Vanderbilt Mansion

"Fun with the Family"

This fifty-four-room Beaux Arts country palace is filled with European antiques, tapestries, and paintings and cost more than $2.5 million when completed in 1899—at a time when the average annual income was less than $500. The landscaped grounds include formal Italian gardens dotted with fountains and statues, sprawling lawns on which to run around, lots of hiking trails winding through the woods, and lovely views of the Hudson River. Pick up a map (at any of the mansions) of the Hyde Park Trail, and explore an 8.5-mile network of easy, well-marked paths that follow the Hudson River between the Vanderbilt and Roosevelt homes.