sentences:  The American Imagist Collection is housed in the Carrère and Hastings designed Vernon Court, an adaptation of an 18th-century French chateau (Chateau Haroue), by architect Germain Boffrand.During the Gilded Age, the U.S. sought symbols of its emerging civilization by appropriating European architectural styles with French style architecture being considered the consummate expression of proper architectural manners.In that atmosphere, Vernon Court was constructed in 1898 by Carrère and Hastings to be used as a summer cottage for a young widow, Anna Van Nest Gambrill (1865–1927).