for its grand landscape and array of different plants and trees throughout the property. The New York Times described the Vanderbilt’s estate as "the finest place on the Hudson between New York and Albany."
A niece, Margaret "Daisy" Van Alen, inherited the property when Vanderbilt died during 1938. Encouraged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who owned an estate nearby), Van Alen donated a portion of the estate, including the residence with most of its original furnishings, to the National Park Service. The property became owned by the National Park Service during 1940. From 1941 to 1943, President Roosevelt's Secret Service was housed in the basement and third-floor service areas, and some of the President's personal White House staff and friends occasionally stayed in the main bedrooms of the house, including those of Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt.
Read more about this topic: Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“It gives me the greatest pleasure to say, as I do from the bottom of my heart, that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed to live up to the highest standards of citizenship and patriotism.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)