During the 1870s to the 1920s, the affluent Vanderbilt family
commissioned the very best and most expensive architectural and
interior design firms to build a seriess of townhouses in New
York and mansions in the East Coast. Most of the Vanderbilt
houses, because of their unequalled historic beauty and
breathtaking magnificence, are now designated as National
Historic Landmarks. The architects of the Vanderbilt homes
include Richard Morris Hunt, Charles B. Atwood, George B. Post,
Addison Mizner, Warren and Wetmore, McKim, Mead and White,
Carrere and Hastings, and Horrace Trumbauer. The wealthy
American-Anglo Vanderbilt Family had Dutch roots. They were
probably the most affluent of families during the 1800s when
Cornelius Vanderbilt founded shipping and railroad empires.
Cornelius Vanderbilt is regarded as the tenth wealthiest person
in history. |His descendants spent unbelievable sums of money on
the construction of lavish homes while he himself preferred more
modest Frederick William Vanderbilt commissioned