Marble House
The front doors were enormous!
Dining Room ceiling detail
Dining Room
Dining Room the chairs weighed about 80lbs and required a butler to help you get seated
Dining Room ceiling
Marble Hallway
The study was a reasonable size
Ceiling detail in the study
Looking from the main hallway back toward the front doors
This is the ceiling in the medieval room that was brought from Europe
Detail of the stained glass in the medieval room
The same view with different light filter on the camera
Parlor ceiling detail
Parlor
Upstairs sitting room
This is the daughters room. Her mother raised her to become European royalty. She eventually married into European aristocracy
This is the daughter after she married in her crown
The guest room. This room hosted a single guest since the house was built. The future son-inlaw (European Royalty) stayed here when he came to propose marriage to the daughter.
This is the accompanying sitting room for the guest room
These two rooms were for the two sons in the family. Observe that they are not nearly as elaborate as their sister's room.
Marble House- This house was built after Mr. Vanderbilt agreed to have the deed placed solely in his wife's name. She divorced him a few years later. She was the first woman to marry a Vanderbilt of this generation and the first to divorce. She heavily supported the right for women to vote and looking at the decoration of the rooms of her children it is interesting that the daughter was treated to a nicer décor. The daughter was also carefully groomed as a child and was forced to wear contraptions that would make her back straight. It is safe to say that Mrs. Vanderbilt was determined that her daughter was going to become European royalty in order to legitimize the Vanderbilt name in society. All of her work paid off her daughter married and moved to Europe.
It is interesting that Mrs. Vanderbilt remarried after her divorce and used Marble house as a closet of sorts to store her clothing and other items. During that period Marble house was used as the laundry facility for the family since the equipment was far superior to the house that her second husband owned.
Although this house was pretty and unique, I couldn't help feeling that I was in a mausoleum with so much marble everywhere. The hallway in particular felt very mausoleum like.
