Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site

The Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York, is a historic home museum. In 1940, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The National Park Service owns and operates it.

Frederick William Vanderbilt and his wife Louise Holmes Anthony owned multiple houses, including Hyde Park, which was one of them. McKim, Mead & White, the famous architectural company, created the 54-room Vanderbilt home. Between 1896 and 1899, the building was completed. The home is built in the Beaux-Arts style of architecture. The interiors are American Renaissance archetypes, combining European architectural salvage, antiques, and superb period reconstructions in a variety of historical styles. The site encompasses 211 acres (85 ha) of the original bigger property (originally over 600 acres), which includes groomed lawns, formal gardens, trees, and various auxiliary buildings and is perched on a hill overlooking the Hudson River.

The Italian gardens are separate from the home and feature traditional Italian formal features. This meant that if you drew a line across the middle of the beds, either horizontally or vertically, one side of the line would mirror the other. The number of layers in these formal gardens varied depending on the variety of plants. Each level was unique. Frederick added the rose garden, which had about 2000 vintage rose plants as well as other varieties of roses.