Vanderbilt Mansion Hyde Park, New York

James and I saddled up yesterday and drove down to see one of the smallest of the Vanderbilt mansions here in New York.  There are 211 acreas left now but in the beginning there was 715.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside because everything was orginal.  The grounds was beautiful and as you can see it was a wonderful day for a trip.  The Hudson river runs thru the back yard so to speak but there was a tunnel that went under the road infront of the house that took the servants over to the farm part of the estate.  I have pics of the outside of things but if you ever get to go thru it, it is amazing and the technology that they used when no one else in the area had access to was amazing.  The center of the roof actually could be opened up several inches to allow a cross draft in the summer for cooling.  They would open the windows on the first floor and lift the roof and it would pull the cool air up and send the hot air out.  It was said that when they called the power company to turn the lights on in the evening the towns people would gather at the rock wall by the road to watch it.  They of course did not have electricity.  The grounds servants were about 45 all the time and they worked in 12 hour shifts 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week.  The guide said that most weekends they would have 4-5 families stay the weekend in the country with them.  The inside is amazing.  The grounds now is open to the public 7 days a week to us as a park, there was several out walking dogs, playing with kids etc.
James and I had a great time...  Oh yeah, there was a cool bridge that we crossed over the Hudson to get to the town I have a couple of shots of that as well......enjoy.