CHRISTMAS EVE 1929

"CHRISTMAS EVE" from a painting by Carl Heck

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Suite in the Vanderbilt Hotel

December 20, 1911

VANDERBILT’S “APARTMENT”
It Will Consist of the Two Top Floors of the Vanderbilt Hotel.

Vanderbilt Hotel -- Park Avenue and 34th Street
Daytonian in Manhattan

Alfred G. Vanderbilt will make his home upon his return in the most luxurious "apartment" ever designed as a private home. It will consist of the two top floors of the new Vanderbilt Hotel, Park Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street. It has been estimated that similar accommodations, reckoned upon a floor-space basis, would cost approximately $40,000 a year(over a million today), not including meals.

The main dining hall is two stories in height and occupies the space of four rooms. It can be altered, by a special arrangement of doors, to make either a small informal dining room or a large room for elaborate dinners. Bedrooms, breakfast room, and tearoom are from two to four times the size of ordinary rooms of similar character.

From, the windows Eastward in clear weather can be seen the buildings of Coney Island, and even the sea beyond, while to the west one can see far beyond the Hudson.

The entrance hall to the Vanderbilt suite was designed and built as though it were for a private dwelling.

Views of the Home of the Women’s City Club of New York, formerly the town residence of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred G. Vanderbilt, in the Vanderbilt Hotel. New York Tribune January 2, 1916

From the street to the living room of the Vanderbilt suite was like going from asphalt to asphodel. Photograph shows living room corner.

Another view of the living room in the Alfred G, Vanderbilt suite in the Vanderbilt Hotel.

The Vanderbilt suite in the Vanderbilt Hotel was the equivalent of a complete town house. Photograph shows a part of the breakfast room.

Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt had in their hotel apartments a library as complete as that of a private house. Photograph shows part of the Vanderbilt suite library.

Alfred G. Vanderbilt's bedroom in the Vanderbilt suite. He left this room to sail on the Lusitania. He went down with the torpedoed ship after seeing that his wife(no, not his wife) and other women passengers were safe, in lifeboats.

In these apartments the youngest son of the man who perished on the Lusitania was born. They will be remodeled to suit the needs of the club. These are the first photographs ever published of the rooms occupied by Alfred G. Vanderbilt in the hotel which bears his name.

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt

Alfred Vanderbilt occupied the top two floors as a residence for his family. The New-York Tribune noted that the Vanderbilt Suite was “the equivalent of a complete town house”. He occupied the space with his wife, two sons and a staff of servants. In April 1915, Vanderbilt and his valet boarded the RMS Lusitania for a trip to London.

The night before sailing, Alfred and Margaret saw the Broadway play A Celebrated Case, coproduced by David Belasco and fellow Lusitania passenger Charles Frohman. The following morning, the Vanderbilts awoke to find a startling notice in the local newspapers. Framed in black, a warning from the Imperial German Embassy reminded travelers that a state of war existed between Germany and Great Britain and anyone sailing on a ship flying the English flag “do so at their own risk."

The New York Tribune May 1,1915 

The Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. It was later reported that Alfred Vanderbilt removed his lifejacket and personally strapped it on to a mother holding an infant. Unable to swim, his act of heroism sealed his own doom. 

He left behind three sons: (by his first wife) William Henry Vanderbilt III, a future banker and governor of Rhode Island; and (by his second wife) Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt II, whose three own surviving sons would be the only members of the vast sixth generation of the "Commodore’s" descendants to carry on the family surname, and George Washington Vanderbilt III, a future explorer and big-game hunter.

Women’s City Club of New York

Vanderbilt’s apartment was taken over by the Women’s City Club of New York whose politically active members come to hear guests like George Kirchwey, Warden of Sing Sing prison. 

The renowned tenor Enrico Caruso later occupied the Vanderbilt suite and lived there until August 1921 when he died on a trip to Naples, Italy.

Manger Vanderbilt Park Avenue at east 34th street 600 outside rooms with bath and radio many Air conditioned - television. 1959

In 1941, the hotel was purchased from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company by the Manger Corporation and renamed the Manger Vanderbilt. Manger operated the Vanderbilt through the 1964 New York Worlds Fair but then closed the hotel. It was sold for $3,625 million to an investment group headed by real estate investor John E. Marqusee who converted the first six floors into offices and its upper floors into apartments.


Streetscapes/March 9, 2003 - The Former Vanderbilt Hotel, 34th Street and Park Avenue; It Was a Showcase for Terra Cotta. Much Remains.

https://blog.oup.com/2013/10/preservation-vanderbilt-hotel/

Gate Keeper’s Lodge, “Inisfada", Estate, Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, Roslyn, Long Island No. - 4

Links below on past posts for the gate lodge. Informative comments on each. One from someone who lived in the lodge.

Entrance Front, Gate Keeper’s Lodge, “Iniafada”, Estate, Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, Roslyn, Long Island
 J. Y. Rippin, New York, Designer

Rear View, Gate Keeper’s Lodge, “Inisfada”, Estate, Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, Roslyn, Long Island J. Y. Rippin, New York, Designer

Plans, Gate Keeper's Lodge, "Inisfada",Estate, Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, Roslyn, Long Island
J. Y. Rippin, New York, Designer

Plans, Gate Keeper's Lodge, "Inisfada",Estate, Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, Roslyn, Long Island
J. Y. Rippin, New York, Designer

Sleeping Room, (Second Floor) Gate Keeper’s Lodge, “Inisfada", Estate, Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, Roslyn, Long Island
J. Y. Rippin, New York, Designer

The Keeper of the Gate - "INISFADA"

GATE LODGE ON ESTATE OF N. F. BRADY, ESQ., "INISFADA" ROSLYN, L. I.

RING HANDLES, GATE LODGE ON THE NICHOLAS F. BRADY ESTATE, ROSLYN, L. I.

Mrs. Reginald C. Vanderbilt and Her Baby Gloria Laura

IN MEMORIAM OF GLORIA VANDERBILT by her son Anderson Cooper

Mrs. Reginald C. Vanderbilt and Her Baby

Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt having spent the early summer abroad have returned to Sandy Point Farm, Newport. The picture shown above of Mrs. Vanderbilt and her fascinating little daughter, Gloria Laura, is one of the most charming pictures of maternal beauty that Arts & Decoration has ever published. The pose is so tender and sensitive, revealing perhaps even more than a formal picture young Mrs. Vanderbilts rare charm and gracious personality.   It is easy to understand how this baby remained "good" long enough to have her picture taken with her eyes focused on so lovely a spectacle.

"SANDY POINT STABLES

COVER DESIGN:
Miss  Kendall   Lee—from  a   painting   by   Tade Styka.

Arts & Decorations

HOW TO RUN A LOCOMOTIVE

A MILLION DOLLARS A MONTH-THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LIMITED IN 1926
Painting by Walter L. Greene

Scanned from a 1937 issue of Fortune magazine devoted to the city of New York. This article followed a story on the New York Central Railroad. "The nation's second-largest railroad is favored by geography, goes the right places, admirable plant—but doesn’t pay dividends. The reasons are of national import."  

(For your special edification steam pipes are colored red; air, yellow; waste and water, blue.) 

YOU don a pair of overalls four sizes too big, tie a red bandanna the size of a bed sheet around your neck, tuck an ounce or so of weedy Yankee Girl Scrap into your cheek.

You are handling a train of 7,000 tons with Baldwin’s 62,153rd locomotive, Santa Fe No. 5001, first of ten great 2-10-4 fast freight engines built in 1938. 

Coal-burning engines were hand fired by the fireman, who would shovel several tons of coal into the firebox. The amount of coal shoveled depended on whether the train was traveling over level, hilly, or mountainous terrain. It was the crew’s responsibility to stop and service the engine with coal and water whenever needed. Shown here is Santa Fe No. 5001, a Baldwin 2-10-4 engine, built in 1938. Belen By Baldwin G. Burr

You climb into the cab and gruffly say to your fireman (sometimes known as tallowpot or ashcat), 

“How in hell they going tonight?”

He believes they’re going fine, and tentatively operates the mechanical stoker by opening the stoker valve (1) as testified by the gauge (2), and turning on the stoker engine valve (3) and jet valves (4). No. 5 is the main turret stop valve; it and valves 6 to 13 control steam flowing from the stop valve to the auxiliaries, such as the dynamo, which feeds the headlight. All have been opened by the hostler when he ran the engine out of the roundhouse.

The fireman steps on lever 14, which opens the fire door, and peers into the flames. You squint at the main steam gauge (15), which registers 300 pounds, only ten under a full head; glance at the water glasses (16), double-check the reading by opening the gauge cocks (17). Then you raise hell because your oil-can isn’t on the oil shelf (18), send up to the house for another. Meantime your fireman opens the sprinkler valve (19) and washes down the deck with the attached hose. The engine is very hot, ready to pop, so he shuts down the blower valve (20), reducing draft just enough to draw the smoke out the stack. Since you are pulling freight, he pays no attention to the train-line steam-heat gauge (21). You descend to “oil around,” climb to the cab again, consult your twenty-one-jewel Bunn Special, -

Bunn Special

- look back for a brakeman’s signal - it comes; you test the air by manipulating the automatic air-brake valve handle (22). The straight air (2%) is used to brake the engine alone. You watch the air gauge (24).

Now it is time to go. You get the highball signal from the caboose. You release the air (22), throw the reverse lever (25) to full forward position, haul back the throttle lever (26). The great machine trembles, and you push in the throttle so as not to spin the drivers. She moves, lets out a tremendous roar, and you ease out the throttle again. The roar sounds wet around the edges; there's water in the cylinders. You open the cylinder cocks (lever in front of your seat) for a minute, and the steam exhausts directly instead of through the stack. 

The roar becomes a blast, and the blasts come quicker. The slack is out, the old girl is rolling. You adjust the reverse lever toward center to increase the valve cutoff. The fireman is opening the feed-water heater (to put water in the boiler) with valve 27, noting the gauge thereto (28): but occasionally you have to use the injector on your side, and rely on the telltale (29) to inform you she is working. You are drumming along at seventy, the exhaust a rhythmically vibrating bellow. You approach a grade crossing. You pull down your whistle lever (30)—two longs and one short followed by a blast held till you reach the crossing. Your left hand is on the brake lever; you are practically on your feet. Tobacco juice drips down your chin, sweat is on your brow. You flash over the highway, sink back limp. “Goddam them fool drivers,” you holler.

(For your special edification steam pipes are colored red; air, yellow; waste and water, blue.)

THE COUNTRY HOUSE CHART, ROOM BY ROOM

Functionally grouped, the various rooms of the country house, large or small, are shown diagrammatically in their relations with each other, for purposes of analysis and checking. The usual relative importance of the rooms indicated by the relative blackness, the most rooms being solid black, next in importance, gray, etc.

EASTER SUNDAY NEW YORK CITY 1937

PACKARD... SOCIALLY, AMERICA'S FIRST MOTOR CAR

ASK THE MAN WHO OWNS ONE

The occasions which bring out America's most socially prominent families always bring out more large Packards than any other fine car. This is a striking reflection of the fact revealed by most recent sales figures - that of every 100 large fine cars being sold in America, 44 are Packards.

Dance of Spring (Song of the Birds) 1924 by Joseph Stella

Dance of Spring (Song of the Birds) 1924
 by Joseph Stella

Joseph Stella (born Giuseppe Michele Stella, June 13, 1877 – November 5, 1946) was an Italian-born American Futurist painter best known for his depictions of industrial America, especially his images of the Brooklyn Bridge. He is also associated with the American Precisionist movement of the 1910's–1940's.

Night View of Brooklyn Bridge (1918)
by Joseph Stella

Stella wrote that standing on the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time was a spiritual experience for him. He said he felt that he was on "the threshold of a new religion." 

The Voice of the City of New York Interpreted 1920-22
by Joseph Stella
From L to R: The Port, The White Way I(Manhattan avenues), The Prow (skyscrapers), The White Way II (Broadway), The Bridge (Brooklyn Bridge)

The Brooklyn Bridge from "The Voice of the City of New York Interpreted" (1920-22)
by Joseph Stella

Study for New York Interpreted: Brooklyn Bridge
by Joseph Stella

Study for New York Interpreted: Brooklyn Bridge
by Joseph Stella

Study for New York Interpreted: Brooklyn Bridge
by Joseph Stella

Study for New York Interpreted: Brooklyn Bridge
by Joseph Stella

Study for New York Interpreted: Brooklyn Bridge 
by Joseph Stella

 

The Brooklyn Bridge: Variation on an Old Theme (1939) by Joseph Stella

  

Old Brooklyn Bridge(1941)
by Joseph Stella

http://allpainters.org/theme/joseph-stella                                        


https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2014/05/14/joseph-stella-best-of-both-worlds/#.W5AvDuhKhEY

A LITTLE NECK OF LAND RUNNING OUT ON LONG ISLAND SOUND - The Planed Harbor at "CAUMSETT"

A LITTLE NECK OF LAND RUNNING OUT ON LONG ISLAND SOUND
From a drawing by O. R. Eggers              JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect

     
    A breakwater terminating in a little lighthouse makes a harbor on the Sound side of of the Marshall Field estate and a channel dug through the marshes provides quiet waters for boat landings.   Beyond this are the bath houses and bathing beach, with outdoor tennis courts somewhere in the locality. The crowning glory was the salt water swimming pool, which was situated on the south side of the bath house, just off the patio. The pool was replenished weekly with filtered sea water, and required constant attention.  Not far from the bathing beach is a good sized, fresh water pond which has been developed into an attractive lake.  The farm group is on the Lloyd's Harbor front.      

CORISANDE 

   

    Marshall Fields’ CORISANDE, a 50-footer built in 1923 by Gold Cup legend Gar Wood, was powered by two 450-horsepower V-12 Liberty aircraft engines that consumed 175 gallons of fuel as it raced in and out of the city every day.

CORISANDE II

    CORISANDE II built by Purdy Boat Company in 1932 was 15 feet longer than the first.

CORISANDE II
Grounded at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

    The circular lagoon was intended to provide anchorage for Field's yacht CORISANDE and his seaplane. The harbor refuge was never built. Commuting with Class.

    Follow THIS LINK for all past posts on "Caumsett".

    

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY

At the turn of the last century Charles Alfred Pillsbury and the Pillsbury family had amassed a fortune, mostly from milling flour. Sometime around 1912 his sons, Charles S. Pillsbury and his twin brother John, flipped a coin to determine which of them would take over the family mansion on East 22nd Street. Charles lost the coin toss and the family home, so he decided to build his own mansion across the street.

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

 HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

Constructed at a cost of $300,000 in 1912 by the H.N. Leighton Company according to designs by Minneapolis architects Hewitt and Brown, the Charles Stinson Pillsbury House is a two and one half storey mansion of reinforced concrete and random-jointed gray Bedford limestone. It is situated on a prominent corner lot; the building measures approximately eighty-seven feet by seventy-eight feet. The design is representative of the English Gothic style influences which experienced a revival in American domestic architecture between the 1890's and the 1920's.

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

 HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

A three-story entrance bay is centrally located on the building's facade. The round-arched door, which features grille work, is covered by a small porch. The rounded roof of the porch is supported by columns and, over the entablature the semi-circular eave space, displays a cartouche and bas-relief. Above the porch a polygonal bay window projects and is topped by a parapet wall. A shaped gable completes the entrance bay.

Each of the three stories of the Pillsbury residence is delineated from the next by a horizontal string course. At one corner of the building a single-story polygonal bay with grouped windows is topped by a parapet wall featuring bas-relief panels.

The roof of the residence is of the broadside gabled type with numerous secondary gables occurring around the structure. These gables are straight-sided with single steps at each of the lower corners. At the roof-ends, polygonal chimney stacks rise between twin gables.

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

 HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

The exterior of this house is of random jointed Bedford stone. It should be noted that the window mullions are of stone throughout. There was question if there would be any disadvantage in having this stone appear in the interior in a climate like that of Minnesota. Means were devised to prevent any possibility of frost penetration and results have proven that such construction is perfectly feasible. 

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

The grounds surrounding the Pillsbury residence are enclosed on two sides by a low balustraded wall of stone. Two lions with shields guard the main entrance in the wall atop tall, stone pillars. The exterior is further enhanced by two scrolled buttress arches and lanterns of wrought iron which appear at the secondary entrance to the grounds.

OAK HALL AND STAIRCASE, RESIDENCE OF CHARLES S, PILLSBURY, ESQ.

Particularly distinctive are the carved quarter-sawn oak staircase from an English castle  in the vestibule and the massive carved oak fireplace in the reception room to the right of the entrance hall. The floors throughout the first story are of pegged teakwood. 

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

    HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

The interiors of the Pillsbury mansion were designed by Charles Duveen of London. They feature an abundance of fine imported woods and decorative glass panes, carved and painted by hand craftsmen.

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

    HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

 HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

 HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

The large leaded windows of the first and second stories are divided by transoms and mullions and contain painted glass medallions from 17th century castles and churches. The windows on the upper half-story feature hood molds.

ELIZABETHAN DINING ROOM, EXECUTED FOR  CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, ESQ.

HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

 HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

The majority of the glass panes and medallions reflect biblical scenes and Christian symbolism. All are hand painted. 

DINING ROOM
HOUSE OF CHARLES S. PILLSBURY, 100 EAST 22ND ST., MINNEAPOLIS. MINN

   HEWITT & BROWN, ARCHITECTS

OAK LIBRARY, RESIDENCE OF CHARLES S, PILLSBURY, ESQ.

The fireplace in the library survived the great fire of London in 1666. William Randolph Hearst actually bought the fireplace for his castle, San Simeon, in California. Charles Pillsbury learned about this find and attempted to buy the fireplace from Hearst. Knowing a good thing when he had found it, Hearst refused to sell, so Pillsbury asked if he could have a replica made before it was dismantled for shipping to the States. Hearst agreed to this, and the replica was made.

As it happened—no one now seems to know whether by happenstance or design—the original and the replica were shipped in the same freighter. Somehow, by accident or slight of hand, the original was delivered to Pillsbury and the replica shipped to Hearst. By the time Hearst realized that he had the wrong fireplace, the original had been installed in the Pillsbury mansion. Hearst sued to have his property returned, but somehow it has remained in Minneapolis.

The family used rooms on all four floors of the mansion. The family room and a card room next door used by the gentlemen shared the basement with storage areas. The main floor included the central hall, the library, the parlor, the conservatory and dining room, and the kitchen.

SECOND FLOOR, RESIDENCE OF CHARLES S, PILLSBURY, ESQ.

The floor above housed bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, and personal suites for Mr. and Mrs. Pillsbury and their three daughters and one son. Even today, tucked away in a closet in Mrs. Pillsbury’s suite is the safe for her jewels. Unfortunately the combination is now lost. 

THIRD FLOOR, RESIDENCE OF CHARLES S, PILLSBURY, ESQ.

The top floor included servants’ rooms and a large ballroom with skylights that make the rooms airy and light.

Pillsbury lived in the house until his death in 1939. Later occupied by the Northwestern Theological Seminary. It was acquired in 1969 by the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts. The present owners BLIND Incorporated provides services to the blind in Minnesota.

https://www.blindinc.org/

 http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/nrhp/nomination/78001544.pdf