USA 2022, part 8 (Hyde Park)
On the penultimate day of our trip, my Chilean friend Daniela who lives with her family in Texas and I were well within the territory of the US state of New York. After a fine breakfast we left the town of Lake George on the shores of Lake George and a little later we drove past Albany, the capital of the state of New York. By that time we were travelling through the Hudson River valley area.
Along the way, using bridges, we crossed rivers a couple of times – once it was the Hudson and another time it was the Mohawk, and then we got to the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge where I managed to take a photo of a sort and where we crossed to the east bank of the Hudson river.
From here we had less than 25 km to our next destination which was the town of Hyde Park.
The main reason why I thought of coming here at all was the very river valley that has over time, because of the beauty of the landscapes, the historical and cultural importance, become a notion unto itself and is therefore marked in various guidebooks as – the Hudson River Valley.
I have already mentioned before that the Hudson River starts in the Adirondack Mountains and that it flows into the Atlantic Ocean in New York City. It is 507 km long and also navigable from Albany downstream. It has been named after Henry Hudson, the first European who sailed the river in 1609.
But, in addition to the river that is certainly beautiful by itself, the river valley with forest-covered hills and in some spots bordered by the highland makes this whole area exceptionally beautiful and throughout the history also very popular, especially among the wealthy New Yorkers who used to buy huge properties and built big houses here.
During the settling of this area, here too, after all just like in the case of Lake George, the so-called Dutch approach was apparently applied, meaning that large estates were set up directly along the river bank (or the lake shore, as the case may be). This Dutch approach should not puzzle anybody, since in the 17th century it was the Dutch who had their colony in a section of the east coast of the present-day United States. After all, the first European settlement in the south part of the island of Manhattan was founded precisely by the Dutch in 1624 and they called it New Amsterdam. In 1664, the English took over the town for the first time and called it New York. And then the Dutch and the English kept replacing each other here, consequently changing the name of the settlement, but from 1674 on, the town permanently moved into the hands of the English and only New York has been used since.
As for Daniela’s and my trip, to start with, we drove along a road on the east side of the river valley that often led through a forest and as the day was sunny, the beauty of the greenery made me enjoy this a great deal and feel completely relaxed.
Before reaching the centre of Hyde Park, we drove to the place that we first wanted to visit and that is located on the territory of this small town. This was the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site.
Even among the wealthiest of people from the past, the name Vanderbilt is in a league of its own. The founder of this famous American family, Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), was, if not the wealthiest person of the 19th century, then certainly one of the wealthiest in the world. He made the enormous quantity of money thanks to the business in the field of steamboat transportation and through major investments in railway that was in expansion in the USA at the time. He undoubtedly had a flair for business, but in his piling up of money he was greatly assisted by the fact that at the time (except for a couple of brief periods) no income tax was collected. The US federal income tax started to apply only as of 1913. This tax includes inheritance tax as well, that also previously only sporadically appeared throughout the American history, and this fact hugely favoured the heirs of Cornelius Vanderbilt, including his main successor, son William, who was, until his death in 1885, the richest American.
Two figures that I came across while reading some materials may serve as a good illustration about the level of this wealth. At the time of his death, the assets of Cornelius Vanderbilt were estimated at around 100 million US dollars. At that time, the average annual income in the USA was 380 dollars.
As would be explained to us by a guide later on, when we toured the house as a part of a group set up on the spot, in addition to his talent for business and the non-payment of taxes, this level of getting rich was also assisted by various dubious practices that would be considered completely illegal today.
After all, this period from the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865) to the end of the 19th century, when a small number of individuals became abnormally rich, is often called the Gilded Age, as a parody of sorts on the term “the Golden Age.” By the way, a co-author of this expression was sharp-witted Mark Twain whose house in Hartford I had already visited, which I wrote about in (https://www.svudapodji.com/en/usa-22-1/). The Gilded Age refers precisely to the abrupt economic growth, lack of regulations and widely rooted corruption in the second half of the 19th century.
In addition, the owners of the “old money,” as is always the case, looked down on these newly enriched families, the infamous nouveau riche, while these “newcomers” into the world of incredible wealth tried on their part in every conceivable way to be accepted, including also through marriage liaisons, throwing parties and inviting the “right sort of people,” organising various entertainment and sporting events, investing in culture, giving donations, etc.
And so, in 1898, a grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Frederick Vanderbilt, and his wife had a big house built on their enormous estate in the Hudson River Valley with the purpose to be used for spring and autumn parties. The two of them did not have any children and thus eventually the house was inherited by the wife’s niece and since the maintenance was exceptionally costly, while in the meantime there was not as much money as in the good old days, she gave a part of the property with the house to the US National Park Service as a monument to the Gilded Age. Since 1940, the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site has been open to public.
Daniela and I drove along a road that within the estate leads from the Vanderbilt Coach House uphill towards a parking lot close to the mansion. In order to get the sense of the size of the property that is today one huge park, here is a short video:
After we had parked the car, first we headed for the Visitor Centre in the Pavilion, but I still kept being speechless while looking at some treetops.
At the Visitor Centre, we learned that the mansion may be visited only in a group, while the next available group was to start in less than an hour. We agreed immediately that we would wait for that group and we bought the tickets at once, after which we went for a walk around the house and the property near the house.
The mansion is positioned on a flat section on the top of a hill that rises above the east bank of the Hudson River, while the view from here, depending on the quantity of trees, was truly splendid.
On the opposite side of the river it was possible to see the Anglican Benedictine Holy Cross Monastery. The construction of the monastery started in 1902.
The view down a nearby meadow in the south direction was also very pretty.
While walking through the park in this area, I could also see the mansion well.
As Daniela and I walked here, I noticed a gingko tree the branch of which may be seen in the photo above and I felt like hugging it. Oh, yes... I am one of those who love to hug trees. In any case, when we got to the tree, we came across a very kind American lady that we had a lovely chat with. Apparently, she lived nearby and came here often, while this time around she was in fact collecting fallen gingko leaves for her friend who does pottery. I was delighted, since I also do pottery, and this was actually how we started to chat.
Very soon we moved from the topic of pottery to gingko. I can still remember from my primary school biology classes that in the graphic picture of the biological tree of life gingko has its own branch and that this tree is quite unique, which makes it very interesting. It also has a unique shape of leaves.
And then this lady told us an interesting story about a gingko tree in Hiroshima that had survived the 1945 atomic bomb. Later on, when reading about this tree, I learned that although it had been exposed to the radiation and despite the typhoons and lightning strikes, that concrete tree is estimated to be 150 years old and is located within a temple in Hiroshima, while still, to this very day, has fresh sprouts every year.
Then this exceptionally kind woman took us for a walk and to show us a nearby garden that belongs to the estate.
Although the garden is the place with a particular emphasis on vegetation, in one section it is also possible to see some sculptures. These are the sculptural portraits of four landscape artists from the 19th century that belong to the artistic Hudson River School. In their paintings, they often showed the Hudson River valley and the surrounding areas and it was precisely their landscapes that instigated the idea that the beauty of these landscapes deserved to be protected. The works of some of the authors belonging to this art school, which showed Yellowstone and Yosemite, were a part of the influence that led the U.S. Congress to found the National Park Service, with Yellowstone being the first national park in the world.
Before parting from this kind woman, she recommended wholeheartedly to Daniela and I to go to the pedestrian bridge over the Hudson, which the two of us did indeed the following day. For the time being, we walked again beside the gingko tree and went in front of the Vanderbilt Mansion, since it was already the time for our group to gather up.
As for the mansion itself that has 54 rooms, it reflects all the extravagance of the newly rich from the Gilded Age period. On the ground floor there are the main public rooms, such as the hall, the salon (formally called the “living room”) and the dining room, while the bedrooms for the hosts and the guestrooms are on the upper floor. When travelling, I like to visit and see places like this, but I must admit that generally speaking I don’t fall for such things. All that can be seen in the house and around it only means that the owners had (a lot of) money. It does not say anything about them as persons – whether they were good and kind people, whether they were noble, smart, fun,...
Also, during the construction of the mansion, some elements were applied here that were otherwise a rarity at the time – good quality indoor plumbing, hot air central heating, as well as electrical lighting, since there used to be a small hydroelectric plant built on a stream that flows through the estate which allowed the mansion to have electrical light before anyone in the neighbourhood had something like that.
After the visit to the ground floor, we all gathered up and moved on by climbing to the upper floor.
And then, after the visit to the upper floor, we all descended down to the basement where there are rooms used by the employees working at the mansion.
Here we ended our visit to the Vanderbilt Mansion, so we slowly headed back to the car. I took this opportunity and my inspiration to take some more photos of the parts of the park around the mansion.
After this, Daniela and I left by car the large estate that is situated directly to the north from the urban section of Hyde Park, then we drove through the centre of the small town and went to a large estate that is situated directly to the south from the urban section. But, since it was already a little late, there were no more free slots in the visit groups left on this day. So, we agreed we should come here early the next morning and do the visit already with the first group, since we had a rather limited time on what was the last day of our joint trip.
For the time being, we returned to the centre of Hyde Park where we had an early dinner. The food was in the shape of two dishes that we shared, while only I had a local draught beer, since Daniela was the designated driver.
During the dinner, we also booked a hotel where we would spend the night and the one that suited us best was on the west bank of the Hudson River. That meant that we had to cover a little less than 20 km to there, but we did not mind this in the least. The conditions were good, it was not crowded and in this way we could also enjoy the view of the river that was certainly much better when seen live, than in my photo.
In the photo above, you can see not only the bridge we were driving on, but also the bridge we would walk on the following day. But, more about this the next time...