Chasing the Vanderbilts

Tuesday morning, Kodi and I walked into downtown Poughkeepsie (a 3 mile round trip).  The weather was perfectwith temperatures in the low 80s and Kodi was on her best behavior.

Kodi poses for a photo

Downtown Poughkeepsie itself was less than perfect.  I estimate that as much as 30% of businesses were vacant indicating signs of a recession in this city.

A row of vacant business close to downtown

 That said, there were some interesting sights.

Corner of Main and Market

Side of a building painted as individual businesses

National Guard Armory (for sale)

Theater on Market Street

Our Tuesday afternoon activity was a visit to the Fredrick Vanderbilt estate in Hyde Park (7 miles north of Poughkeepsie in a rental car), which is part of a two day strategy to also visit FDR's home and Presidential Library along with Eleanor Roosevelt's Valkill estate. 

Fredrick Vanderbilt's Hyde Park Estate

Fredrick Vanderbilt built this home in 1898 at a cost of 2.4 million dollars.   The estate is considered modest by Vanderbilt standards.  Cornelius' Breaker and William Henry's Marble House in Newport, which we visited last summer were far more elaborate.  That said, 2.4 million in 1898 bought quite a home (which is $657,000,000 in today's dollars).  Note: We also visited the Biltmore estate in Asheville NC a few years ago,)

Fredrick was on of William Henry's 7 children.  Fredrick received an inheritance of $10,000,000 at his father death, which he built to $78,000,000 at the time of his death (which was as high as $132,000,000 prior ot the crash).  Fredrick went on to run the Vanderbilt railroads.

This summer / fall home had 60 servants, 20 0f whom worked inside the house.  Noteworthy is that the Fredrick and Louise had no children.  The home was inherited by Louise's neice, Margaret Van Alen, who donated it to the federal government (with the help of neighbor, FDR) in 1940.  This is a national treasure that reflects the era before the Fedaral Income Tax cooled the elaborate lifestyles of the then 1% (who controlled most of the ealth in America).  

The tour guide, Josh, was one of the best we've encountered in our year of traveling.  His knowedge and enthusiasm were infectious.  He got the loudest round of applause of any tour guide we've seen. 

Here are some interior photos.

Tomorrow we visit FDR's home and Presidential Library.

Written by Les.