And The Word Of The Day Is....

I'm back up in Fishkill, New York again this week for work. Normally when I come up here I go to work, go to the hotel, go for food, repeat as necessary. You know, I'm here to work. This time however, I have decided to take a few side trips and go see all this historic stuff that I happen to be surrounded by.

Today I took a thirty minute drive from my hotel to the town of Hyde Park, NY and visited the country mansion of the Vanderbilts. It was amazing. Hence, the word of the day is "opulence".

The mansion (preserved by the US National Park Service) is a part of probably one of the greatest estates preserved from the Gilded Age of America. I learned this from our tour guide. Some other things I learned:

- The term "Gilded Age" was actually a snub of wealthy society types by American author Mark Twain.

- The Vanderbilts only stayed in the house a couple of weeks each Spring and Fall. (They had a bunch of houses and yachts they also visited.)

- The Vanderbilts preferred the English Service System where men did all the serving and women did all the cooking and behind the scenes work. (As opposed to the French Service System where women do all the serving and men do the cooking and work behind the scenes.)

- Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt slept in separate rooms. Mrs. Vanderbilt's room was a copy of Marie Antoinette's bedroom at Versailles.

- All the beds in the house are very small.

- There was a very strict protocol around the turn of the century and a visitor's social status was considered always when it came to assigning bedrooms for them or even where they were to sit at dinner.

- Most of the exceptionally wealthy people during the Gilded Age in America gave away almost all of their fortune to charity. (They also paid a fortune in taxes.) The reason they didn't give it to their children was the belief of the time that their children had all the advantages of being raised with money and were expected to go out and make their own money.

In a word...Opulence....

Front of the Mansion

Rear of the Mansion

View of the Hudson River