MARBLE HOUSE

Marble House was the summer home of William and Alva Vanderbilt. It was built between 1888 and 1892. Alva was quite the lover of mythology and the Greek and Roman styles of architecture.

The house was a birthday present from William to Alva but if she was thrilled, it wore off quickly. She divorced him in 1895, remarried and moved down the street to Belcourt Castle. But she moved back into Marble House after her second husband died.

The bronze front doors. Each door weighs 1 1/2 tons. At the time considered the most important metalwork manufactured in this country.

The entry hall.

This has been called, "the fanciest dining room in America". Mrs. Vanderbilt greatly admired King Louis XIV and there are two portraits of him in this room. The walls are pink Numidian marble from Africa, which had not been used since ancient times. The Vanderbilts has the quarry reopened.

As I wrote in the last post, the gold in here and the other rooms is not paint. It is all gold leaf.

The library.

The Gothic Room.

I've discussed decorating with gold leaf. But if you're a Vanderbilt, why just decorate ? Why not make an entire room of gold ? Like this -

The Gold Room.

After she moved back into the house, the owner decided she wanted, ".... a summer house on this point, but not the usual thing...".  So she designed and had built a Chinese Tea House.

In the next post we'll visit the Chateau-su-mer.