Idle Hour Tour Links
    Introduction
    The First Mansion
    The Second Mansion
    Entrance Hall
    Dining Room
    Living Hall
    Library
    Queen Anne Salon
    Corridor
    Smoking Room
    Cloisters
    Palm Garden
    Tennis Court & Cloister Wing
    Staircase
    The Second Floor
    The Third Floor
    Basement
    Post Vanderbilt Years
    Dowling College

    The Estate and Environs

The Mansion
Entrance Hall

The sweeping Jacobean-style staircase to the second floor is in the center of the entrance hall. The walls are lined in caenstone. The drapes at extreme left guard the dining room entrance. To the right of the chair (left side) is family's private elevator. The darker area to the right of the elevator leads to the main hallway, a few steps from the smoking/billiard room.

Below the steps is an ancient sarcophagus. There is a door to the loggia and courtyard at the top right corner. The drapes at right hang in front of the living hall.

The staircase is of quartered oak, carved in high relief. The ceiling is a magnificent specimen of the woodworker’s art, wrought in antique quartered oak. The staircase is lighted by an ornate lantern and a semicircular window of stained glass in which the initials WKV are worked into the design.

(Not Shown: Between the entrance hall and vestibule are a pair of massive glass and iron doors. The initials, WKV, are in the ironwork above the doorway.)

Visit The Dining Room (Left)
Visit The Living Hall (Right)
Walk Through The Corridor (Left of Stairwell)
Walk Up Stairs
Visit Basement