Information to Users

INFORMATION TO USERS

This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer.

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction.

In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.

Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book.

Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600

Shelburne H ouse, 1887-1900

Erica Huyler Donnis

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Early American Culture

Spring 1998

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI N um ber: 1389578

This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. T he C o nceptio n O f A C ountry R esid e n c e :

Sh elburn e H ouse, 1887-1900

Erica Huyler Donnis

Approved:C t s l j d c — ______Neville Thompson, M.S. ^ Librarian In Charge, Printed Book & Periodical Collection, Winterthur Library Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee

Approved: d. . Curtis, Ph.D. r of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture

Approved: JohnCVCavanaugh, Ph.D. Vice(provost for Academic Program!! and Planning

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A cknowledgments

My gratitude extends to many individuals who greatly facilitated my project by

providing intellectual support, allowing me access to sources under their jurisdiction, and

otherwise entertaining my needs. At Winterthur, my advisor Neville Thompson was

available at my convenience for constant guidance and thoughtful criticism. Gretchen

Buggeln encouraged my fledgling ideas. Lois F. McNeil’s generous financial sponsorship

of myself and my classmates in the Winterthur Program is deeply appreciated.

I am especially indebted to Julie Bressor, Historical Collections Consultant at

Shelburne Farms, for her continuous enthusiasm and contributions to the project. Indeed,

Julie generously shared both her knowledge of the subject and her physical office space

with me, pointed me in numerous right directions, spent countless hours discussing the

project with me, facilitated endless illustration details, and read drafts of the document.

Also at Shelburne Farms, Megan Camp and Alec Webb generously provided me with

unlimited access to the grounds and buildings, covered some of my costs, and waived their

photographic reproductions fees. James Watson Webb, Jr. graciously allowed me to view

his private collection of Shelburne Farms photographs, and Rick Peters facilitated access

to them. I would also like to personally thank Katie Camp, Carol Euler, Jane Gross,

Karen Polihronakis, and Hiliary Sunderland at Shelburne Farms for their interest and help.

iii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. At the Shelburne Museum, Jean Burks, Polly Darnell, Sloane Stephens, and Robyn

Woodworth spent a great amount of time discussing the project with me and fulfilled

numerous requests. In addition, Mary-Beth Betts at the New-York Historical Society,

Paul Eriksson, Robert Groleau, Jane Hackmann at Blantyre, Hal Keiner at Biltmore, and

Paul O’Halloran each facilitated and contributed to my research.

Finally, I am grateful to a number o f personal friends and relatives for their

constant support. My classmates in the Winterthur Program were always available to

listen and commiserate. Jill Berry served as my personal sounding-board, thesaurus,

scanner, chauffeur, and editor throughout the project. And my parents, Susan and Robert

Donnis, put up with my divided attention, gave me a place to live during the course of my

research in Vermont, and provided me with the confidence that I could complete the task

in the first place.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of C ontents

List of Figures ...... vi

A bstract ...... viii

Introduction ...... 1

Chapter

1 Social Context ...... 3

2 Shelburne Fa r m s ...... 8

3 Country House Evolution ...... 20

4 Country House Resolution ...... 31

5 The South Piazza ...... 41

6 The D ining Ro o m ...... 46

Epilogue ...... 53

End notes ...... 58

Bibliography ...... 81

Figures ...... 97

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L ist of Figures

Figure 1. William Seward Webb, ca. 1890 ...... 97

Figure 2. Lila Vanderbilt Webb in wedding attire, 1881 ...... 98

Figure 3. “Small Drawing Room, Levens, Westmoreland”...... 99

Figure 4. Shelburne House exterior, ca. 1900...... 100

Figure 5. Aerial view of Shelburne Farms, ca. 1920...... 101

Figure 6. Shelburne Farms Farm Bam, ca. 1900...... 102

Figure 7. Shelburne House exterior, ca. 1887-1899 ...... 103

Figure 8. Shelburne House first floor plan, ca. 1887-1895 ...... 104

Figures 9 and 10. South Piazza, Shelburne House, ca. 1886-1895 ...... 105

Figure 11. West elevation, “Residence for Dr. W. Seward Webb/ Shelburne Vt,” ca. 1887-1893 ...... 106

Figure 12. First floor plan, “Residence for Dr. W. Seward Webb/ Shelburne, Vt,” ca. 1887-1893...... 107

Figure 13. Shelburne House floor plan, ca. 1986-present...... 108

Figure 14. Main Hall, Shelburne House, ca. 1900...... 109

Figure 15. Library, Shelburne House, ca. 1900...... 110

Figure 16. South Piazza, Shelburne House, ca. 1900...... I ll

Figure 17. Dining Room, Shelburne House, ca. 1900...... 112

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 18. North Room, Shelburne House, ca. 1900...... 113

Figure 19. South Piazza with glass windows, Shelburne House, ca. 1900 ...... 114

Figure 20. Lila Webb reading on South Piazza, Shelburne House, ca. 1888-1900 ...... 115

Figure 21. Dining Room, Shelburne House, ca. 1900...... 116

Figure 22. Frog feet and acanthus leaf base, Dining Room floor lamp, E.F. Caldwell & Co., ca. 1899-1900 ...... 117

Figure 23. Ancient Roman Medusa Head...... 118

Figure 24. Porcelain dinner plate with Webb crest, Haviland & Cie, ca. 1876-1889 ...... 119

Figure 24. Silver Loving Cup, Tiffany & Co., 1899...... 120

vii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A b str a c t

Shelburne House, the country house of William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb,

was built between 1887 and 1900 on the edge of Lake Champlain in northern Vermont.

Part of a 4,000-acre agrarian estate called Shelburne Farms, the dwelling was first

envisioned as a temporary Shingle-Style structure. However, in lieu of building a palatial

Beaux-Arts residence on another estate site, the Webbs eventually decided to modify

Shelburne House into an enlarged, highly individualized Queen Anne dwelling.

Shelburne House’s complex architectural and decorative evolution both allies it

with and distinguishes it from its Vanderbilt cousins, including The Breakers and Biltmore,

and other period country residences. Shelburne House reflects the Webbs’ conscious

attempts to balance their own ideals for a country house with those of their family

members and general social conventions. The residence thus exists as an embodiment of

three interrelated elements: personal identity, familial allegiance, and nationwide cultural

movement.

viii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a rising generation of

American industrialists and professionals participated in a country house movement by

building grand residences in resort towns or rural areas. These dwellings represent some

of the most significant expressions of the Gilded Age, the materialistic and ritualized high-

society culture of the period. Indeed, the intertwined elements of these American country

houses, including site location and landscape, architectural style, household systems, room

type, function, and layout, and furnishings, illuminate the complexity of both the personal

lifestyles and the general social conventions of the people who built them.

Of the Gilded Age residences which comprise the American country house

movement, those built by members of the Vanderbilt family remain at the forefront of

popular and academic attention. The third-generation houses The Breakers, Marble

House, and Biltmore are often represented as the height of Gilded Age extravagance, and

their palatial opulence seen as the physical manifestation of tremendous wealth, high social

status, and conspicuous consumption. The ostentatious aesthetic embodied by these three

country houses, and the lives and personalities of the family members who commissioned

them, remain central to the scholarly understanding of the family and its architectural

achievements.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It is my opinion that the traditional interpretation of the Vanderbilts and their

country houses neglects their depth of expression and meaning. This paper represents an

attempt to expand the definitions of the Vanderbilt country house and the Vanderbilt

aesthetic through the in-depth exploration of another residence of the same generation,

William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb’s Shelburne House. By devoting the essay to

the multi-faceted, evolving features of a lesser-known Vanderbilt house, I hope to build

upon the recent work completed by Vanderbilt historians Armin Brand Allen, John

Foreman, and Robbe Pierce Stimson. I also owe an intellectual debt to the country house

and decorative arts scholarship of John Bryan, Mark Girouard, and Mark Hewitt.

Like The Breakers, Biltmore, and many other Gilded Age country houses,

Shelburne House certainly represents a grand, expensive residence built by privileged

members of high society. Yet Shelburne House also reflects its proprietors’ conscious,

extended attempts to create a suitable country house for themselves and their guests. In

building their dwelling and subsequently modifying it, Seward and Lila Webb sought to

balance their own country house ideals with those of their Vanderbilt relations and Gilded

Age society in general. Shelburne House thus exists as a multi-faceted manifestation of

three interrelated elements: personal identity, familial allegiances, and nationwide cultural

movement.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C h a p te r 1

So c ia l C o n tex t

Lila Osgood Vanderbilt and William Seward Webb’s wedding was one of the

highlights of the 1881 New York social season. Many of New York’s most eminent

citizens gathered in St. Bartholemew’s Church on December 20 to witness the ceremony.

According to the New York Times, the bride walked down the aisle on the arm of her

father, William Henry Vanderbilt, past former President Ulysses S. Grant, two ex-

govemors of the state of New York, two leading United States Senators, several railroad

executives, and many members of high society.1 As the diverse guest list signified, the

Webb-Vanderbilt marriage represented the union of two distinguished New York families,

one an established member of “old New York” society due to its long-standing political

and military connections, the other a leader of the wealthy contingent of ncniveaux riches.

The Webbs had long been quite prominent in American society. William Seward’s

grandfather, General Samuel Blachley Webb, served as an aide to General George

Washington during the American Revolution. General Alexander Stewart Webb, William

Seward’s older half-brother, was a Civil War hero. Active in political circles, William

Seward’s father James Watson Webb owned and edited the leading New York newspaper

Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer and was appointed as the United States

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ambassador to Brazil during the Civil War.2 William Seward Webb, known as Seward

throughout his life, was named in honor of family friend and later Secretary of State

William Henry Seward (Figure 1).

Seward Webb (1851-1926) was the ninth of James Watson Webb’s thirteen

children, the first by the latter’s second wife Laura Virginia Cram. He attended military

preparatory school in Sing Sing, New York during the Civil War, and entered Columbia

College in 1868. After medical studies at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons

of New York and in European hospitals in Paris and Vienna, Seward completed a Doctor

of Medicine Degree in 1875.3 In his adult years, Seward upheld the traditions of his

prominent family in his own right, becoming a lifetime member of the Order of the

Cincinnati, the fraternal organization founded to honor officers of the Revolution and their

descendants; serving as the President-General of the National Society of the Sons of the

American Revolution; and administering the Webb ancestral homestead in Hartford,

Connecticut.4

While the Webbs were established members of New York society, the Vanderbilts

were nouveaux riches, just beginning to enter the upper echelons of social relations

directed and dominated by members of “old New York.” The family fortune had been

amassed by “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt, who organized his own lucrative

steamboat business and eventually turned to investing in railroads. By the 1870s

Vanderbilt and his sons possessed a virtual monopoly of railroad transportation in the

northeastern United States, eventually controlling approximately 20,000 miles of track.5

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877, he left $90 million out of his $100 million

fortune to William Henry, his eldest son. During his own lifetime of directing the

Vanderbilt railroad interests, William Henry Vanderbilt managed to more than double that

bequest and was rumored to be the “richest man in the world.”6

Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt (1860-1936), known as Lila throughout her life, was the

eighth of William Henry and Maria Kissam Vanderbilt’s nine children (Figure 2). Lila

spent her childhood and young adulthood living in New York at 453 Fifth Avenue, the

relatively modest brownstone townhouse which later became her wedding gift from her

father.7 She attended the socially-elite Miss Porter’s School from 1875 to 1878 and

became quite active in high society of New York City and the popular resort towns. Lila’s

diaries record several beaux, first and foremost William Seward Webb.

By 1878, Seward and Lila were madly in love. However, William Henry

Vanderbilt disapproved of the match. According to various newspaper and family

accounts, William Henry considered Seward’s medical profession to be financially

inadequate for his daughter, and he eventually forbade her to see him. A secret

engagement followed, during which Lila continued her social circuits and Seward turned

to the stock markets on Wall Street in the hopes of winning her father’s approval. After

three long years, William Henry finally acquiesced, and Lila and Seward were married.®

Seward was taken into the family business as President of the Wagner Palace Car

Company, the Pullman Company’s main competitor in the production and operation of

railway sleeping, dining, and drawing room cars. During the course of his business career,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. he was also eventually named a director of number of other Vanderbilt railroad branches.9

Along with their Webb and Vanderbilt family members, the newlywed Webbs were

prominent members of New York high society. They attended the well-known costume

ball given by Lila’s brother and sister-in-law, William K. and Alva Vanderbilt, soon after

their wedding. Lila, Seward, and many of their siblings were included in Ward

McAllister’s exclusive 1892 list of the New York ‘Tour Hundred.”10 During the New

York social seasons, the Webbs attended the annual Charity, Assembly, and Patriarch’s

Balls, and the Madison Square Garden Horse Show. They also held a box at the

Metropolitan Opera House. While Lila was known for her patronage of a college theatre

club, Seward was a “society man” who “belong[ed] to all the swell clubs” and served as a

vestryman at the fashionable St. Bartholomew’s Church.11

The Webbs gave acclaimed dinner parties in their new Gothic-style New York

townhouse at 680 Fifth Avenue, to which they moved circa 1885.12 One of the so-called

Vanderbilt Row series of residences which William Henry Vanderbilt built for himself and

his daughters in the early and mid-1880s on Fifth Avenue, the dwelling was funded

directly by William Henry and designed by architect John Butler Snook.13 The Webbs’

residence stood in the center of the Fifth Avenue block between 53 rd and 54th Streets,

connected to Lila’s sister Florence Twombly’s adjoining townhouse on one side and

adjoining Saint Thomas Church on the other. Lila’s father’s house and those of her

siblings Emily Sloane, Margaret Shepard, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, and William K.

Vanderbilt were all located nearby.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Webbs’ townhouse was finely and expensively decorated by a number of

leading New York firms, including Herter Brothers, Leon Marcotte, Pottier and Stymus,

and Jules Allard Fils.14 Like its fellow Vanderbilt Row residences, 680 Fifth Avenue

featured a mixture of architectural elements copied from European sources, elegant

antique furnishings in various styles, oriental rugs, potted palms, and large tapestries of the

finest quality. On the first floor, a large square oak entrance hall with sixteenth-century

English oak furniture and Aubusson tapestries led to a formal reception room in browns

and golds featuring Italian Renaissance-style furniture. Other public rooms included a

drawing room/ballroom furnished in a Louis XVI style and a dining room decorated in

eighteenth-century English antique furniture.15 According to handwritten notes by

William Seward Webb, Jr. in a Webb-owned book describing English country houses,

Lila’s bedroom featured a grand bed, a richly carved fireplace, and wall paneling copied

from Sizergh House and Levens (Figure 3).16

By virtue of its integral relationship with Vanderbilt Row and the Vanderbilt

family, 680 Fifth Avenue was quite similar in design and furnishings to many New York

townhouses of the period. However, Seward and Lila Webb only lived at Fifth Avenue

during the New York social season. They spent much of their time at the country

residence which they designed and built with their own money, Shelburne House in

Shelburne, Vermont (Figure 4). It is Shelburne House, the Webbs’ own self-conscious

creation, which Lila Webb called “home” in her various diary entries.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C h ap ter 2

Sh e l b u r n e Fa r m s

In the spring of 1881, several months before his marriage to Lila Vanderbilt,

William Seward Webb traveled from New York City to Vermont. While his ostensible

mission was to scout out the feasibility of adding the Rutland Railroad to the Vanderbilt

family’s extensive holdings, the result of Seward’s visit was an enduring attachment to the

state, an attachment which led him to return and establish a residence in the area.

Ultimately, that residence was Shelburne Farms, a country estate consisting of several

thousand acres of land, a large dwelling, a model farm, and a horse breeding enterprise.

By the summer of 1882, newlyweds Seward and Lila had rented a house in the city

of Burlington, located adjacent to Lake Champlain in the northwestern part of the state.

A year later, they purchased land in the southern section of the city with frontage on the

Lake and began to build their own residence and farm there, probably with the financial

help of William Henry Vanderbilt. Oakledge Farm, as it was known, consisted of

approximately two hundred acres of land, a large clapboarded cottage and several bams

housing horses, sheep, and dairy cattle.17 The Oakledge residence, completed by May,

1884, featured a gabled exterior and a deep wrap-around verandah. Here the Webbs

could raise a young family in a casual, comfortable lifestyle incorporating outdoor

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. activities such as tennis, riding and driving, and swimming.18

While Oakledge was certainly an expansive property, the Webbs envisioned a

larger, grander country estate along Lake Champlain just south of Burlington in the town

of Shelburne. The Shelburne land possessed several attractive features to the Webbs,

including a fertile nature and magnificent views of the Lake and the Adirondack

Mountains across the Lake in the state of New York. In addition, Seward’s grandfather

General Samuel Webb had briefly owned a prize portion of the acreage in the late

eighteenth century, received by act of Congress in honor of his Revolutionary War

service.19 Lila Webb’s 1885 inheritance of ten million dollars, five million in trust and five

million to be granted in cash when she turned thirty years old in 1890, allowed the Webbs

to proceed with purchasing the Shelburne land.20

Shelburne Farms, as it was called, eventually comprised a total of approximately

thirty local farms and close to 4,000 acres, including twenty miles of prime Lake

Champlain shoreline.21 The existing fences and many standing farm structures were

removed, and in their place rose an impressive group of Shingle-Style buildings, including

two immense bams and a country residence (Figure 5). Construction lasted from 1886

until 1902, paced along as the Vanderbilt funds and other incomes were available.

Architect Robert Henderson Robertson; trained in Philadelphia with Henry Sims

and in New York with George B. Post, was engaged to design the structures at Shelburne

Farms.22 Although better-known today for his New York City skyscrapers, Robertson

was well-versed in Shingle-Style country houses and estates and indeed had designed

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. several residences in New Jersey and Long Island with an early partner by 1880.23

Robertson was working on a number of country estates in Long Island and Newport

concurrently with the Webbs’ commission.24 However, Shelburne Farms was probably the

largest domestic project he designed, a project which would occupy much of his time and

energy until 1902.

Construction on the Farm Bam of Shelburne Farms began in 1886 and continued

until 1890. The building consisted of a five-story central section with two wings and

housed the general farm office; the blacksmith, paint, carpenter, and wheelwright shops;

stables for seventy to eighty head of mules; and storage areas for 1,500 tons of hay, 1,000

tons of straw, and agricultural equipment (Figure 6).15 The Farm Bam was the center of

Dr. Webb’s model farm pursuits, which included raising pure-bred Southdown sheep and

Jersey dairy cattle.26 Shelburne Farms yielded choice dairy, pork, mutton, produce, and

horticultural products for the Webb family and friends along the East Coast. Agricultural

items produced in abundance, including butter, milk, eggs, apples, oats, wheat, and rye,

were sold to “a private trade at a fancy price.”27 The Farms supplied the New York

Central Railroad’s dining service as well as other “clubs and restaurants in New York.”28

As the Albany Journal reported in 1889, “butter from Dr. Webb’s famous farm is classed

with the ‘diamond edged variety’ and retails at $ 1 a pound.”29

However important his model farm activities, Dr. Webb’s passion was horse

breeding. Construction of a large Breeding Bam complex began in another section of the

estate in 1888.30 The complex featured a massive two-story Breeding Bam, several

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. outlying barns for brood mares and colts, a cottage for the head Stud Groom, and a series

of “extensive pastures and paddocks.”31 Renowned as “the largest unsupported interior

space in the United States” of the late nineteenth century, the Breeding Bam’s 418' x 107'

electrified expanse accommodated a central indoor exercising ring, box stalls for 75 horses

along the outer parameter, a second-story observation gallery, and hay lofts.32

This Breeding complex housed the Dr. Webb’s prize-winning English hackneys

and French coaching and carriage horses, imported from Europe with the visionary intent

of creating a new, revived American horse stock. Dr. Webb made the breeding services of

his hackneys, trotters, carriage horses, saddle horses, and ponies available to any

interested party, offering them free of charge to local farmers, whose Morgan stock he

believed to have degenerated in recent years. While Dr. Webb’s offer received little

response from Vermont farmers, who were probably less than pleased with the value

judgements it embodied, the Shelburne Farms breeding operations did appeal to the

Webbs’ fellow members of high society.33 They patronized the annual horse sales held in

the Breeding Bam, and read copies of Dr. Webb’s 1891 and 1893 horse catalogues

entitled Shelburne Farms Stud.

Construction of various estate appendages and support structures designed by

Robertson continued through 1902, the peak of farm operations. Seward, Lila, and their

three oldest children Frederica (1882-1949), James Watson (1884-1960), and William

Seward, Jr. (1887-1956) occupied the first manifestation of Shelburne House in May,

1888 after almost a year of construction (Figure 7).34 A new Coach Bam and Coachman’s

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. residence, with box stalls for the family’s personal “harness and saddle horses” and

carriage storage areas, replaced renovated structures from the original farms on the site in

1901.35 A variety of old farmhouses on the estate was converted into workers’ quarters

and overflow guesthouses. The Shelburne Depot, three railroad employee houses, and the

Trinity Episcopal Church were all constructed about a mile outside the main estate gates

in the town of Shelburne. In addition, technologically superior amenities, including fresh

lake water pumped through eight miles of water mains and stored in an on-site 120,000

gallon reservoir, electrical and gas lighting, and twenty-two telephones administered by a

central telephone exchange, were in place by 1903.36

The Shelburne Farms estate also served as the Webb family’s “private park,” as it

was often termed by the press.37 In fact, Robert Robertson contacted noted landscape

architect Frederick Law Olmsted early in the design and planning process for consultation:

“...if justice is done to the situation and conditions it will without doubt be one of the most

important and beautiful country places in America and in view of this fact I hope you can

undertake the problem.”38

Shelburne Farms represented one of many Vanderbilt projects for which Olmsted

was consulted during the 1880s and 1890s, including Biltmore, Florham, and Elm Court.39

However, beyond providing an initial sketched plan and advice concerning which species

to plant on the grounds, it is unclear how involved Olmsted actually was in the planning

and implementation of the landscape design at Shelburne. Recent research by historian

Alan Emmet has uncovered evidence that Dr. Webb and Olmsted differed on key issues

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. surrounding the layout and planting of Shelburne Farms and the message it was to convey.

While Olmsted favored a natural landscape featuring an “Arboretum Vermontii” with

native species, Webb preferred to plant more fashionable, non-native plants and to make

use of greenhouses.40 Emmet believes that Olmsted served an early advisory role in the

project but did not fully carry out his designs. Arthur Taylor, the Farm Manager and “an

experienced horticulturalist and landscape architect from Scotland,” most likely

implemented and maintained the estate landscape according to Olmsted’s initial ideas and

the Webbs’ continuing wishes.41

Regardless of who actually designed the grounds, they certainly possessed an

Olmsted-like character. The Farms’ macadamized drives led the visitor past gently rolling,

planted fields and pastureland alternating with forested and park-like areas, documented to

be a calculated effect achieved with earth-moving and even the transplanting of mature

trees.42 The estate’s main buildings were carefully sited, and the entrance drives provided

glimpses and vistas of the Breeding Barn, Farm Bam, main residence, and Lake Champlain

as the visitor proceeded from the entrance gates towards the Lake. However manipulated,

the landscape appeared informal and natural. As Henry Hazleton wrote in a 1901 issue of

New England Magazine, “[Dr. Webb] has arranged his substantial and perfect roadways

so as to make them conform to the natural beauties of the country. The effect of this is

extremely pleasing, for at eveiy bend in the road one is confronted with a new picture,

each more beautiful than the last.”43

The Webbs’ “private park” proved ideal for the pursuit of numerous outdoor

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sporting activities. Imported pheasants were bred in the estate Pheasantry and as many as

4,000 released for annual fall shoots.44 The twenty miles of interior macadamized roads

with their pastoral and lake-front views offered pleasant opportunities for walking, riding

and carriage driving.45 Lila Webb and her sons frequented the nine-hole Golf Links

located adjacent to the residence, and the lawn in front of Shelburne House was carefully

maintained for tennis and croquet.46 At the waterfront, boating, swimming, and yachting

on the Webbs’ own Elfrida were also popular. A Squash Court was in place in the

Shelburne House Annex by 1902.47 And a custom-built toboggan slide was perennial

favorite in the winter.

The Webbs’ frequent house parties revolved around their estate and the outdoor

activities it offered. A group of friends and relatives often arrived for a week or a

weekend to hunt, fish, sail, golf, toboggan, drive, observe an exhibition of horses, and

otherwise enjoy themselves. The Webbs entertained President Harrison on the Elfrida in

1891, and the New York Coaching Club, a group of gentleman four-in-hand aficionados,

took an extended excursion to Shelburne Farms in June, 1894.48

All in all, the Webbs’ immense Shelburne Farms encompassed many operations and

activities. Farm Manager Arthur Taylor, succeeded by 1900 by E. F. Gebhardt, oversaw

the Assistant Manager, the Head Coachman, the Stud Groom, the Head Gardener, a Farm

Office of six clerks, and approximately three hundred other Farm employees, including

grooms, gardeners, house servants, and field workers. The sheer volume of activity and

expense is suggested by the Shelburne Farms account book entries for 1901, which consist

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of separate records for Shelburne House, Farm Bam, and Breeding Bams; Farm Office,

Tool Room, and Store Room; various field crops, Poultry Yard, Piggery, Swinery, Steer

Farm, Dairy Farm, and Sheep Yard; Blacksmith Shop and Harness Shop; breeding

operations; House Garden, Golf Links, Greenhouses, and Nurseries; Aviary and

Pheasantry; Boathouse, Docks and Yacht; and Fire Department, Water Plant, Electrical

Plant, and road maintenance operations.49

This large, multi-faceted country estate had much in common with others designed

and operated in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Many participants in American high society spent the winter social season at their New

York City townhouses and then relocated to their country residences for most of the

spring, summer, and autumn months, with occasional short jaunts to Europe, other resort

areas, or sporting lodges. The Webbs usually lived at 680 Fifth Avenue from November

though April, spending the majority of their time from May through November and many

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holidays at Shelburne Farms. They also took

periodic short trips to Nehasane, their large Adirondack camp, and occasionally traveled

across the country in a private suite of railroad cars or to Europe for several weeks.50 The

Webbs’ family and friends followed similar schedules, dividing their time between two,

three, or even four residences plus trips to others’ estates or abroad.51

Dr. Webb’s interests in hunting, farming and horse breeding were common

gentlemanly pursuits of the time. Many society members possessed model farms and

occupied themselves with breeding prize livestock, racing horses, producing high-quality

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. agricultural products for their own consumption, and undertaking scientific experiments to

increase hygiene and improve agricultural yields.52 William Henry Vanderbilt himself had

directed a “‘gentleman farmer’s’ operation” in Staten Island for a while, and several of

Lila’s Vanderbilt siblings followed their father’s example during their own lifetimes.53

Shelburne Farms, in fact, existed as part of a network of model farms exchanging livestock

and employees.54

Yet however much the Webbs’ Shelburne Farms adhered to the general pattern for

country estates, it possessed key characteristics which set it apart from the mainstream.

What was unusual about Shelburne Farms was its very location. Like most country

estates, Shelburne Farms was renowned for the physical beauty of its landscape and view.

However, the Webbs chose northwestern Vermont, a rather unpopular location as far as

society was concerned. The Burlington area—and the state of Vermont in general—was not

known for its appeal to members of high society, in spite of the attempts of period

guidebooks to sell Vermont to businessmen and their families.55 None of the Webbs’

family members possessed estates in the area, and only two other prominent members of

society lived nearby, Colonel Le Grand Cannon, a member of the ‘Tour Hundred,” at

Overlake, and Henry Holt, a Boston publisher, at Fairholt.56 In many senses Shelburne

Farms was almost completely spatially isolated.

Except for a few members of high society such as Lila’s brother George

Vanderbilt, who maintained an estate in Asheville, North Carolina, not many lived outside

of the fashionable, popular country areas of the period. By and large New York high

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. society built their country houses in Newport, Bar Harbor, the Berkshires, Long Island,

the Hudson Valley, and the New Jersey coast, remaining relatively close in proximity to

one another. While the Webbs settled at Shelburne Farms, many of Seward and Lila

Webb’s siblings chose resort areas: Newport (Cornelius and William K. Vanderbilt),

Lenox (Emily Vanderbilt), the Hudson (Frederick Vanderbilt, Margaret Vanderbilt, and H.

Walter Webb), and New Jersey (Florence Vanderbilt).57

The location of the Webbs’ country estate was so unusual that rumors abounded in

the press concerning the proprietors’ reasons for selecting Vermont. Several newspapers

reported that the Webbs intended to create their own resort by building a hotel, family

compound, or cluster of homes, surrounding themselves with society and thus creating

their own equivalent to Newport, Lenox, or the Hudson Valley.58 Speculation as to why

the Webbs decided not to build or acquire a permanent home of their own in one of the

established resorts also proliferated.59

The Webbs were no strangers to resort life themselves. They often visited the

Newport, Bar and Dark Harbor, and other resort towns for short periods and participated

in the dinners, balls, and summer sporting events which characterized the towns. Yet

despite their frequent visits to see friends and relatives, it is clear that they preferred their

own estate in northern Vermont. When the Webbs invited family and friends to Shelbume

Farms, they could structure their social contacts and activities as they wished. But when

they visited a preexisting resort area, they were obliged to follow the established social

patterns, some of which were distasteful. An entry in Lila’s diary for August 10, 1894 is a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. telling indicator of her preferences. In the midst of a stay in Newport filled with dances,

dinners, coaching parades, and other high-society events, she wrote, “...this life here is

most unsatisfactory. I hate it....”60

Instead, the Webbs constructed their own colony by bringing prominent political

and society figures, family, and close friends to Shelburne Farms.61 The estate reflected its

proprietors’ penchant for entertaining. Ample on-site accommodations allowed the

Webbs to host large groups of guests at once. As opposed to many of the country houses

at Newport, which contained only a few guest bedrooms, Shelburne Farms offered

approximately fourteen guest rooms at Shelburne House, plus additional space in the three

guesthouses on the estate and Oakledge, a short distance away. Moreover, the variety of

available activities kept the visitors entertained while far from the social scenes at Newport

and elsewhere. Shelburne Farms’ location, then, represents a conscious choice on the part

of the Webbs to suit their own, individual needs and values.

Shelburne Farms’ location also proved ideal for Dr. Webb’s business pursuits. In

addition to providing Dr. Webb with the telephone and telegraph connections and office

space essential to his daily activities, Shelburne Farms’ placement and rail links supplied

relatively easy travel access to the various railroad sites with which he was concerned.

The Wagner Palace Car Company’s construction and repair headquarters in Buffalo, New

York; the various Vanderbilt railroad meetings in New York City; and the construction of

Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad’s northern route through the Adirondacks in the

early 1890s, which Dr. Webb superintended, were all in relatively close rail proximity.62

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Webbs’ country estate also differed from others of the period in the

relationship of its main buildings to one another. While most country estate owners placed

their attention upon their residences, the Webbs chose to highlight their Farm and

Breeding Bams, which were larger, more visible, and more elaborate than the house. The

Bams and the temporary residence cost approximately the same amount, one hundred

thousand dollars each for the former and ninety thousand dollars for the latter. However,

the superlatives belonged to the Farm and Breeding Bams, not the dwelling.63

The Webbs had postponed building a grand country residence, planning to make

do with the temporary Shelburne House until the Bams had been finished. Robert

Robertson prepared designs for a much grander and more elaborate structure to be sited

near the top of Lone Tree Hill, the highest point on the estate. A palatial residence might

have evened the balance between house and bams. Yet the various plans Robertson made

for a more formal house were all rejected by the Webbs by 1893. Between 1887 and

1893, the Webbs made a very conscious choice to keep a smaller, less grand residence.

The Webbs’ decision, and the Shelburne House which resulted from that decision,

represent the focus of the next several chapters.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C h a p te r 3

C o u n tr y Hou se E v o l u t io n

The Webbs settled into Shelburne House in June, 1888 with the intention of

remaining only a short period of time. Their relatively small and informal temporary house

was soon to be replaced by another residence, one which would mirror the size, scale, and

sense of grandeur of the Shelburne Farms Farm and Breeding Bams when complete. Yet

the Webbs eventually found both the temporary house and the planned permanent dwelling

to be unsatisfactory. The decisions which they made because of these perceived

inadequacies provide significant insights into their ideal of a country house and their

relationship to their Vanderbilt family and Gilded Age high society in general.

However temporary Seward and Lila Webb meant Shelburne House to be, they

carefully planned the original structure, consciously designing each element to reflect their

initial needs for a country dwelling. Frederick Olmsted was involved in planning the

locations of both the Webbs’ intended permanent residence atop Lone Tree Hill and

Shelburne House, situated on a knoll known as Saxton’s Point at the edge of Lake

Champlain. Shortly before construction on the latter began in the summer of 1887,

Olmsted wrote to Shelburne Farms Manager A. Taylor to inform him of an impeding visit

to the Farms in late May, during which he and Seward Webb would make final

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. assessments of the house site, located in the middle of an old apple orchard. Olmsted

asked Taylor to prepare a high platform, probably to confirm the views above the apple

trees from the House’s prospective upper stories towards Lake Champlain: “We would

like also to have a platform say 6' x 6', and 6' high, built on the westerly side of the

intended house site before we arrive....”64 Olmsted’s efforts succeeded in full; the site

afforded the Webbs tremendous views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains

to the north, west, and south.

The Webbs’ new, temporary residence on Saxton’s Point was completed by May,

1888 (Figure 7). A low, rambling, three-story structure, Shelburne House possessed an

appearance characteristic of the Shingle Style. Shelburne House’s combination of exterior

clapboarding and shingling, bay sections, gables with half-timbering, ornamented brick

chimneys, and windows with decorative pane patterns represented a late-nineteenth-

century distillation and reinterpretation of features drawn from seventeenth-century

English Queen Anne architecture and its American colonial equivalent, popular with

contemporary architects of both nationalities.65

The interior spaces of Shelburne House also corresponded with a Shingle-Style

aesthetic. Robertson’s original floor plans convey a sense of informality (Figure S).66

Large round bays, extensive windows, and numerous exterior doors situated throughout

the first and second floors provided an ease of transition between exterior and interior.

The first floor Covered and Open Piazzas dominated the southern, public end of the

residence on the first floor and supplied open-air living spaces. Along with the Covered

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Piazza, the Main Hal], Library, Dining, and Breakfast Rooms served as the inhabitants’

primary public spaces. Informal living excluded the need for formal drawing and reception

spaces. Robertson designed an intimate setting for the House’s inhabitants and their

guests, clustering adjoining public rooms with first-floor guest bedrooms and placing

Seward and Lila’s second-floor bed- and dressing rooms adjacent to the Webb children’s

nurseries.67

In addition to accommodating the Webbs, their three children, and their guests,

Shelburne House also possessed a series of service rooms for the House staff members.

The interconnected Pantry, Kitchen, Larder, and Refrigerator Rooms allowed convenient

access to the Webbs’ Breakfast and Dining Rooms, and the Servants’ Hall and

Housekeeper’s Office most likely served as the staff headquarters. On the third floor,

open dormitory-style bedrooms housed many of the servants.68

The Webbs’ temporary home was small in size but cozy. According to the New

York Telegram , the dwelling’s interiors were “comfortable and luxuriously rustic.”69 In

two tandem photographs of the Covered Piazza from the late 1880s or early 1890s, a

hammock with tufted upholstery hangs from the rafters, while a low, deep sofa, oriental

rugs, numerous large pillows, a cushioned wicker armchair, and a potted palm occupy the

floor (Figures 9 and 10). A period image of an unidentified Shelburne House interior,

replete with heavy portieres, patterned wallpapers, a crowded tabletop, and furniture in

various Louis styles, provides a sense of the residence’s indoor spaces.70

The Webbs’ relatively informal Shelburne House had much in common with many

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. country residences of the time. The Shingle Style, in fact, was one of the most popular for

dwellings of middle- and upper-class Gilded Age Americans during the 1870s and 1880s,

those of the Vanderbilts included. William Kissam Vanderbilt’s Long Island residence Idle

Hour, Cornelius Vanderbilt EE’s first Breakers in Newport, and Emily Vanderbilt Sloane’s

Elm Court in Lenox were all built or acquired during the period.71

The above residences also shared an adaptability to their owners’ needs. During

the late 1880s and early 1890s, all four underwent various renovations and additions

designed to enlarge spaces and retrofit them to changes in style and practical

requirements. Even as a temporary dwelling, Shelburne House seemed inadequate to the

Webbs by the early 1890s. Four major public spaces and four guest bedrooms were

simply not enough to comfortably house their friends and family, increased to four children

in 1891 with the birth of Vanderbilt Webb. Moreover, the residence’s service areas were

ill-equipped and -sized to meet the demand placed upon them. A series of alterations and

additions to Shelburne House, intended to increase the dwelling’s size and scope until the

larger and grander Lone Tree Hill residence was designed and constructed, began in 1891.

The first modification consisted of a large, two-story addition which extended to

the northwest from the original kitchen area, adding numerous service areas and guest and

staff bedrooms. According to Robertson’s elevations for the 1891 addition, the New

Kitchen Wing possessed a similar Shingle-Style facade which blended its appearance with

the main section of the house. A single-story ell with a roof balcony attached the addition

to the original structure. Inside the wing, new rooms expanded and individualized the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. service areas, providing a new kitchen, food storage rooms, and several bedrooms for

male servants. At the far end, Robertson placed a Smoking Room, accessible to guests by

either the separate exterior door or the flight of stairs leading to the wing’s second-floor

guest bedrooms.72

At the same time that Seward and Lila Webb enlarged Shelburne House, they

contemplated a series of designs for the permanent country residence to be constructed on

Lone Tree Hill. Any of the various palatial Lone Tree Hill plans which Robert Robertson

designed between 1887 and 1893 would certainly have alleviated the Webbs’ problems

with size and space and provided them with a more stately counterpart to their own Farm

and Breeding Bams. The plans all possessed a large number of formalized interior spaces,

housed within grand exteriors of differing architectural styles.

The first known Lone Tree Hill house design, published by Robertson in an 1887

issue of the architectural periodicalAmerican Architect and Building News, featured an

imposing, heavy-set, and rough-hewn stone facade with groups of towers, gables, and

romanesque arcades. On the interior, the formal public spaces included a columned Main

Hall with a main staircase leading to a gallery above, a two-story Dining Room with a

built-in organ, a Library, and a Drawing Room. The numerous bedrooms and service

spaces on the first, second, and third floors provided for a great deal more guest housing

and service activities than existed at Shelburne House at this time.73

A later plan for the proposed residence possessed many of the same palatial

characteristics, albeit clothed in a differing architectural style. Robertson first published

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the elevations for a dwelling inspired by Warwick Castle in an 1893 issue of American

Architect and Building News. It featured a stone exterior in a medieval style with groups

of towers containing slit-like windows, a crenelated roof line, protruding bays with banks

of windows, and massive exposed buttresses.74

The accompanying floor plans for the Warwick Castle-influenced design provide a

further sense of the planned interior’s size, scale, and formality. On the first floor, the

series of formal rooms included a two-story Main Hall and adjoining Living Room, two

formal Drawing Rooms, a Dining Room, Conservatory, Library, Billiard Room, Gun

Room, and Office. A group of game and sporting spaces, consisting of a Bowling Alley

and swimming pool with attached dressing rooms, formed one extended wing of the

residence, while the other housed extensive staff and service areas. On the second floor,

numerous family, guest, and servant bedrooms were arranged on either side of a central

hall gallery.75

Another group of Robertson plans for Lone Tree Hill, as yet unpublished,

delineated a Colonial Revival-style house. The designs featured a reserved, symmetrical

facade consisting of a main block containing a front portico entrance, two flanking

sections with ground-floor front porches, and a large service wing (Figure 11). The

mixture of neoclassical design elements included smooth ashlar walls with marble

stringcourses, double-hung sash windows, fanlit entrance doors, pediments and gables

with oval windows and Adamesque swag ornamentation, and a continuous roof balustrade

punctuated by urn finials.76

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Inside, the Colonial Revival residence featured spaces compatible with the large

formalized, neoclassical exterior (Figure 12). A Main Hall adjoined a Dining Room,

Library, Living Room, Conservatory, oval Main Staircase. A masculine preserve of rooms

for Dr. Webb and his guests included a personal office, adjoining Trap Room, a Billiard

Room, and a Gun Room. A service wing with a basement kitchen and store rooms

augmented the first-floor Pantry, Safe, and Clothes and Silver-Cleaning rooms as well as

the staff bedrooms and housekeeping closets located on all three floors.77

Robert Robertson’s three sets of designs for the prospective Lone Tree Hill

residence possess the common features of expansive size, scale, and formality. The

Webbs were not alone in their plans to build more stately residence. General trends in

architectural styles during the late 1880s and 1890s led to the ascendency of the more

formalized Beaux-Arts domestic architecture, which emphasized the resplendence of

European palaces and country seats rather than the intimacy and informality of Shingle-

Style houses. In Beaux-Arts terms, a variety of architectural styles, such as French

Renaissance, Louis XVT, English Georgian, and Tudor, were appropriate, so long as they

achieved a sense of grandeur and featured formalized, specialized spaces for family,

guests, and servants.78

Many members of Gilded Age society employed the premier American Beaux-Arts

architectural firms of Richard Morris Hunt, McKim, Mead, & White, and Carrere &

Hastings to build or renovate their country residences in order to reflect this new

architectural trend. They often utilized copies of European palace and country house

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. architectural elements and/or period European wood paneling, fireplaces, tapestries, and

other furnishings into their homes. Many American Beaux-Arts dwellings also featured

such aristocratic features as picture galleries and large service wings with individualized

spaces.

The Vanderbilts of Lila and Seward Webb’s generation were very taken with

Beaux-Arts styles. During the late 1880s and 1890s, they built several grand residences

modeled at least in part after European palaces. Richard Morris Hunt designed Marble

House (1892), the second Breakers (1895), and Biltmore (1895) utilizing elements from

sixteenth-century Italian villas and French Renaissance chateaux. George Vanderbilt and

Hunt, in fact, traveled to Europe together to view architecture and purchase interiors and

furnishings for Biltmore. McKim, Mead & White also built a series of Beaux-Arts country

residences for other Vanderbilt siblings, including Woodlea, Florham, and Hyde Park.79

While the Webbs’ Lone Tree Hill designs never approached the scale of Marble

House, The Breakers, or Biltmore, their dwelling would have fit in well with the

Vanderbilt model. Yet they eventually rejected not only the specific plans which

Robertson had prepared but also the very idea of a full-fledged palatial residence. In

1893, Lila Webb recorded a rather cryptic entry in her diary, casually noting her and her

husband’s rejection of the Lone Tree Hill house alongside daily activities and occurrences:

“Lovely day—warm and clear—Seward returned from N.Y. this morning—I went to drive

with him—This afternoon we cut a number of trees in the woods near the house, as we

have decided to alter this house, and give up building the other—....”80 This diary entry

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. represents the only known explicit reference of the Webbs to their rejection of the Lone

Tree Hill plans. However, their actions are not entirely unaccountable.

The most obvious explanation is the probable excess of expense. In general,

houses designed in the Beaux-Arts manner were costly, and Robertson’s Lone Tree Hill

designs indicate that the Webbs’ planned residence would have been quite large, formal,

and expensive. While an 1893 Chicago Post article quoted a building cost of $1,500,000

for the Warwick castle design, an 1894 New York Press headline proclaimed that the

house “Will Cost $3,000,000 To Build.”81 While William K. and Alva Vanderbilt could

afford to spend $11 million for Marble House, having inherited $50 million from William

Henry Vanderbilt, the Webbs were more cost-conscious. They had received a much

smaller fraction of the Vanderbilt inheritance, and their yearly income was comparatively

less, although still very substantial for the time.82

The Webbs’ funds were limited because they supported a costly lifestyle, a great

deal of traveling, residences in New York City, Shelburne, and the Adirondacks, and the

purchase, maintenance, and ongoing expansion of two major country estates. In addition

to Shelburne Farms’ agricultural and breeding enterprises, the Webbs’ 40,000-acre

Adirondack estate Nehasane involved extensive forestry operations.83 At Shelburne

Farms, the Webbs had deliberately paced their expenses, constructing their top-priority

Farm and Breeding Bams before turning to their intended grand residence.

Seward and Lila Webb could probably afford to build a formal house on Lone Tree

Hill, but only with a significant draining of their funds. George Vanderbilt had in fact used

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “several million dollars” of his corresponding $10 million Vanderbilt inheritance to build

his residence at Biltmore, expended much of the remaining funds on the Biltmore estate,

and soon experienced monetary difficulties.*4 Thus the Webbs’ decision not to build a

Lone Tree Hill residence may represent a conscious recognition of financial realities.85

American residences built and furnished in the latest Beaux-Arts manner were

frequently showy, sacrificing comfort for an impressive physical and decorative scale. The

often-cited paradigm is Marble House, which contained an ornate Gold Room featuring

carved and gilded walls; a ten-ton copy of an iron screen at Versailles, with William K.

and Alva Vanderbilt’s monogram in place of those of Louis XTV; and solid bronze dining

chairs.86 Perhaps the Webbs, feeling more conservative than their Vanderbilt siblings, felt

inclined to build a less assuming residence than that which Robertson had designed for

them at Lone Tree Hill. While the Lone Tree Hill plans appear less conspicuous than the

Beaux-Arts houses often regarded as quintessentially Vanderbilt—The Breakers, Marble

House, and Biltmore—, they were certainly suited to the general Newportian and

Vanderbiltian aesthetic. The Webbs could just as well have resided in Newport had they

built any of the three known Lone Tree Hill house designs.87

It is important to note that with or without the Lone Tree Hill residence, the

expansive architecture and estate operations at Shelburne Farms certainly conveyed an

awe-inspiring sense of wealth and power. Yet there is evidence to suggest that the Webbs

did feel that building a Beaux-Arts house on Lone Tree Hill was too much, even for their

grand vision of a country estate. As Alan Emmet recounts, Dr. Webb was having

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. misgivings about “building on the [Lone Tree] hilltop” by 1888, despite Frederick

Olmsted’s attempts to persuade him otherwise. According to Emmet, Dr. Webb “felt no

need of a high visible symbol to crown his dominion....”88

The Lone Tree Hill residence may not only have seemed too grandiose, but also

too much of a displacement. It is entirely possible that after six years of living in

Shelburne House, the Webbs were not inclined to install themselves in a new residence.

However small, Shelburne House was already constructed, inhabited, and comfortable.

Perhaps the Webbs did not entirely look forward to leaving a dwelling to which they were

already attached by force of habit and emotion.

The above speculations provide a sense of the Webbs’ possible reasons for

deciding against building on Lone Tree Hill. After 1893, the Webbs turned their attention

to modifying Shelburne House, creating a residence which was more suited to their needs

and wishes. The Shelburne House which resulted from these subsequent changes is an

even more telling indication of the Webbs’ ideals for a country house.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C h a p te r 4

C o u n t r y Ho u se R e so l u t io n

The years between 1893 and 1900 at Shelburne House proved decisive. Seward

and Lila Webb completed their residence, but not as they had initially envisioned. After

deciding against a house on Lone Tree Hill, they began a series of alterations and additions

to Shelburne House which drastically changed its size, shape, and message. The existing

dwelling was gradually transformed into a permanent country residence which possessed

public and service spaces suitable for housing and entertaining the proprietors and their

guests in style and comfort. Moreover, the new Shelburne House both maintained part of

its original informal character and conveyed a sense of formality at the same time. What

grew out of these years of modifications, then, was a dwelling which effectively embodied

the Webbs’ needs and ideals.

The large-scale alterations at Shelburne House consisted of greatly expanding and

renovating virtually all sections of the dwelling in a multi-pronged series of construction

projects which lasted until 1900 (Figure 13).89 Seward and Lila Webb had most likely

determined the general features of these changes by 1895, when the first phase of building

began with the addition of a large clapboarded and shingled service wing to the northern

end of the building. Completed by 1898, the new wing more than doubled the support

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sections of the house and allowed for the disengagement of many of the original staff areas

as well as those included in the 1891 Kitchen Wing. The Kitchen, food support spaces,

laundry areas, storage rooms, and staff bedrooms all moved northward to the end of the

1887-8 building and into the new service wing.90 After the old spaces were vacated, the

1891 Kitchen Wing was physically detached from the side of the original house, moved

approximately one thousand feet to the northwest, and used for sporting rooms and

further staff accommodations.91

Meanwhile, workers renovated, rearranged, and relocated the public spaces of the

house. Dr. Webb’s Office was moved to the location of the 1887-8 Servants’ Hall, his old

Office became a secondary Office and part-time Smoking Room, and a Gun/Game/Golf

Room was installed between the two spaces. Created in the original Breakfast Room and

Butlers’ Pantry areas, the new Temporary Dining Room provided space for dining until

the final phase of construction was completed in 1900. The Main Hall expanded into the

old dining area and became a living space as well as a vestibule and passage, and the

Library was extended into the 1887-8 guest areas to its east.92 Finally, modifications to

the interior architecture of all of the original public spaces occurred, changing and/or

adding walls, paneling, ceilings, mantels, fireplaces, and moldings to provide a fresh

appearance to the altered first floor.

While the newly-completed service wing and renovated public rooms were

receiving their finishing touches, workers began the second phase of the Shelburne House

alterations. Between 1899 and 1900, a New Westerly Extension for formal public and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. guest rooms was erected to the northwest in the old location of the now-detached 1891

Kitchen Wing. This new brick section encompassed a grand first-floor Dining Room with

a semicircular Conservatory attached to one side and an open, raised Terrace on the other.

Connected to the Dining Room with a new north hallway, a large North Room for billiards

and smoking led out to a brick and stone Covered Piazza facing the garden. The second

and third floors of this second new addition contained a series of guest bedrooms and a

Children’s Playroom.

Concurrently, efforts were underway to integrate the 1887-8 portion o f the

building with the new Westerly Extension. Workers enlarged the original third floor to

connect with the corresponding section of the new wing and partitioned it into more guest

bedrooms. In addition, an exterior elaboration project visually united the old renovated

section of the building and the second new addition with brick (Figure 4). Shelburne

House retained the distinctive bays and gables, diamond-paned windows, and decorative

half-timbering characteristic of Elizabethan and Queen Anne architectural influences, but

much of the dwelling now possessed a more severe, less rustic appearance which left the

Shingle Style behind. The exterior exhibited a new formal Queen Anne character,

featuring chimneys with contrasting brick patterns, stuccoed gables, raised stone and tile

terraces, and a slate roof. The South Piazza was also rebuilt with a stone base and tile

floor to correspond with the new interpretation of the Queen Anne.

The alterations detailed above were extensive and complex, often taking place

simultaneously and certainly involving numerous individuals and companies. While little is

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. known about the construction arrangements for the 1887-8 section of Shelburne House

and the 1891 Kitchen Wing addition, extant records in the Shelburne Farms Archives

provide a detailed view of the persons and firms involved in the 1895-1900 alterations.

Architect Robert Robertson designed the general style and layout of the new additions and

renovations. Farm Manager E. F. Gebhardt, who assumed responsibilities from A. Taylor

at about this time, served as the on-site supervisor throughout the building process.

Gebhardt probably oversaw the army of Shelburne Farms employees who performed the

majority of the construction work and contracted with the local firms who provided

materials and supplementary skilled labor, including the plumbing and heating company G.

S. Blodgett Co., the lumber firm Champlain Manufacturing Co., and the marble supplier

Burlington Manufacturing Co.93

However, the majority of the interior finish work for the public rooms in the new

wing and the renovated sections of the house was completed using materials and workers

brought by train from other locations and supervised by Robertson. Indeed, Robertson

clearly held the responsibility for the house’s interior architectural appearance. He

provided blueprint designs for the room layouts, woodwork, stonework, mantels, and

ceilings, and he also contracted with and supervised the firms which carried out the finish

work.94 With offices in New York, Robertson could easily visit the showrooms and

offices of William H. Jackson & Co., dealers in fine mantels and fireplaces, and J. S. Hess

& Co., providers of fine cabinetry, among others, to settle upon the interior finishes.95

The various marble cutters, plasterers, and carpenters carefully followed Robertson’s

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. designs and written directions according to contract and the occasional on-site direction,

supplemented by those of Gebhardt when necessary.

Lila Webb was most likely the person who selected the new decorations and

furnishings for the new public wing and renovated sections of the house, since she was

deeply involved with such undertakings at Shelburne House after the turn of the century.96

The interior decorating and furnishing for the new Shelburne House was a major

undertaking. According to existing records in the Shelburne Farms account books, new

furniture, carpets, window shades, draperies, upholstery fabrics, wallpapers, and other

items for the additions were purchased between 1895 and 1902. Lila also ordered new

floor, wall, and window coverings as well as new upholstery to complement the existing

furniture in the renovated public rooms of the 1895-8 period.97

Prominent New York City decorating firms provided most of these new

furnishings. W& J Sloane, a preeminent wholesale and retail company dealing in carpets

and rugs owned in part by Lila’s brother-in-law, William Douglas Sloane, supplied the

floor coverings for almost every new and renovated public and service space plus many of

the draperies, upholstery materials, and window shades for the main rooms. Lila Webb

probably visited the company’s New York showrooms to purchase the new oriental,

Axminster, Wilton, and velvet carpets. She may also have used the advisory services

provided at Sloane’s “Interior Decorating and Furnishing Department” to create interior

ensembles.98 Other items were acquired from prominent decorating firms such as William

Baumgarten & Co., Fr. Beck & Co., H. B. Herts & Sons, and Carl Spring of New York

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. City; John H. Ragaty of Philadelphia; and George E. Vernon & Co. of Newport.99

What resulted from the series of extensive alterations undertaken at Shelburne

House between 1895 and 1900 was a large, multi-faceted residence which sprawled over

Saxton’s Point. New or refurbished public rooms, family and guest bedrooms, and service

areas filled a house which had tripled in size. Due to its additions, fresh exterior facade

treatment, interior architecture renovations, and new furnishings, guests arriving for

Shelburne House’s official opening in October, 1900 essentially experienced a new

residence.100

The Webbs engaged professional landscape and interiors photographer Thomas E.

Marr of Boston to record their Shelburne estate and residence soon after the house

alterations were completed, signifying their conscious desire to record its final

manifestation for posterity’s sake and public view in subsequent magazine illustrations. In

addition to approximately one hundred photographs of the main barns, fields, drives, and

views, Marr captured about thirty exterior and interior images of Shelburne House, by far

the most complete visual record of the dwelling at any time. Using Marr’s photographs

and Robertson’s blueprints, it is possible to reconstruct major portions of the house as it

existed circa 1900.101

Luxurious in size and decoration, the new Shelburne House contained all of the

spaces necessary for the Webbs, their family, and friends without being too ostentatious or

palatial. Significantly, the residence contained vestiges of both the original, temporary

structure and the unbuilt Lone Tree Hill dwelling plans, providing it with a dual sense of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. informal Shingle-Style comfort and Beaux-Arts stateliness. The Queen Anne facade

maintained its allegiances to the Elizabethan influences of the Shingle Style while creating

a new sense of formal reserve (Figure 4). A Shingle-Style floor plan, the result of the

many outlying additions, spread the rooms out along bending hallways in a casual,

rambling manner rather than concentrating them around a central axis (Figure 13).

Moreover, two distinct series of public rooms emerged, balanced at either end with

corresponding Piazzas. With their protruding bays, cluttered arrays of comfortably

luxurious furnishings, and numerous family photographs, the South Piazza, Library, and

Main Hall represented the informal section of the house. One end of the oak-paneled

Main Hall comprised a vestibule/passage space, which led to the adjoining rooms and main

staircase. The other consisted of a wide living area featuring a marble fireplace with

carved oak surround, one of a pair of extremely low, deep, and wide sofas, various potted

palms, and an oriental rug (Figure 14).102 The adjacent Library, painted in deep green with

gilded highlights, contained a mixture of plush upholstered seating furniture arranged in

conversation groups (Figure 15). Along the walls, ancient Roman marble busts depicting

various emperors stood atop built-in bookcases filled with leather-bound volumes.103 A

screen door led out onto the South Piazza, where wicker armchairs and settees with thick

cushions were located among potted palms and carpet-covered tables piled high with more

books (Figure 16). Fitted with the hardware for both awnings and glass windows, the

South Piazza was open for year-round enjoyment. In these rooms, family members and

guests could gather for casual conversation and afternoon tea, or spend time reading while

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. reclining upon one of the plush sofas or armchairs.104

In contrast, the Dining Room, Dining Room Terrace, Conservatory, North Room,

and North Piazza all functioned as formal entertaining rooms. Guests entered the suite of

spaces from the Colonial Revival Corridor Hall, the former Temporary Dining Room, with

its Adamesque wallpaper, classically-inspired woodwork, and American Empire-style

furniture. They then proceeded into the formal Dining Room with its red damask

wallcoverings; severely classical white marble mantel, base moldings, and window and

door surrounds; and mahogany doors and dining furniture (Figure 17). The raised Terrace

adjoining the Dining Room, furnished with potted shrubs, wrought iron tables and chairs,

and an overhanging awning, served as a luncheon and dinner site during fine weather.10S

The oak-paneled North Room, dominated by a huge limestone fireplace and decorated

with a large billiard table and leather-upholstered seating furniture, functioned as a formal

gathering space for the Webb family during the holidays. It was probably also used as an

after-dinner smoking and gaming room (Figure 18).106 Other supplemental entertaining

spaces consisted of the palm-filled, marble and glass Conservatory, the North Piazza, and

by extension, the formal gardens designed by Lila Webb which stretched to the west from

the Piazza to the edge of the cliff overlooking Lake Champlain.107

The end result of the many conscious decisions which the Webbs made between

1887 and 1900 was a residence which combined informal elements of the Shingle-Style

country house with its formal Beaux-Arts counterpart. The new Shelburne House

represented a negotiation between the former and the latter which effectively satisfied the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. needs of the Webb family and their guests for financial security, continuing comfort, and

conventional, large-scale entertaining. On one hand, the Webbs and their guests could

enjoy an informal, relaxed daily lifestyle corresponding to the rural atmosphere of

Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont. On the other hand, they could dine and circulate

in formal spaces befitting the high-society customs of the time.

In its new form, Shelburne House both maintained and deviated from family and

Gilded Age country house conventions. The residence’s bricked Queen Anne facade and

rambling floor plan followed the general contours of the so-called “modem picturesque”

country house, featuring an irregular facade and a floor plan which grouped rooms

together in a distinct progression rather than arraying them along a central axis or around

a central hall.108 In addition, the types of rooms represented at Shelburne House, including

a formal dining room, billiards and smoking areas, library, conservatory, and porches, all

featured in numerous contemporary country houses of a similar class in the United States

and Europe, including those of the Vanderbilts.

Shelburne House contained a series of formal dining and after-dinner entertaining

rooms like those present in other Vanderbilt country residences. In many ways, the

Webbs’ Dining Room represented their equivalent to the banquet halls at The Breakers,

Biltmore, and Marble House. Yet the corresponding drawing and reception rooms seen in

most Vanderbilt residences were missing from the Shelburne House plan, and in their

place were the informal Main Hall, Library, and South Piazza spaces. Moreover, the

ultimate scale and decorating schemes used in the first-floor rooms at Shelburne House,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. both formal and informal, came up short of the palatial Beaux-Arts tradition. The

standard two-story ceilings and predominant Louis-style furniture, for instance, were

absent from Shelburne House.

The Webbs’ distinct combination of formal entertaining rooms and informal spaces

for daily gatherings both incorporated the general Vanderbilt house conventions and set

their residence apart from them. While most Vanderbilt country houses of the period were

designed to function as grand entertaining spaces above all, Shelburne House maintained a

dual emphasis upon entertaining and comfortable family living. Thus the Webbs ultimately

brought together their personal needs and ideals, general country house customs of the

time, and those of their Vanderbilt generation, and then fused them into a new,

amalgamated, individualized Shelburne House. The next two chapters will further explore

this fusion by providing detailed case studies of representative spaces of the informal and

formal sections of the house, the South Piazza and the Dining Room.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 5

T h e So u t h P ia z z a

From the Webbs’ earliest days at Shelburne House, the South Piazza represented

the social core of the house, the space where family and guests gathered throughout the

days and evenings of all seasons to enjoy numerous activities. Furnished with comfortable

wicker furniture, oriental rugs, and palms, the South Piazza maintained a Shingle-Style

informality even after stones and tiles were laid down in place of its early wooden railings

and floor. In this space, indoor shelter and decorative comfort were pleasantly combined

with open-air breezes and scenic views in an environment which was suited to both the

proprietors’ lifestyle and the general conventions of the day.

Situated at the southern end of the residence, the South Piazza represented a

transition area between the Shelburne House interiors and its surrounding landscape. The

space’s close proximity to the Library, Main Hall, Porte Cochere, main coach drive to the

house, lawns, garden, and lake all contributed to its varied functions. Here the Webbs and

their guests could read books carried out from the Library, converse and play cards,

observe or wait their turns in the lawn games occurring nearby, greet those arriving by

carriage, wait for horses or vehicles to be brought up from the neighboring Coach Bam, or

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. simply enjoy the fresh air and tremendous 180-degree views of Lake Champlain and the

Adirondacks to the south and west.

The South Porch’s furnishings facilitated and furthered its informal, multi-purpose

uses. Deep, lightweight wicker settees and armchairs fitted with overstuffed cushions

were easily adjusted for comfort and moved about the Piazza for reclining, conversing,

watching lawn games, or taking advantage of the sun or shade (Figure 16). While

hammocks and rocking chairs invited rest and relaxation in the open air, carpet-covered

tables provided ample room for a selection of books or light refreshments. Finally, tall

potted palms, other hanging plants, striped awnings and upholstery, and variously-

patterned rugs contributed to the informal, comfortable atmosphere.

As its various period names imply, the South Piazza was available and well-

equipped for all-season use. As the “South Piazza,” “Covered Piazza,” “Circular Piazza,”

and ‘Torch,” the space’s open sides, high roof, and adjustable canvas summer awnings

provided relief from heat and humidity, allowing for the circulation of cross breezes while

keeping the sun and rain at bay (Figure 16). During the fall and winter seasons, glass

windows and a steam radiator replaced the awnings, and the area became an enclosed

“Conservatory” (Figure 19).109

By virtue of its location, furnishings, and year-round availability, the South Piazza

possessed a continuing appeal for the Webbs and represented a locus for many individual

and family activities. According to her diaries, Lila spent many quiet days writing letters

and reading on the Piazza. September 22, 1903, for instance, was “a heavenly day & I

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. spent the entire day on the piazza, writing most of the time—.” During the summer of

1904 she often “sat on the piazza ail day....” and “read & wrote on the piazza all day.”110

An amateur photograph from the late 1880s or early 1890s depicts Lila Webb during one

such moment. She reclines in a rocking chair, legs crossed, reading, with a pile of books

on a nearby table (Figure 20). In addition, photographer Thomas Marr captured the

Webbs’ daughter Frederica on the South Piazza in the midst of a similar activity. As

William Seward Jr. inscribed the verso of a print of this circa 1900 image, “Frederica

reading on the porch off the library we live there in the summer—.”111

Other documents point to the South Piazza’s important role as a family gathering

and informal entertaining space for all occasions. Family photographs from the late 1880s

and early 1890s depict Seward and Lila Webb and their young children on or about the

Piazza. In these images, Dr. Webb holds a smiling William Seward Jr. and a kitten in his

lap; baby Vanderbilt looks up at the camera from his seat in a wicker armchair, and the

children tow a sled in the snow outside the Piazza.112

Likewise, the space was popular for evening gatherings of guests. W. H. Tyler

paid tribute to the space, its evening atmosphere, and its views of Lake Champlain through

his poem entitled “To Shelbume Farms,” recorded in the Shelburne House Guestbook.

“On southern porch guests linger long/ To watch the moon-light on the Lake./ And listen

to the rippling song/ Of wavelets as they gently break—/Upon the beach in yonder bay,/

Then sweeping back, a glittering band./ To join with thousands on the way/ And break

again upon the sand.”113

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The South Piazza’s function, furnishings, and general appeal corresponded with

the contemporaneous popularity of piazzas in Gilded Age country houses. Indeed,

piazzas, porches, verandahs, loggias, and related enclosed conservatory spaces were an

essential element in country homes of the period across the United States. As architectural

critic and prominent member of Gilded Age high society Mariana Griswold Van

Rensselaer wrote, “nothing is more characteristic of American country-houses...than then-

large covered piazzas....We must have a wide and open yet covered space, closely

connected with our living-rooms, where we can pass our hours of rest and many of our

hours of occupation too....When well arranged, the piazza always becomes the very focus

of domestic life and social intercourse....”114

Used as relatively informal living areas connecting the interior with the exterior,

piazza-type spaces were virtually all decorated in a manner similar to the Webbs’ South

Piazza. Informality and comfort were the general governing factors influencing piazza

furnishings. As a contemporary described the porch at the Henry Flagler residence in

Florida, “it is an enormous piazza about 25 ft. wide and extending along the side of the

house for fully 75 feet. There are big rugs, divans, swinging chairs, rocking chairs, tables,

and everything to make one comfortable.”115 In fact, wicker furniture, potted palms and

other plants such as ivy, oriental rugs, hammocks, wooden rocking chairs, and awnings

proliferated in piazza spaces of the period across the country.

Perhaps most ubiquitous were the wicker pieces, produced in a wide variety of

forms and decorative patterns. Armchairs and settees such as those at Shelburne House,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. with open latticework sides and backs and ball feet, appear in many period photographs of

piazza-type spaces and were produced by a number of firms.116 Potted palms were also

very popular for piazzas, spawning porch- or conservatory-like Palm Rooms and

supporting greenhouses devoted specifically to the plants in many country estates,

including J. J. Astor’s Beechwood in Newport and William K. Vanderbilt’s Palm Room at

the second version of Idle Hour. A Palm House greenhouse on the Shelburne Farms

estate was devoted to the cultivation of the palms used throughout the first floor of

Shelburne House.117

Many Vanderbilt country residences of the Webbs’ generation featured piazzas or

similar spaces, and most were furnished according to the general conventions. Florham

and Rough Point featured piazzas adjoining first floor living and entertaining rooms. The

second Breakers included a large, two-story loggia, or recessed porch, overlooking the

sea which contained wicker furniture, potted palms, and oriental rugs. Similarly, George

Vanderbilt’s Winter Garden at Biltmore and Emily Vanderbilt Sloane’s Conservatory at

Elm Court were both furnished with palms, other plants, and oriental rugs.118

In building, furnishing, and utilizing their South Piazza at Shelburne House, Lila

and Seward Webb provided themselves with a space which corresponded to both family

and general country house piazza conventions. At the same time, the space fulfilled the

Webbs’ individual, family, and entertaining needs for a multi-purpose, all-season, informal,

and comfortable space. Thus, in terms of its location, functions, and furnishings, the

South Piazza space represented the unification of personal, family, and social ideals.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 6

T h e D ining R o o m

While the South Piazza represented the center of informal living at Shelburne

House, the Dining Room was the most formal room in the house, the core of the series of

spaces designed for grand entertaining. Decorated with classically-inspired interior

architecture and dining furnishings, the space conveyed a sense of stately, luxurious

elegance. The Dining Room performed several intertwined functions, providing a suitable

setting for the elaborate multi-course meals served for guests and special occasions;

proclaiming an alliance with Gilded Age high society and the Vanderbilt family through

the display of an integrated suite of objects; and maintaining a sense of the Webbs’

personal identity.

Lila and Seward Webb spared little expense in decorating and furnishing the

Shelburne House Dining Room, which officially opened in October, 1900.119 Designed

and/or selected by architect Robert Robertson, the room’s interior architecture conveyed a

sense of formal classicism through a variety of decorative references to ancient Greece and

Rome in late-nineteenth-century terms (Figures 17 and 21). White Vermont marble,

finished with smooth surfaces and simple ogee moldings by the New York firm Robert C.

Fisher & Co., was used for the large mantel, Doric columned fireplace surround, and base,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. window, and door moldings.120 Black and white Vermont marbles were laid by workers

from the Vermont Marble Company as flooring in a contrasting geometrical pattern.121

And an elaborate cast plaster ceiling with acanthus leaf ornamentation, installed by

employees of the New York company Klee Brothers, further defined the space’s

architectural parameters.122

The Dining Room’s accompanying architectural fittings and fixtures complemented

the space’s classical decorative theme in antiqued bronze. Perhaps most striking were the

eight matching electric floor lamps spaced along the perimeter of room on white marble

pedestals, produced by premier lighting designers E. F. Caldwell & Co. of New York City

(Figures 17, 21, and 22). Termed “Pompeiian” in the Shelburne Farms accounts, the

lamps featured groups of five large white globes with beaded light covers placed atop

slender reeded shafts. At the bases of the lamps, acanthus leaf ornaments alternated with

taloned feet grasping frogs.123 Accessory ornamentation included reeded door handles

attached to the Terrace doors; acanthus-leaf curtain tie-back holders; andirons featuring

classically-garbed figures; and an iron fireback cast with a laurel leaf design.124

Lushly-colored and -patterned textiles overlaid the interior architecture of the

Dining Room, providing a luxurious contrast of layered hues and textures (Figures 17 and

21). Dark red silk damask, woven in a floral pattern with an accompanying cut-and-

voided red velvet trim, covered the walls between bordering sections of white marble.

Matching red velour curtains with gold embroidery in shape of acanthus leaves and laurel

wreaths hung before the Terrace doors. In addition, an oriental carpet in various shades

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of red softened the visual impact of the black and white flooring.125

The Dining Room furniture heightened the space’s decorative combination of

varied classical allusions. As seen in the T. E. Marr photographs, the space included

American Empire period mahogany extension dining tables and sideboard.126 Two

matching sideboards, consisting of thick marble slabs set upon terra cotta bases shaped as

griffins, stood against the walls flanking the Conservatory opening.127 In addition, two

different sets of Iate-nineteenth-century dining chairs accompanied the tables, one

characterized by straight upholstered backs and fluted columned legs, the other a

Chippendale rendition with carved, scrolled crest rails and cabriole legs.128

The Dining Room was further decorated with classical sculptures. Two bronze

figures on veined marble pedestals marked the entry into the Conservatory. And an

ancient Roman marble head of Medusa stood on the mantel overlooking the dining table

(Figure 23). According to Lila Webb, the Medusa was one of a set of sixteen classical

busts excavated from Hadrian’s Villa in the mid-nineteenth century and presented to the

Webbs by Seward’s brother J. Louis Webb about 1890.129

During the formal multi-course luncheons and dinners served for guests and on

special occasions, function and presentation combined in elaborate dining affairs in which

the decorative setting heightened the significance of the progression of food and drink.

Several surviving menus indicate the style and expanse of the Webbs’ formal meals. The

Thanksgiving menu for 1911, printed in French, featured eight courses: oysters; poached

salmon with a tomato and cucumber salad; roasted turkey and sausages with cranberry

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. jelly, cauliflower, and browned apples; ham; grouse, apples, and “Salade Alexandra;” plum

pudding and pumpkin pie; “Bombe Elfrida,” a specialty dessert named in honor of the

Webb yacht, and petit-fours; and finally, fruit and coffee.130

The Webbs’ sets of porcelain dinner, coffee, and tea services, silver flatware, and

glassware provided a suitable accompaniment to the elaborate, formalized meals served in

the Dining Room. They complemented the general decorative scheme of the space with

their own classical allusions. Surviving pieces in the Shelburne Farms Archives include

white porcelain from several dinner and tea services produced by a number of prominent

European firms.131 While they differ in decorative detail, the porcelains are generally

characterized by delicate gilded Adamesque bellflower, swag, or rococo borders with or

without central medallions. In addition, some pieces also feature the Webb crest,

represented as an eagle with outstretched arms above a crown (Figure 24).

Extant wineglasses and tumblers consist of transparent bodies decorated with

textured bands of gilding and/or gilded swags and floral ornaments, giving the drinking

vessels an appearance similar to that of the porcelains. Likewise, Webb crests or

monograms were engraved on many of the silver serving spoons, forks, ladles, and

individual pieces, which also possessed decorative classical reeding and scroll patterns.

The flatware sets were comprised of a profusion of specialized pieces appropriate to the

elaborate progression of courses served at a formal meal, including dinner knives,

breakfast knives, dinner forks, oyster forks, breakfast forks, table spoons, dessert spoons,

tea spoons, after-dinner coffee spoons, iced tea spoons, salt spoons, nut picks, and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. mustard spoons.132

Mingled with the porcelains, glassware, flatware, freshly-cut flowers from the

Shelburne Farms gardens and greenhouses, and cuisine upon the dining table and

sideboards were large silver pieces, largely used in the Dining Room for presentation

purposes. As seen in the Marr photographs, the Webbs’ large collection of silver salvers,

candelabra, tankards, vases, and such alternated with porcelain figures and stands as

centerpieces for the table and stood in symmetrical arrangements on the sideboards. Of all

the silver presentation pieces, the Webbs’ Loving Cup was one of the most significant,

figuring prominently in period photographs of the Dining Room (Figure 17, center of the

front dining table; Figure 21, center of rear sideboard). Presented to Dr. Webb by

representatives of the employees of the Wagner Palace Car Company at Shelburne Farms

in December, 1899 on the occasion of his retirement, the 25-pint sterling silver vessel was

made by the prominent New York City firm Tiffany & Co. (Figure 25).133 Other tankards,

loving cups, vases, and tea services on display in the space included Madison Square

Garden horse trophies won by Shelburne Farms hackneys, golfing trophies, wedding

presents, and other heirloom gifts to the Webb family.134

It is interesting to note that the Webbs transported their silver from their

townhouse at 680 Fifth Avenue to Shelburne House and vice versa for their various

periods of residence. Custom-made fitted and labeled trunks carried the pieces, which

performed double duty as formal display items in both New York City and Shelburne,

Vermont and thus ensured a continuity of grand entertaining for the Webbs.135 With these

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. silver accouterments, combined with the formal, luxurious decorations and furnishings in

place at Shelburne House, the Webbs recreated the formal atmosphere of their acclaimed

New York dinner parties at their country house.

In fact, the Webbs’ Shelburne House Dining Room performed much the same

function and represented a formal element of their country home comparable to its New

York counterpart. Stately dining rooms were an essential element of many American

Gilded Age country homes in general, and the dining ritual represented a significant mode

of formal entertaining. As scholar Mark Hewitt notes, in American country homes of the

late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “there was always a formal dining

room....MeaIs were still the major focal point of social intercourse, and the dining room

had to provide the proper setting for an elegant repast.”136 Decorations and furnishings

such as those in the Shelburne House Dining Room were often employed in spaces used

for grand entertaining and represented necessary accompaniments to the processional

eight-course meals which comprised the focus of many dinner parties in the Gilded Age.137

Dining rooms and dinner affairs at the Vanderbilt country homes were no

exception. The dining rooms and banquet halls in The Breakers, Marble House, Biltmore,

Hyde Park, and others represented the most formal spaces of the residences, characterized

by expansive spans of height, marble-covered walls, ornate gilding, and furnishings and

table settings for large numbers of guests. Emblems such as the dark red color favored by

the Vanderbilts, family monograms, and crests were often used in general decorative

ensembles as well as on dinner services, glassware, and flatware.138

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Shelburne House Dining Room represents the space most like its Vanderbilt

cousins. Its walls and draperies, featuring the distinctive red favored by many Vanderbilts,

formal marble, and gilded porcelain services marked with the Webb crest demonstrated

Lila and Seward Webb’s wishes to proclaim their allegiances to their close family relatives.

Yet however formal and luxurious, the space at Shelburne did not attain the ornate

decorative effects reached at The Breakers, Biltmore, Hyde Park, Florham, and other

Vanderbilt country homes of the period. While spacious, the Shelburne House Dining

Room did not overwhelm with gilded surfaces, throne chairs, and massive chandeliers like

many of the corresponding spaces in its Beaux-Arts family counterparts.

Like Shelburne House in general, the Dining Room represented a complex melding

of Gilded Age trends, Vanderbilt family conventions, and personal taste and identity. The

Webbs were at once members of society, members of a prominent family, and individuals

in their own right. Their Dining Room and its furnishings reflected these various roles,

from grand scheme to individual item. The silver Loving Cup represents one of the most

succinct statements of these complex, intertwined relationships: at once a conventional

display piece made by a prominent high-society firm which played an important role in

Gilded Age dining rituals, the vessel also served as an emblem of Dr. Webb’s personal

accomplishments at the Wagner Palace Car Company and a symbol of the Vanderbilt rail

dynasty (Figure 24). It was Lila’s father William Henry Vanderbilt, after all, who had

appointed Dr. Webb as President of the Company.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ep il o g u e

The late 1890s and early 1900s represented Shelburne Farms’ golden age. After a

prolonged period of construction and alterations, Seward and Lila Webb had finally

realized their vision for a grand country estate. The zenith of estate activity occurred

during these years, while money was still available to fully support the complex of

structures and the multi-faceted Farm operations they housed.

By the mid- to late 1900s, however, Shelburne Farms had begun a period of

gradual decline. The Webbs lost a substantial income when Dr. Webb retired from the

Wagner Palace Car Company in 1899, the year the business merged with its main

competitor, the Pullman Company. In addition, Dr. Webb’s poor health, failing since the

mid-1890s due to stress and overwork, resulted in a morphine dependency which led to

his eventual withdrawal from active participation in other Vanderbilt rail interests and the

management of Shelburne Farms.139 Lila Webb and E. F. Gebhardt, who assumed primary

responsibility of the estate from Dr. Webb, felt increasingly financially strained. The

Webbs had invested the majority of Lila’s Vanderbilt inheritance in the estate construction

of the 1880s and 1890s, and the amount which remained was dwindling. The loss of Dr.

Webb’s supplementary incomes, the institution of federal income taxes, and the coming of

the First World War meant further consciousness of excess expense.140

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The first economizing measures were taken in 1904, when the Webbs discontinued

their unpopular breeding enterprise and sold many of their hackney horses. The yacht

E lfrida was sold in 1910. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. purchased 680 Fifth Avenue in 1912.

The Breeding Bam complex and the section of the estate upon which it stood, Southern

Acres, were given to James Watson Webb and his wife Electra Havemeyer in 1913.141

During the 1920s and 1930s, as first Dr. Webb and then Lila Webb died, the Shelburne

Farms maintained reduced agricultural operations in the form of Shelburne Farms

Corporation, a company directed by the Webbs’ children. When the Corporation

dissolved in 1939, Seward and Lila Webb’s grandson Derick Webb became General

Manager of Shelburne Farms, introducing increased livestock and crop diversification in

an attempt to improve profits.142

Faced with mounting debt during the late 1960s, Derick Webb and his children

resolved to preserve Shelburne Farms, its buildings, and its landscape as much as possible.

They created Shelburne Farms Resources, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering

environmental stewardship, and established preservation easements for the estate through

the Vermont Land Trust. The organization currently provides educational school

programs and publications concerning agricultural and environmental conservation

issues.143

Shelburne House has survived relatively intact. Seward and Lila’s youngest son

Vanderbilt Webb and his family used the dwelling as a summer residence from the late

1930s to the early 1970s. While they provided as much maintenance as financially

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. possible and preserved many of the original furnishings, the family donated the House’s

furnace to the Second World War cause, dismantled the Conservatory, and closed the

Servants’ Wing during the early 1940s. Under the auspices of Shelburne Farms

Resources, Shelburne House served as a site for public concerts and summer programs,

housing musicians and guests in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1986, Shelburne Farms

Resources initiated an intensive restoration project to repair the structure and transform it

into a self-supporting inn and restaurant. The Servants’ Wing, beyond feasible repair,

was removed, and a smaller service addition, designed by architect Martin Tierney after

Robert Robertson’s ca. 1891 plans, rebuilt in its place. At the present time, the Inn at

Shelburne Farms hosts overnight guests, restaurant patrons, and visitors touring Shelburne

Farms from mid-May to late October of each year.

Shelburne House and Shelburne Farms represent Seward and Lila Webb’s main

legacy to their children. In investing their monetary fortune in a country estate and

residence, the Webbs created a monument to themselves and their era of nationwide

significance. The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Christmas Greeting, 1922144 by Lila Vanderbilt Webb

Christmas greeting to Shelburne, The joy of all our hearts, With love and praise and gladness, This little ditty starts.

She’s unique in her grandeur, Yet simple in her charms, She’s peaceful, gay and winsome, Our dear old Shelburne Farms.

She never saw our grandsires, Although to one was given The greater part of Lone Tree, Which seems to me like heaven.

The years rolled on, advancing, Until we came her way, Laid drains, planned roads and buildings, In formidable array.

She watched them, fair and stately, With smiles upon her brow, She looked on all sedately, On horse, sheep, pig and cow.

The merry years that followed, Were busy ones as well, There were scores of prizes swallowed, As cups and ribbons will tell.

There were friends who came for week-ends, And some who came to stay, While those who loved dear Shelburne, Remained from day to day.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. She’s seen our sons and daughter With many varied friends, Who, pleasantly, have taught her, To aid their adverse ends.

She’s welcomed all the cronies Of that glorious college, Yale! Who with dice and cards and ponies, Have turned many a fair cheek pale.

She’s seen our days of gladness, As they sped swiftly by, She’s watched our hours of sadness, In silent sympathy.

She welcomed Southern Acres, With its bonny bride and groom, And announces in her papers, For many more there’s room!

Then cheer the corporation, With one hundred hearty cheers, That the coming generation, May carry on for years!

And, once more, dear old Shelburne, The joy of all our hearts, With love and peace and gladness, The happy New Year starts!

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. End n o tes

1. “A Vanderbilt Wedding,” New York Times, December 21, 1881. Many thanks to Mildred Woodley for directing my attention to this source.

2. James Crouthamel,James Watson Webb: A Biography (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1969), passim ; Ruth Lawrence, Webb and Allied Family Histories: A Documented Compilation o f Genealogy and Biography (New York: National Americana Society, 1937), passim; “Webb, Alexander Stewart” and “Webb, James Watson” in Dumas Malone, ed.,Dictionary o fAmerican Biography, vol. 19 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1956), 571-2, 574-5; Jerry E. Patterson, The Vanderbilts (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989), 79; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VI, 10: “William Seward Webb, Burlington Press (Vermont), January 6, 1890.

3. See, for instance, “Doctor William Seward Webb,” in Lawrence, Webb and Allied F am ily H istories, 92-5; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. IV, 0: ‘Dr. W. Seward Webb,” Albany Evening Journal, February 27, 1885. Some discrepancies exist in the various biographical accounts of Dr. Webb concerning the order in which he pursued his education and his actual establishment of a medical practice. Some accounts suggest that he only had the intent of practicing, while others state that he did practice medicine during the late 1870s. Because of the differences, I have chosen to remain general in these biographical descriptions.

4. The Webb homestead became part of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in 1919. Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. V, 199; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XII, 160.

5. The Vanderbilt holdings included the New York Central Railroad lines, those of the Boston and Albany, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Michigan Central, the West Shore, and the Toledo and Ohio Central, among others. See Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 212.

6. For information on “Commodore” and William Henry Vanderbilt, their business dealings, and their families, see Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 13-36, 115; Clarice Stasz, The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty o f Wealth, Glamour, and Tragedy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 11-23,48,64-65.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7. 453 Fifth Avenue, built in 1867, was a “four-story brownstone” located between 39th and 40th Streets. See John Tauranac,Elegant New York: The Builders and the Buildings 1885-1915 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1985), 115. See also Robert A. M. Stern, Gregory Gilmartin, and John Montague Massengale, New York 1900: Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism 1890-1915 (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1983), 309. While the afore-cited New York Times article on the Webbs’ 1881 marriage reports that 453 Fifth Avenue was a wedding present to the Webbs from William Henry Vanderbilt, Tauranac maintains that the townhouse was given to Lila’s older brother Frederick. See Tauranac, 117.

8. For details of Lila and Seward Webb’s courtship, see the 1878-1880 journals which they wrote for each other, transcribed in part by Shirley Murray, Shelburne Farms Archives. See also Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. IV, 0: “Dr. W. Seward Webb,” Albany Evening Journal, February 27, 1885. Little is known concerning what prompted William Henry to change his mind. A few possibilities include the lovers’ continued and strong defiance of his wishes, proving that the affair was not a passing fancy, and Seward Webb’s efforts to change his profession to something more lucrative and perhaps more respectable. In addition, many of Lila’s siblings had been in favor of the match from the b eginning, and they may also have helped to persuade the reluctant father.

9. Dr. Webb was a director of the Fulton Chain Railroad Company, the Fulton Navigation Company, the Racquette Lake Transportation Company, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, the Central Vermont Railroad, and the Rutland Railroad. See Lawrence, Webb (md Allied Family Histories, 92-3.

10. Various accounts o f the costume ball may be found in John Foreman and Robbe Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age: Architectural Aspirations, 1879-1901 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 23-27; Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 126-131; Patterson and Guernsey, “The 400,” 159; Stasz, The Vanderbilt Women, 84-86.

11. Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VIII, 95: New York Continent, April 20 1891. Seward belonged to the exclusive Calumet, University, Tuxedo, Country, Manhattan, Downtown, Manhattan Athletic, New York Yacht, and the New York Farmers’ Clubs. His passion for horses, horse racing, and coaching was reflected in his further membership in the Jockey Club, the New York Coaching Club, the Turf and Field Club, the Westminster Kennel Club, and the Hackney Horse Association. Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. V, 189: ‘The Opera Box-Holders,” New York World, November 15, 1889; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VI, 171: “Let’s Go to the Club,” New York Journal, 7 September 1890; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vols. V, VI, Vm, IX, XU, XIII, passim .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12. For the Webbs’ 680 Fifth Avenue entertaining, see Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. V, 10: “Mrs. Webb’s Big Party,” New York Herald, 21 January 1888.

13. Unfortunately, no photograph depicting the full exterior o f680 Fifth Avenue at the time of the Webbs’ inhabitance is known to exist. John Butler Snook, an English emigre who “lack[ed] formal architectural training,” designed the A T. Stewart Department Store (1845-6) in partnership with Joseph Trench. William H. Vanderbilt commissioned several buildings from Snook, including the first Grand Central Station (1869-71), Vanderbilt’s first residence at 450 Fifth Avenue (later inhabited by the Webbs), and the Vanderbilt Row townhouses for himself and his daughters. See “Snook, John Butler,” in Adolf K. Placzek, ed., Macmillan Encyclopedia o f Architects, vol. 4 (New York: The Free Press, 1982), 95. See also Mary Dutton Boehm, “Herter Brothers and the William H. Vanderbilt House,” unpublished Master’s thesis, Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Parsons School of Design, 1991, 218, footnote 891, and 220; John Bryan, Biltmore Estate: The Most Distinguished Private Place (New York: Rizzoli International Publications and The Octagon, Museum of the American Architectural Foundation, 1994), 19. For Vanderbilt Row, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 21-22,46-47 and 308-323; Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 75-93; Preservation Society of Newport County, “Vanderbilt Country Estates and Town Houses: A Brief Description as to their Present State,” flyer accompanying Robert De Lage, “The Vanderbilt Country Estates and Town Houses along Fifth Avenue New York,” poster, (Newport, RI: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1978); Shelburne Farms Scrapbook VI, 730: “Fifth Avenue from End to End” New York H erald, June 1890; Edward Strahan, Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, 2 vols., Holland Edition (Boston: George Bame, 1883-4); Tauranac,Elegant New York, 115-117; John Vredenburgh Van Pelt, A Monograph o f the William K. Vanderbilt House, Richard Morris Hunt Architect (New York: John Vredenburgh Van Pelt, 1925).

14. The John Snook Contract Books in the collections of New-York Historical Society cite these firms as providing interior work on both of the adjoining Webb and Twombly townhouses. Details of the firms’ involvement is unclear, except for that of Jules Allard Fils, recorded as furnishing the Webbs’ 680 Fifth Avenue “parlor” for $10,000. Quoted in Boehm, “Herter Brothers and the William H. Vanderbilt House,” 229-230.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 15. For 680 Fifth Avenue, see Continental Appraisal Co.,Appraised Valuation o fthe Furnishings o f the Residence o fMrs. W Seward Webb, 680 Fifth Avenue, New York City, April 11, 1912, Shelburne Farms Archives, pp. 9-49,passim ; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. IV, 123:Chicago Journal, December 18, 1886; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. V, 10: “Mrs. Webb’s Big Party,” New York Herald, January 21, 1888; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VII, 5: “Hallways of the 400,” New York Journal, January 11, 1893; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XL, 56: “A Craze for Rare Webs,” New York Journal, April 30, 1893. For 660 Fifth Avenue and 1 W. 57th Street interiors, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 38-41, 54-55, 58-60.

16. Joseph Nash,Mansions o fEngland in the Olden Time, vol. 4 (London: T. M’Lean, 1839-49), plates LXXXVIII and LXXXV. Plate LXXXVm, “Inlaid Chamber, Sizergh, Westmoreland,” was inscribed by William Seward Webb, Jr. with: “Mrs. W. Seward Webb bed at 680. 5th Ave.” Plate LXXXV, “Small Drawing Room, Levens, Westmoreland,” was inscribed by William Seward Webb, Jr. with: “Mrs. Webb’s (Wm Seward) fireplace in her room at 680 5th was exact copy of this + the panelling [sic] on the wall a copy. 680 built in 1884.”

17. James Watson Webb, Jr., transcribed by Julie Bressor, A Pictorial History o f Shelburne Farms, 1996, 1; David Webster and Emily Wadhams Webb, Introduction to “Shelburne Farms: 1886-1926,” in William C. Lipke, ed., Shelburne Farms: The History o f An Agricultural Estate (Burlington, VT: Robert Hull Fleming Museum, 1979), 17.

18. David J. Blow,Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods (Burlington, VT: Chittenden County Historical Society, 1991), 85; Period photographs of Oakledge exterior and interiors, Shelburne Farms Archives.

19. Samuel Webb received the Lone Tree Hill area in Shelburne. See Lawrence, Webb and Allied Family Histories, 93; Lila Vanderbilt Webb, “Christmas Greeting to Shelburne,” Christmas, 1922, in Shelburne Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 356.

20. Lila also received the 680 Fifth Avenue townhouse built and furnished for her by her father. See William H. Vanderbilt, “Last Wll And Testament of William H. Vanderbilt. Dated September 25th, 1884,” printed manuscript, 8-16, Biltmore Estate Archives. See also Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 116-117.

21. Webster and Webb, “Introduction,” 17; Edwin C. Powell, “Shelburne Farms: An Ideal Country Place,” Country Life in America 3 (February 1903), 152; Shelburne Farms Ledger, 1892, 6: “Real Estate.”

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 22. Montgomery Schuyler, “The Works of R.H. Robertson,” Architectural Record 6 (October-December 1896), 184.

23. Robertson’s skyscrapers included the Com Exchange Building (1893-4) and the American Tract Society Building (1894-5). See Sarah Bradford Landau, ‘Totter & Robertson,” in Robert B. Mackay, Anthony Baker, and Carol A_ Traynor, eds., L ong Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940 (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., and Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1997), 365; Sarah Bradford Landau and Carl Condit,Rise o f the New York Skyscraper 1865-1913 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 226. See also the afore-cited Schuyler article, and Robertson designs for country and city houses illustrated inAmerican Architect and Building News between 1886 and 1901, listed in Bibliography. Several of these designs will be discussed in Chapter 3.

24. Robertson’s country house projects included Sunnymeade, the Southampton, Long Island home of Dr. Francis Markoe (1886-7); Hammersmith Farm, the Newport residence of John Auchincloss (1887-89) which is probably better-known today as the “Summer White House” of John and Jacqueline Kennedy; and Blantyre, the Lenox estate house of Robert Paterson (1902). See Mark Farrington, “The History of Blantyre,” unpublished history of the estate, typed mss., 1984, Blantyre, Relais et Chateaux; Landau, ‘Totter & Robertson,” 365. Robertson also designed the structures at the Webbs’ Adirondack estate Nehasane, including the main lodge building, ca. 1892. For the Nehasane Lodge, see Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XI, 92-3: “A Lodge In The Woods,” Rome Sentinel (New York), July 27, 1893; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XII, 47-8: “A Day in the Adirondacks,” New York Times, April 8, 1894. For further information on Nehasane, see Endnote 62.

25. A. H. G., “The Shelburne Farms,” in William Seward Webb, Shelburne Farms Stud (Shelburne, Chittenden County, Vermont) o f English Hackneys, Harness and Saddle Horses, Ponies and Trotters (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893), 21-22.

26. A. H. G., “The Shelburne Farms,” 20.

27. Powell, “Shelburne Farms,” 153-4. See also Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts a n d the G ilded A ge, 82; Webster and Webb, “Introduction,” 18.

28. Powell, “Shelburne Farms,” 153.

29. Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. V, 66: Albany Journal, June 22, 1889.

30. Julie Bressor, “Shelburne Farms Timeline,” 2.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31. A. H. G., “The Shelburne Farms,” 24.

32. A. H. G., ‘The Shelburne Farms,” 22-23; Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers, unpublished letter to C J. Bell, Esq. from E. Gebhardt, Farm Manager, June 15, 1903; Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 73; George J. Manson, “An American Gentleman’s Estate,” Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly 34 (September 1892), 262; Powell, “Shelburne Farms,” 152.

33. For Dr. Webb’s explanation of his breeding activities, see the afore-cited Webb, Shelburne Farms Stud, and “William Seward Webb: Statements,” in Lipke, Shelburne Farms: The History o fAn Agricultural Estate. For a discussion of the breeding enterprise and Vermont farmers’ lack of enthusiasm for it, see Alan Emmet, ‘The Power Landscape,” William Seward Webb’s Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont,” in Emmet, So Fine A Prospect: Historic New England Gardens (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1996), 156; Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 81-2.

34. Shelburne Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 1884-1928, 17, 20.

35. A. H. G„ “The Shelburne Farms,” 20.

36. Shelburne Farms Farm Managers Papers, unpublished letter to Prof. G. F. Perkins by Farm Manager E. Gebhardt, July 3, 1903; Powell, “Shelburne Farms,” 152,155.

37. See, for instance, Henry I. Hazleton, “Shelburne Farms,” New England Magazine 25 (November 1901), 268.

38. Robert Henderson Robertson, letter to Frederick Law Olmsted, June 17, 1886, Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, Records of Olmsted Associates Series B, Job File 1031, container B74, Reel 54, Library of Congress. Robertson’s emphasis.

39. For Olmsted and Biltmore, see The Biltmore Company, A Guide to Biltmore Estate, 13-16, 83-97; Bryan, Biltmore Estate, passim; Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts a n d the G ilded Age, 81, 109, 273-279, 285-295; Patterson, The Vanderbilts, passim. For Olmsted and Elm Court, see Foreman and Stimson, 141. For Olmsted and Florham, see Foreman and Stimson, 109-110.

40. Emmet, ‘The Power Landscape,” 151.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 41. Webster and Webb, “Introduction,” 18. It is also quite possible that Gifford Pinchot, the naturalist employed by the Webbs during the 1890s to manage the forestry operations at Nehasane, their Adirondack estate, was also involved in the planning and/or its design implementation of the Shelburne Farms landscape. See Webster and Webb, Introduction to “Nehasane: 1890-1979,” in Lipke, ed., Shelburne Farms, 47.

42. The Shelburne Farms Archives contains a period photograph of an uprooted, mature tree being transported to a new site.

43. Hazleton, “Shelburne Farms,” 270.

44. Powell, “Shelburne Farms,” 154.

45. Powell, “Shelburne Farms,” 152.

46. Bob Labbance, “Burlington’s Ghosts of Golf,” Vermont G olf (1995), 59.

47. See Chapter 3 for further information about the Annex and its Squash Court.

48. Itinerary card, “Coaching Club: New York to Shelburne, Vermont, June 6th to June 9th, 1894,” Shelburne Farms Archives; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VUI, 46.

49. Shelburne Farms Ledger and Journal for 1901, passim .

50. Dr. Webb published the memoirs of one of the family’s cross-country railroad voyages inCalifornia and Alaska and over the Canadian Pacific Railway (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890), Shelburne Farms Archives.

51. The William D. and Emily Vanderbilt Sloanes, the Frederick Vanderbilts, and the J. J. Astors all participated in such a lifestyle. For the Astors, see Clive Aslet,The American Country House (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 70. For the Sloanes, see Florence Adele Sloane, with commentary by Louis Auchincloss, M averick in M auve: Diary o f a Romantic Age (Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1983), 7. For the Frederick Vanderbilts, see Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 204-5.

52. Aslet, The American Country House, 141-146.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 53. At Hyde Park, Frederick maintained a model farm with Jersey cattle, Belgian horses, and Leghorn chickens, while the Twomblys possessed Guernsey cattle and a hackney breeding farm at Florham, and George Vanderbilt directed a huge agricultural and forestry enterprise at Biltmore. For William H. Vanderbilt’s farm pursuits, see Patterson,The Vanderbilts, 24-25. For Hyde Park see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 211, and Mark Alan Hewitt, The Architect and the American Country House, 1890-1940 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), 128. For Florham see Foreman and Stimson, 113. For Biltmore, see Aslet, The American Country House, 14; The Biltmore Company, A Guide to the Biltmore Estate, 15-18, 97, 101; Bryan, B iltm ore E state, 89; Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 278; Roger Moss, The American Country House (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1990), 190; George F. Weston, “Biltmore: The Great Model Estate of George W. Vanderbilt in North Carolina— Village, Farm, Dairy, Forest, School, Gardens, Nursery, Herbarium, All Welded into One Immense Enterprise” Country Life in America 3 (September 1902): 180-185.

54. Seward Webb, George Vanderbilt, Pierre Lorillard, and John Jacob Astor participated in the network of model farms. See Lipke, “Introduction” to Shelburne Farms, 8. For a discussion of Gilded Age model farms in general, see Aslet, 136-146; and Sheafe Satterthwaite, ‘The American Agricultural Estate,” in Lipke,Shelburne Farms, 10-14.

55. “You can mail a letter in Burlington at night, and have it delivered in New York or Boston the next morning, at about the same time that New York or Boston drop letters are received by the receivers;” “Folks LIVE in Burlington. They exist in New York.” Nath’l C. Fowler, Jr., “Beautiful Burlington,” inBeautiful Burlington, (1907), 6, 10. See also Louise Roomet, “Vermont as a Resort Area in the Nineteenth Century,”Vermont H istory 44 (Winter 1976), 9-13.

56. For Col. Cannon’s Overlake, see Joseph Auld,Picturesque Burlington: A Hatidbook o f Burlington, Vermont and Lake Champlain (Burlington: Free Press Association, 1893), 103, 163; Peter Carlough,Bygone Burlington: A Bicentennial Barrage o f Battles, Buildmgs & Beings (Burlington, VT: Queen City Printing, 1976), 41; Facts about Burlington, Vermont (Glens Falls, NY: C.H. Possons, 1888), 21; Historic Preservation Program, Department of History, University of Vermont, The Burlington Book: Architecture, History, Future (Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program, 1980), 14; Round about Burlington, (Winooski, Vt. VT: Vermont Illustrating Co., 1900), n. p. For Henry Holt’s Fairholt, see Labbance, “Burlington’s Ghosts of Golf,” 57-59; Round about Burlington, n. p.

57. Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 80. See Aslet, The American Country House, 86-87, for a discussion of Gilded Age resorts.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 58. See Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. IV, 124: “A Tuxedo Park Scheme,” Troy B udget (New York), December 26, 1886; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. IV, 80: Rochester, New York Democrat Chronicle, February 6, 1886; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VI, 173:New York Press, September 13, 1890.

59. According to the New York Telegram, “it was thought that Dr. Webb would purchase a place at Newport, but he has decided not to do so.” Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VI, 164: New York Telegram, August 26, 1890.

60. Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Diary for 1893-4, 1901, and 1904, 19. Lila’s emphasis.

61. According to the Shelburne Farms Guestbook, large groups of family and friends were entertained during the spring, summer, and winter months. The regulars visited often, signing the Guestbook as many as several times a year. Lila’s mother visited every year until her death in 1896. All of both Lila and Seward’s siblings came with their families. The favorite brothers and sisters—Frederick Vanderbilt, Emily Vanderbilt Sloane and family, George Vanderbilt, G. Creighton Webb, J. Louis Webb, and H. Walter Webb- recorded their signatures annually for both summer and holiday visits. Well-known figures such as Stanford White, Theodore Roosevelt, Ogden Mills, the Duke and Duchess (Consuelo Vanderbilt) of Marlborough, the John Jacob Astors, and the Belmonts also visited. Shelburne Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 1884-1928, passim .

62. Dr. Webb purchased approximately 150,000 acres in the Adirondacks in 1890, built the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad track to Montreal in 1891-2, and eventually sold the line to the Vanderbilt New York Central Railroad. 110,000 acres of the Adirondack land were purchased by the state of New York, and the remainder became Nehasane, the Webbs’ Adirondack estate. See Charles H. Burnett, Conquering the Wilderness: The Building o f the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad by William Seward Webb (privately printed, 1932); Harvey H. Kaiser,Great Camps o f the Adirondacks (Boston: David R. Godine, 1892), 40, 186-7; Samuel Webb, “Statement,” in Lipke, Shelburne Farms, 49; David Webster and Emily Wadhams Webb, “Introduction to NeHaSaNe: 1890-1979,” in Lipke, Shelburne Farms, 46-41. Many thanks to Julie Bressor for her thoughts on the connection between Shelburne Farms’ location and Dr. Webbs’ business concerns.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 63. While Foreman and Stimson approximate the cost of Shelburne House to have been only $30,000 in The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 83-4, real estate values listed in the 1888-89 Shelburne Farms Ledger place a $100,000 value on “W.S.W. House, Stable, and Contents.” I have chosen $90,000 as an approximate figure for the residence due to the latter citation as well as the fact that an 1891 newspaper article gives the same amount. See Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. Vm, 89: “Shelburne Farms,” Boston Home Journal, November 7, 1891.

64. Frederick Law Olmsted, letter to A. Taylor, May 17, 1887, Frederick Law Olmsted Historic Site. Although Olmsted’s letter does not explicitly state the purpose for which he requested the platform, it was most likely used for observing the site and confirming the views that the as-yet-unbuilt house would possess. It is interesting to note that Olmsted also used “observation towers” during Biltmore’s construction to “confirm... the advantages of placing the house on the slope of the hill ” See Bryan,Biltmore Estate, 34 and caption for figure #73; Moss,The American Country House, 198.

65. Vincent J. Scully, The Architecture o f the American Summer: The Flowering o f the Shingle Style (New York: Rizzoli Publications and Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University, 1989), passim-, Dr. Damie Stillman, Class lecture, “Late-Nineteenth-Century American Architecture,” University of Delaware, September 30, 1997.

66. Robertson’s floor plans represent the best known evidence for this first manifestation of Shelburne House. Further on-site examination of the building’s physical structure is needed to confirm that the residence’s original form fully corresponds to the floor plans.

67. The room names referred to in this paragraph and throughout the rest of the text are those terms given by Robertson or the Webbs in various period documents in the Shelburne Farm Archives.

68. Robert Robertson, “Residence for Dr. W. S. Webb Burlington, Vt,” East and West Elevations, First, Second, and Third Floor Plans, ca. 1887. Shelburne Farms Archives.

69. Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. VI, 202: “Dr. Webb’s Great Estate,” Troy Telegram (New York), November 19, 1890.

70. Many thanks to Mr. Floyd Jones for providing myself and the Shelburne Farms Archives with copies of materials dating this interior photograph to ca. 1887-1895.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71. For further information on Idle Hour, the original Breakers, and Elm Court, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, passim -,and Robert B. King, The Vanderbilt Homes (New York, Rizzoli, \9%9), passim . More on Idle Hour may be found in Havemeyer,Along the Great South Bay, 65-67.

72. See Robert Robertson, “New Kitchen Wing for Dr. Seward Webb at Shelburne Vt.,” Northeast and Southwest Elevations and First and Second Floor Plans, ca. 1891. This wing is often termed the “Annex” by current historians.

73. See Robert Robertson, “A Country House,” American Architect and Building News 21 (March 19, 1887): 138+. Two earlier floor plans for a variation of this Lone Tree Hill design, signed by Robertson but untitled and undated, also exist in the Shelburne Farms Archives. While the arrangement of the rooms is somewhat different, the basic shape of the residence and types of interior spaces are the same, providing a similar formal character. An illustration and a description of this design for the planned Lone Tree Hill residence may also be found in Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. IV, 155: “Pictures of the Day,” New York Daily Graphic, June 29, 1887.

74. Robert Robertson, “Design for a Country House,” American Architect and Building News 40 (May 20, 1893): 123+ Two large watercolors depicting the east and west elevations of this Lone Tree Hill design, executed by a member of Robertson’s architectural staff also exist at Shelburne Farms. They were identified by Lila Webb as “Large crayon sketch Warwick Castle plan for Shelburne House” and “Warwick Castle sketch No. 2.” in her Shelburne House Inventory, ca. 1926-1936, 105. See also “His Home To Be A Grand Palace: Dr. Webb’s Plans for the Finest Residence in the World,” New York Press, June 24, 1894; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XL 103: “Seward Webb’s Proposed Castle, The Largest Private Residence In America,”Chicago Post, September 1, 1893; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XI, 121: Newport Season (Rhode Island), October 7, 1893; Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XID, 131: “An Era of Luxury: Men of Wealth Building Million-Dollar Mansions and Yachts,” Oxford Register (Kansas), March 26, 1897.

75. See Endnote 74.

76. Robert Robertson, “Residence for W. S. Webb Shelburne Vt,” East and West Elevations and First, Second, and Third Floor Plans, ca. 1887-1893, Shelburne Farms Archives. Two large watercolors depicting the same elevations of this Colonial Revival Lone Tree Hill design, executed by a member of Robertson’s architectural staff also exist at Shelburne Farms.

77. See Endnote 76.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78. Aslet, The American Country House, 29; Damie Stillman, “Efflorescence ofBeaux- Arts Academicism,” Class Lecture: University of Delaware Art History Class, “Late- Nineteenth-Century-American Architecture,” October 21,1997.

79. For the second Breakers, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded A ge, 248-254; King, The Vanderbilt Homes, 40-45. For Marble House, see Foreman and Stimson, 221-226; King, 56-62; Schezen et al, Newport Houses, 148. For Biltmore, see The Biltmore Company, A Guide to Biltmore Estate, 14; Bryan, Biltmore Estate, 38-9; Foreman and Stimson, 278-281; King, 113 and 116-121; Moss, The American Country H ouse, 184; Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 165-6. ForWoodlea, see Foreman and Stimson, 151-153 and 159-165; King, 107-109. For Florham, see Foreman and Stimson, 103-105 and 109-113; King, 126-7. For Hyde Park, see Foreman and Stimson, 193-195 and 203- 210; King, 82-89. The second version of Idle Hour was also designed in the Beaux-Arts manner. See Foreman and Stimson, 171-3 and 178-184; King, 71-74.

80. Lila Vanderbilt Webb Diary, volume for 1893-6, 1901 and 1904, June 30, 1893, 4.

81. See Endnote 74.

82. According to the New York Times, Margaret Vanderbilt Shepard’s $12 million inheritance from William Henry Vanderbilt yielded approximately $250,000 per year circa 1893; Lila Webb’s $10 million inheritance probably yielded a correspondingly lower amount, perhaps $225,000 or $200,000.New York Times, March 25, 1893, quoted in King, The Vanderbilt Homes, 104.

83. For further information concerning Nehasane, see Endnote 62.

84. Richard King, Vice-President of the Biltmore Company for Biltmore House, personal visit, January 21, 1998. No exact figures for the cost of the residence are known to date, although Mark Hewitt maintains that it “cost...some $45,000 per day at the peak of construction.” See also Hewitt, The Architect and the American Country House, 2.

85. On George Vanderbilt and his money troubles at Biltmore, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 295-297.

86. See Endnote 79.

87. Many thanks to Julie Bressor for her thoughts on this subject.

88. Emmet, “The Power Landscape,” 150.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 89. Documentation used for the 1895-1900 Shelburne House modifications, described in this and the following paragraphs, consists of materials housed in the Shelburne Farms Archives, including Robert Robertson blueprints for the various changes and additions; a ca. 1895-8 set of measured drawings of the service wing made for G. S. Blodgett & Co; entries in Shelburne Farms Bill Books, Journals, and Ledgers for the 1895-1900 period detailing expenditures for the alterations; and a limited amount of correspondence in the Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers. Several newspaper articles in the Shelburne Farms Scrapbooks also provide information about the changes. See Shelburne Farms Scrapbook, vol. XIII, 26: Burlington News (Vermont), April 10, 1895; vol. XTTTJ 135: American Contractor, May 22, 1897; vol. XV, 87: “Shelburne,” Burlington News (Vermont), March 5, 1900.

90. See the ca. 1895-8 set of measured drawings made for G. S. Blodgett & Co., the Burlington firm retained to complete the wiring, heating, and ventilation systems for the house.

91. Some renovations to the Annex spaces also occurred during this period and were most likely completed by 1902, when the first-floor Squash Court was ready for use.

92. While it is unclear from manuscript evidence whether or not these dining and guest areas existed only in plans or in physical reality in the 1887-8 house, the documented renovations were most likely undertaken to create a cohesive whole from spaces which had been partitioned into two or more rooms. However, a detailed examination of the physical structure for further evidence is needed before a final decision may be made.

93. G. S. Blodgett & Co. installed the kitchen equipment and bathrooms and probably completed the heating and ventilating in the new wings. In addition to the Champlain Manufacturing Co., the Robinson-Edwards Lumber Co. and the Skillings, Whitney & Bams Lumber Co., among others, provided lumber, hardware materials, and occasional skilled labor for the construction.

94. The Shelburne Farms Archives contains several ca. 1895 blueprints depicting interior plans for the renovations, including the Library, Main Hall, Temporary Dining Room, and Dr. Webb’s Office. According to the Shelburne Farms Bill Books, Robertson was paid not only for “Plans for House Alterations” but also for ‘Professional Service rendered in connection with Cabinet & other work at Shelburne Vt.” as well as a 10% commission for retaining the sub-contracted firms and/or supervising their work. See Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 2, 445: “R.H. Robertson,” February 18 1896. See also a set of correspondence between Robertson and Webb concerning the fees for J. S. Hess & Co.’s cabinetry work in Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers, April 30-May 1, 1896.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 95. William H. Jackson Co. provided the materials and labor for the new mantels and fireplaces in the Library, Main Hall, Dining Room, North Room, Rose Room, Louis XVI Room, Empire Room, Dutch Room, Colonial Room, and Oak Room, as well as some of the accompanying fireplace equipment. See Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 2, 132-3: “Wm H Jackson & Co.,” June 8, 1896-March 1, 1897 and Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 692: “Wm H Jackson & Co.,” September 28, 1899-March 12, 1900. The company supplied custom-made stone- and metalwork for residences and commercial structures designed by George Post, McKim, Mead & White, Carrere & Hastings, Richard Morris Hunt, and Odgen Codman. They supplied ironwork, for example, to the second Breakers as well as Ogden Goelet’s Newport cottage and J. Pierpont Morgan’s New York City townhouse. See W. H. Jackson Co., “Catalog of Ornamental Bronze, Brass, and Iron” (New York: William H. Jackson Co., [190-]), n. p., Rare Books Collection, Winterthur Library. See also “Fixtures for the Fireplace” (New York: William H. Jackson Co., 1926), Hagley Museum and Library; and Jackson advertisements inAmerican Architect and Building News 39 (April 8, 1893), frontispiece, and Trow's General Directory O f the Boroughs o fManhattan and the Bronx, City o fNew York, 1887-1888 vol. (New York: The Trow Directory Co., 1887-8), 960-962. J. S. Hess & Co. provided the materials and labor for “cabinet work and other work” in the Library, Main Hall, Dr. Webb’s Office, and Temporary Dining Room, and the windows and doors in the Dining Room. See Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 2, 173: “J. S. Hess & Co.,” February 15, 1896-October 31, 1896; Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 739, 737: “J. S. Hess & Co.,” December 21, 1899- September21, 1900.

96. Lila Webb probably chose the new items herself with or without the help of decorating assistants such as those employed in W & J Sloane’s Interior Decorating Department. See Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers for ca. 1905-1936 correspondence between Lila Webb and E. F. Gebhardt concerning decorating and furnishings for Shelburne House.

97. Unfortunately, much less is known about the interior decorations for the service areas of the house. It is probable that many of the furnishings were re-used from the old staff areas, and any new items were probably acquired locally. A known exception is the provision of linoleum, velvet carpets, and other floor coverings by W & J Sloane, discussed in the following paragraph.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 98. Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 1, 383-3, 686, 788-9: “W & J Sloane,” March 28 1892-May 7 1895; Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 2, 594-599: “W & J Sloane,” August 16, 1895-February 16, 1898; Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3 ,, 348: “W& J Sloane,” May 9, 1878. For further information on W & J Sloane, see The Story o f Sloane's (New York: W & J Sloane, 1950); “W & J Sloane,” in Kenneth T. Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia o fNew York City (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 1235; “W & J Sloane,” in King’s Handbook o fNew York City 1893, second edition (Boston: Moses King, 1893; Reprint, New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1972), 851; W & J Sloane, “Interior Decoration,” trade publication announcing the opening of their “Interior Decoration Department,” 1890, Hagley Museum and Library. The company published no known retail trade catalogues listing specific products and their prices during the 1880- 1910 period. However, advertisements appear regularly in the periodicalCountry L ife in A m erica during the same period.

99. William Baumgarten (1845-1908) was a German immigrant employed at the prominent decorating firm Herter Brothers who left to form his own decorating company in 1891. For Baumgarten’s role at Shelburne House, see Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 1, 141: “Wm Baumgarten & Co.,” June 17, 1896. For Baumgarten, see Mary Boehm, “Herter Brothers and the William H. Vanderbilt House,” 38, 66-69, 72-80, 177-181; Barbaralee Diamonstein, The Landmarks o fNew York II (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993), 407; Katherine S. Howe, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, and Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiorsfo r a Gilded (New Age York: Harry N. Abrams and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1994), 47, 229, 237-8, 242. For Fr Beck & Co., see Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 1, 778: “Fr Beck & Co.,” June 18, 1895; Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 2, 416-18: “Fr Beck & Co.,” February 24, 1896; Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 124, 633, 676: March 28, 1898-October 16, 1899. For H. B. Herts & Sons, see Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 620-622: “H. B. Herts & Sons, 242 Fifth Ave., N.Y.,” June 27, 1899. For Carl Spring, see Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 2,497-499: “Carl Spring, 402 E. 30th St., New York,” June 11 1896-August 10 1896. For John H. Ragaty, see Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 616: “John H. Ragaty, 212 Pear St. Philadelphia Pa,” June 19, 1899-July 20, 1899. For George Vernon & Co., see Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3,497: “Geo. E. Vernon & Co., 91 John St. Newport R.I., September 1899.

100. Lila Webb recorded the opening of the house in Shelburne Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 121.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 101. Correspondence from and about Marr in the Shelburne Farms Archives establishes him as a “Landscape and Marine Photographer, Interiors A Specialty,” at 180 Tremont Street, Boston, ca. 1902. He made at least two professional visits to Shelburne Farms between 1900 and 1905. See Shelburne Farms Bill Box, 1901 “L to R;” Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers, letter from W. S. Webb to E. F. Gebhardt, dated March 29, 1906. The Webbs and E. F. Gebhardt received multiple requests to publish articles on Shelburne Farms, and Gebhardt sent out copies of the Marr photographs for illustrations on several occasions. See, for example, the afore-cited 1901 article inNew England M agazine by Henry Hazelton and the 1903 Country Life in America article by Edwin Powell. Correspondence between E. F. Gebhardt and Country Life in America's Editor and Assistant Editor from August 26, 1903 to December 26, 1902 exists in the Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers. See also a letter from Gebhardt to C.J. Bell, dated June 15, 1903, and a letter from GJB. Fiske, the Agricultural Editor of The American C ultivator to Dr. Webb, dated October 16, 1903; both in Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Correspondence.

102. Several sofas, termed “Shelburne Sofas” by Shelburne Farms and Shelburne Museum staff, were made by Thomas O’Halloran of Burlington, Vermont according to designs and/or directions by Robertson or the Webbs for the Webb residences at Shelburne House and Nehasane. They are well known for their size and shape, though evidence exists of other examples of a similar depth and width in many photographs of other houses of the period. Telephone Interview with Paul O’Halloran, November 17, 1997. See also period photographs and correspondence between David Webster and Electra Havemeyer Webb, dated December 12 and December 18, 1952, Electra H. Webb Papers, Correspondence with David Webster, Shelburne Museum Archives.

103. As Lila Webb stated in her Shelburne House inventory, “List of Marble busts 16 in collection dug up from under Hadrian’s Villa near Rome about 1860, & presented to Genl. James Watson Webb by Lewis Cass, at that time American Minister to Italy. They were in the Metropolitan Museum in N.Y. for 17 years, & were left to J. Louis Webb by his father, & Louis gave them to us about 1890"--....” Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Shelburne House Inventory Book, ca. 1926-1936, 21. Of the sixteen, fifteen were displayed in the Library, and one, the Medusa Head, stood on the mantel in the Dining Room. See Chapter 6 for further information on the Medusa Head.

104. See T. E. Marr images, numbered 3146 (Main Hall); 3147 (Library); and 3136 and 4286 (South Piazza), Shelburne Farms Archives. For these images and those discussed in the following paragraphs, see also the afore-cited Hazelton and Powell articles, as well as Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 86-87; Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 81; Joe Sherman, The House at Shelburne Farms: The Story o f One o f America's Great Country Estates (Middlebury, VT: Paul S. Eriksson, 1986), 34-40.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 105. William Seward Webb, Jr. inscribed the back of a copy of Marr photo #6624, an exterior image of the Dining Room Terrace and North Porch, with the hallowing: “in Summer we always when possible have lunch at small table on the terrace & as long as the days a light up to 8 o’clock have dinner there & sometime of a warm night use candles....”

106. The Webbs’ Christmas tree and presents were displayed in the North Room. Lila, Seward, and their youngest son Vanderbilt were all avid billiards players, and they might well have used the North Room for everyday games. However, the space was probably used the most for entertaining and holiday functions. See Lila Webb diary, 1879 vol., transcribed by Shirley Murray, 14-17; Vanderbilt Webb diary, 1902, passim-, letter from Lila Webb to E. F. Gebhardt, dated December 7 of an unknown year, Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Correspondence.

107. See T. E. Marr images, numbered 3013, 3140, 3142 (Corridor Hall); 3260, 3261, 4289 (Dining Room); 3110, 4280, 6624 (North Terrace); 3141, 3144, 3184 (North Room). The William Seward Webb, Jr. inscription on Marr photograph #6624 cited in Endnote 14 continues, “you can walk from the Porch at end of house out of the North room down through the gardens to the Lake....” The Shelburne House Gardens were originally designed with “a formal French parterre,” and then redesigned after 1910 with a formal Italianate plan and English-style cottage garden plantings. See Julie Bressor, “Shelburne House Gardens,” undated typed mss.; Susan Cady Hayward, “Historical Evolution of the Shelburne Farms Formal Gardens: Design Changes Through Time,” unpublished independent research project for the Historic Preservation Department, University of Vermont, 1984; and Lucinda Rooney, “Garden Master Plan,” 1991 reconstruction of gardens ca. 1915; both in Shelburne House Garden Reference File, Shelburne Farms Archives. See also Susan Cady Hayward, “Gardens of a Gilded Age: Vermont’s Historic Estates Are Flowering Once Again,” Vermont Life (Summer 1988): 3- 9.

108. Hewitt, The Architect and the American Country House, 108 and 112.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 109. While Robert Robertson’s various architectural blueprints of the house term the space “Covered Piazza” and “South Piazza,” entries in Lila Webb’s 1903-4 diaries refer to the same area as the “piazza,” as opposed to the “North Piazza.” Vanderbilt Webb’s 1902 diary includes a reference to the “back piazza.” William Seward Webb wrote an inscription on the verso of a Marr photograph of the space (#6620) calling it the “porch off the library.” And various Ledger and Journal book entries of the 1890-1910 period refer to the same as the “circular piazza” or “conservatory.” Numerous Shelburne Farms accounts document the various seasonal changes to the space. Two undated notes from Lila Webb to E. F. Gebhardt in the Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers record requests for the “steam heater” and glass windows to be installed. In addition, visits from employees of the Burlington awning manufacturer James Wakefield to put up, repair, and take down the awnings are recorded, as are those of G. S. Blodgett Co. workers who installed and removed the radiator, and the regular Shelburne House employees who put in and removed the glass windows. See Shelburne Farms Ledgers and Journals,passim . For James Wakefield, see Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 1, 161-3: “James Wakefield,” May 31, 1892; Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 2, 580-581: “James Wakefield,” June 11, 1896- August 25, 1896; Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 394-399: “James Wakefield, Burlington, Vt.,” May, 1901-June 7, 1902; Shelburne Farms Bill Box “S:” Wakefield bills and check records, May and June, 1902.

110. Lila Vanderbilt Webb, 1903 diary: September 22; Lila Webb, 1904 diary: June 14, June 15, June 20, July 18.

111. The William Seward Webb, Jr.-inscribed image of the South Piazza with Frederica is Marr #6620.

112. The amateur family photographs, taken by an unknown individual, are all located in the Shelburne Farms Archives’ photographic files.

113. W. H. Tyler, ‘To Shelburne Farms,” Shelburne House Guestbook, vol. 1: October 1899, p. 113.

114. Mrs. John King [Mariana Griswold] Van Rensselaer, Art out o f Doors: Hints on Good Taste in Gardening (New York, 1903), 123 and 126. See also Aslet, The American Country House, 89-91; Hewitt, The Architect and the American Country House, 98.

115. Arthur C. Spaulding, quoted in Aslet,The American Country House, 90-91.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 116. Firms selling or producing wicker like that at Shelburne House include: W & J Sloane of New York, the Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company of Boston, The Cook Company of Michigan City, Indiana, and the Linn Murray Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan. For W & J Sloane, see Country Life in America 4 (April 1903): ccxvii; The Story o f Sloane1s, 16. For Heywood Bros. & Wakefield Co., see Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company: Classic Wicker Furniture, the Complete 1898-1899 Illustrated C atalog (Gardner, MA: Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Company, 1898-1899; Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1982). For Cook Co., see Country Life in America 4 (July 1903): 217; for Linn Murray, see Country Life in America 4 (July 1903): 238. Unfortunately, no account book information exists citing the specific suppliers) of the Shelburne House wicker, though an 1895 trade catalogue from the Newburgh Reed Company, of Newburgh, New York illustrating similar examples is in the Shelburne Farms Farm Managers’ Papers. For information on general porch furnishings of the period, see Aslet, The American Country House, 90-91.

117. For the Palm Room at Beechwood, see Newport Casino 1906: Official Bulletin and Program (New York: J. W. Grayhurst Publisher, 1906), n. p. On the Palm Garden at Idle Hour, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 172 and 183; King, The Vanderbilt Homes, 72-3. For the Palm Greenhouse at Shelburne Farms, see T. E. Marr photos, unnumbered.

118. For Florham, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 104. For Rough Point, see Foreman and Stimson, 260. For The Breakers, see Foreman and Stimson, 242 and 252; King, The Vanderbilt Homes, 42-3. For Biltmore, see Foreman and Stimson, 272 and 284-5; Biltmore Company, A Guide to Biltmore Estate, 24-5. For Elm Court, see Foreman and Stimson, 140-141; Edwin Hale Lincoln, Donald T. Oakes, ed., A Pride o f Palaces: Lenox Summer Cottages 1883-1933 (Lenox, MA: Lenox Library Association, 1981), 37.

119. See Endnote 100.

120. This marble was finished, supplied, and installed by the employees of the New York marble dealer Robert C. Fisher & Co., “in accordance with plans & drawings as per estimate.” See Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 739: “Robt C. Fisher & Co.,” December 28, 1899.

121. The Vermont Marble Company supplied and installed Proctor and Rutland marbles for the black-and-white floors of the Dining Room and Conservatory. See Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 740-1 and 748-9: “Vermont Marble Co., Proctor Vt.,” October 27, 1899-January 31, 1900.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 122. The New York company Klee Brothers sent two men to Shelburne for forty-five days to cast and install the Dining Room’s plaster ceiling and comice. See Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 696: “Klee Brothers, 327-329 E. 40 St. N.Y.,” October 10, 1899.

123. The “Pompeiian” light fixtures, described in the Shelburne Farms account books as “5-L[igh]t. El[ectric]. Standards Green Pompeiian Bronze, Beaded Lamp Coverings,” represented a substantial expense, $1600 for the set o f eight. E. F. Caldwell & Co. also supplied light fixtures for the North Room, as well as andirons and lamp shades for unspecified spaces. See Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 691 and 694: “Edwd. F. Caldwell, 48W 15th St. New York,” October 23, 1899-March 24, 1900. For further information on the Caldwell company, see Jeni L. Sandburg, ‘Edward F. Caldwell and Company,” The Magazine Antiques 104 (February 1998): 310-319.

124. While the origin of the andirons is unknown, the hardware was probably supplied by J. S. Hess & Co., as is indicated in Shelburne Farms Bill Book, vol. 3, 739: “J. S. Hess & Co.,” September 21, 1900. See Endnote 95 for further information on Hess’ work at Shelburne House.

125. Unfortunately, no known documentation exists for the damask wall coverings, curtains, or mg.

126. The Empire pieces were Webb family heirlooms. See Lila Vanderbilt Webb, “Old Webb Pieces,” ca. 1926-36 inventory list, Shelburne Farms Archives. Judging from the positions of the two dining tables pictured in Marr photograph #4289 (Figure 17), one most likely served as the large extension table put into use in the center of the room for large affairs, while the other may have been used for smaller or less formal occasions and family meals.

127. Little is known about the origins of the furnishings discussed in this paragraph, although similar tables featuring terracotta lions may be seen in several period publications. A Tiffany version is illustrated in Samuel Swift, “Garden Ornaments of Pottery,” House and Garden 5 (March 1904), 117. Examples also appear in period photographs of both the Henry W. Poor residence in Tuxedo, New York and the Mrs. Charles F. Sprague residence in Brookline, Massachusetts in Barr Ferree,Am erican E sta tes a n d G ardens (New York, Munn and Company, 1904), 118 and 135, respectively. The terra cotta and marble sideboards were later replaced by a built-in white marble version with scrolled end terminals, located on the wall opposite the fireplace.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 128. Other photographs in Webb family photograph albums indicate that the Empire-style dining tables were replaced at some date by an extension table with straight fluted legs matching those of one set of dining chairs. The Empire-style tables and Chippendale-style dining chairs seem to have been moved out of the Dining Room, perhaps into the Corridor Hall space.

129. Little is known about the two matching bronzes. Number 10 of the marble busts listed by Lila Vanderbilt Webb in Shelburne House Inventory Book, ca. 1926-1936, 21, read, “Head of Medusa (in the Dining Room).” See Endnote 103 for Lila’s description of the busts’ origin.

130. “Menu,” inserted in Shelburne Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 245: Thanksgiving, 1911. See also a dinner event honoring Vanderbilt Webb, menu inserted in Shelbume Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 254: “Vanderbilt Webb September the Seventh 1912;” and an undated letter from Lila Webb to E. F. Gebhardt containing instructions for a Christmas-season dinner at Shelbume House, Shelbume Farms Farm Managers’ Papers. It is interesting to note that the latter mentions of hiring a caterer for the affair, suggesting that the Webbs supplemented or perhaps even bypassed their regular Shelbume House kitchen staff for special events.

131. Many of the porcelain pieces were produced by the English firm Minton and imported and sold in New York City by Gilman Collamore Co. and Davis Collamore Co. According to their marks, the Minton pieces at Shelbume House were made between 1863 and 1920, and thus may have been purchased by the Webbs or given to them over a period of time. The two extant sets of dinner plates with gilded Webb crests were produced by Haviland& Cie, premier French porcelain manufacturers. In fact, Haviland supplied the White House with dinner services for the Pierce, Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes Administrations. The Webbs’ Haviland plates feature marks dating from the 1876-1889 period of company production. For Haviland, see Octave Beauchamp, “Porcelaines de Limoges: La Manufacture Haviland & C°,” Ceramique:in La Porcelaine, Les Grandes Industries du Monde (Paris, Societe des Imprimeries Lemercier, n. d.), 51-64;Celebrating 150 Years o f Haviland China, 1842-1992 (Milwaukee, WI: Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum and Haviland Collectors Internationale Foundation, 1992). Other porcelains at Shelbume House were produced by Spode, Royal Boulton, Adderley’s, and Brownfield China.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132. The origin of the glassware is currently unknown. Surviving flatware in the Shelburne Farms Archives consists of sterling and electroplated Tiffany & Co. and Reed & Barton knives, forks, and spoons in a variety of patterns, including variations of Tiffany’s popular English King. Lila Webb’s undated Silver List indicates sets of flatware in several different patterns, including “antique design,” “King pattern,” “Crown pattern,” and “King Wm pattern.” Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Silver List, probably ca. 1926-1936, Shelbume Farms Archives. For an illustration of the English King pattern, see Charles H. Carpenter, Jr., with Mary Grace Carpenter, Tiffany Silver (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1978), cat #140.

133. The Loving Cup was given to the Shelbume Museum by William Seward Webb, Jr. in 1952. See Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Silver List, “Loving Cups & tankards” section, item #1, Shelbume Farms Archives; Shelbume Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 114; Shelbume Farms Scrapbook, vol. XV, 50: “A Graceful Tribute,”Boston Home Journal, February 3, 1900, “Dr. W. Seward Webb’s Loving Cup,”New York Tribune, Feb. 4, 1900, “Loving Cup for Dr. Webb,” New York Herald, February 4, 1900. See also “Address on the Occasion of the Presentation to Dr. W. Seward Webb of a Loving Cup by the Employees of the Wagner Palace Car Company....,” commemorative booklet with printed speech and illustrations of Cup, Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

134. Several of these pieces are currently in the collections of the Shelbume Museum. See Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Silver List; undated silver lists in Lila Webb’s handwriting in Shelbume Farms Farm Managers’ Papers.

135. Extensive records in the Shelbume Farms Farm Managers’ Papers and Bill Boxes document the seasonal moves of large amounts of silver, fur rugs, family portraits, and other items between 680 Fifth Avenue and Shelbume House. See, for example, Bill Box XI, 1902-4, “Household Bills,” Westcott Express Company receipts, February 2 and May 21, 1902; Shelbume Farms Telephone Blank, April 25, 1908, Farm Managers’ Papers; Letter from Lila Vanderbilt Webb to E. F. Gebhardt, January 5, 1905, Farm Managers’ Papers; Letter from Lila Webb to Gebhardt, March 1, 1910, Farm Managers’ Papers; Letter from Gebhardt to Lila Webb, August 15, 1913; Undated moving list in Lila Webb’s hand, Farm Managers’ Papers.

136. Mark Hewitt, The Architect and the American Country House, 97.

137. See, for example, Florence Howe Hall’s description of dinner table arrangements, quoted in Carpenter,Tiffany Silver, 93-95.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 138. At The Breakers, the blue-rimmed porcelain dinner service used for formal occasions, a group of wineglasses, and a set of custom-designed silver flatware designed by Tiffany & Co. all featured a “CV” emblem, for Cornelius Vanderbilt.1 See Armin Brand Allen, The Cornelius Vanderbilts o f The Breakers: A Family Retrospective (Newport, RI: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1995), cat. #’s 89, 90, 95. Similarly, silver presentation pieces displaying the accomplishments of various family members were also found in several Vanderbilt dining rooms, including Hyde Park, where Frederick Vanderbilt and his wife Louis decorated their dining table with “gold and silver yachting trophies filled with flowers.” See Jerry Patterson, The Vanderbilts, 201.

139. For a discussion of Dr. Webb’s problems with morphine, see Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 92-96.

140. See Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 93.

141. See Foreman and Stimson, The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age, 96.

142. Lipke, Introduction to “Shelburne Farms: 1926-1979,” in Lipke, ed., Shelbum e F arm s, 58; Derick V. Webb, “Statement, Shelbume Farms: 1926-1979,” in Lipke, ed., Shelbume Farms, 59-67.

143. Eileen Rockefeller, Introduction to “Shelbume Farms Resources: 1972-1979,” in Lipke, ed., Shelbume Farms, 69; William C. Shopsin, Preserving American Mansions and E sta tes (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994), 39; Alec Webb, Marilyn Webb, and Marshall Webb, “Statement, Shelbume Farms Resources: 1972-1979,” in Lipke, ed., Shelbume Farms, 70-74.

144. Lila Webb, “Christmas Greeting, 1922,” Shelbume Farms Guestbook, vol. 1, 356.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B ibliography

Primary Sources

Manuscripts and Other Items in Shelbume Farms Archives

Bressor, Julie P. “Shelbume Farms Timeline.” Compilation of dates from various sources in the Shelbume Farms Archives. Typed mss., 1997.

. “Shelbume House Gardens.” Undated history of gardens. Typed mss.

“Coaching Club: New York to Shelbume, Vermont, June 6th to June 9th, 1894 ” Itinerary card for New York Coaching Club’s trip to Shelbume Farms.

Continental Appraisal Co. “Appraised Valuation of the Furnishings of the Residence of Mrs. W. Seward Webb, 680 Fifth Avenue, New York City.” April 11,1912. Typed mss.

“Estate of Eliza Osgood Webb: Summary of All Receipts and Expenses from July 10, 1936, to November 13, 1939.” Typed mss., ca. 1939.

Hayward, Susan Cady. “Historical Evolution of the Shelbume Farms Formal Gardens: Design Changes Through Time.” Unpublished Independent Research Project for the Historic Preservation Department, University of Vermont, 1984.

Marr, Thomas E. Period photographs of Shelbume Farms estate and buildings, ca. 1900.

National Landmark Nomination for Shelbume Farms, 1997.

Robertson, Robert Henderson. Architectural blueprints for Shelbume House and its additions, ca. 1886-1899; blueprints and watercolor renditions of planned Lone Tree Hill house, ca. 1887-1893.

Rooney, Lucinda. “Garden Master Plan.” Reconstruction of layout and plantings of ca. 1915 garden at Shelbume House. Typed mss. May 3, 1991.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Shelbume Farms Account Books: Ledgers and Journals for 1892-1905; Bill Books for 1892-1903.

Shelbume Farms Bill Boxes: 1898-1901 box; ca. 1900 box marked “Household”; 1901- 1902 box; 1902 boxes marked “A to E,” “L to R,” and “S.” Files of actual bills and check records.

Shelbume Farms Farm Manager’s General Order Book: General Orders issued by A. Taylor and E. F. Gebhardt for ca. 1895-1905.

Shelbume Farms Farm Managers’ Papers: Correspondence between Lila Webb and E. F. Gebhardt, Farm Manager; Seward Webb and Gebhardt; James Watson Webb and Gebhardt; Woodgate and Gebhardt; and various other papers of Gebhardt and A. Taylor, all 1902-1905 and undated letters.

Shelbume House Guestbook, volume one, 1884-1928.

Shelbume House Inventories: Lila Vanderbilt Webb, “Contents of Study,” handwritten mss., ca. 1926-1936 Lila Vanderbilt Webb, “Main Hall & Stairway,” handwritten mss., ca. 1926-1936 Lila Vanderbilt Webb, “Old Webb Pieces,” handwritten mss., ca. 1926-1936 Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Shelbume House Inventory Book: detailed room-by-room inventory of household contents, ca. 1926-1936 Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Shelbume House Silver List: detailed listing of silver by form, ca. 1926-1936

Unknown author, “Shelbume House Library, Shelbume Farms, Vermont,” typed mss., ca. 1930 shelf-by-shelf inventory of library contents, original incomplete version in Lila Vanderbilt Webb’s hand.

Shelbume Farms Scrapbooks, volumes for 1877-1905.

Webb, James Watson, Jr. Transcribed by Julie Bressor. “A Pictorial History of Shelbume Farms” Typed mss., 1996. A commentary on the photographs in the author’s private collection.

Webb, Lila Osgood Vanderbilt. Journals and diaries: “The Philipps,” two ca. 1876 volumes; 1877-1880 volumes, as transcribed by Shirley Murray; volume containing various entries from 1893-6, 1901, and 1904; and 1903-5 volumes.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ------Last Will and Testament. Shelburne, Vermont, June 15,1929.

Webb, Vanderbilt. 1902 diary. Handwritten entries in bound volume and typed mss. of same.

Webb, William Seward. Diaries, 1878-1880 volumes.

Webb Family Photograph Albums, ca. 1887-1980.

Wieck, Joan Marie. “Shelbume Farms: An Historical Study of a 19th Century Agricul tural Estate and Plan for the Restoration and Preservation of its Landscape.” Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, University of Massachusetts, 1984.

Other Unpublished Manuscripts and Photographs

Correspondence between Lila Vanderbilt Webb and E. F. Gebhardt, ca. 1900-1936. Collection of James Watson Webb, Jr.

Farrington, Mark. “The History of Blantyre.” Unpublished history of estate, typed mss., 1984. Blantyre, Relais et Chateaux.

Lincoln, Edwin Hale. Period photographs of Lenox-area estates, ca. 1900. Lenox Library Association, Lenox, Massachusetts.

Olmsted, Frederick Law. Unpublished letter to A. Taylor, Shelbume Farms Farm Manager, May 17, 1887. Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts.

Period photographs of Nehasane, Shelbume Farms, and Shelbume House. Collection of James Watson Webb, Jr.

Period photographs of Nehasane and “Shelbume sofas.” Shelbume Museum Archives.

Period photographs of portions of exterior, 680 Fifth Avenue. New-York Historical Society, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architecture.

Robertson, Robert Henderson. Unpublished letter to Frederick Law Olmsted, dated June 17, 1886. Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sanbom-Perris Company, “Shelbum Fanns,” sketch of building layouts, Burlington Map series, November 1894, Sheet #28. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Vanderbilt, William H. Last Will and Testament o f William H. Vanderbilt., Dated September 25th, 1884. Printed mss., 1884. Biltmore Estate Archives.

Webster, David. Two letters to Electra Havemeyer Webb, dated Dec. 12, 1952 and Dec. 18, 1952, concerning O’Halloran’s plans for “Shelbume sofas.” Electra H. Webb Papers, Correspondence with David Webster, Shelbume Museum Archives.

Personal Interviews

Bressor, Julie. Shelbume Farms Archivist. Numerous Electronic mail, Personal, and Telephone Interviews, April 1997-April 1998.

O’Halloran, Paul. Telephone Interview, November 17, 1997.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Published Primary Sources

“Address on the Occasion of the Presentation to Dr. W. Seward Webb of a Loving Cup by the Employees of the Wagner Palace Car Company....” Commemorative booklet with printed speech and illustrations of Cup. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Auld, Joseph. Picturesque Burlington: A Handbook o fBurlington, Vermont and Lake Cham plain. Burlington: Free Press Association, 1893. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Beauchamp, Octave. “Porcelaines De Limoges: La Manufacture Haviland & Co.” In Ceramique: La Porcelaine. Les Grandes Industries Du Monde. Paris: Societe des Imprimeries, n. d. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Beautiful Burlington, containing “Practical Burlington,” by Nath’l C. Fowler, Jr., and “Beautiful Burlington,” by G. G. Benedict. 1907. Special Collections, Bailey- Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Balsan, Consuelo Vanderbilt. The Glitter and the Gold. New York: Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1952.

Beers, F. W. Atlas o f Chittenden County, Vermont. New York: F. W. Beers, A. D. Ellis & G. G. Soule, 1869. Reprint, Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Beck, Fr. & Co. Artistic Wallpapers and Ceiling Decorations. Trade publication, 1881. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Burlington City Directory, vols. for 1889, 1895, and 1900. Burlington, VT: L. P. Waite & Co., 1889, 1895, 1900. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Black, Mary. Old New York in Early Photographs: 196 Prints, 1853-1901from the Collection o f the New-York Historical Society. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1973.

“Charming Blantyre: The Beautiful Lenox Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Paterson, of New York, Has Many Entrancing Characteristics.” Berkshire Resort Topics 2 (September 3, 1904): 1-2.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Desmond, Harry W. and Herbert Croly. Stately Homes in Americafrom Colonial Times to the Present. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903.

Facts about Burlington, Vermont. Glens Falls,. NY: C. H. Possons, 1888. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Ferree, Barr. American Estates and Gardens. New York: Munn and Company, 1904.

“The Gardens at Shelbume Farms, Mrs. Seward Webb’s Home at Shelbume, Vermont.” Arts and Decoration 11 (June 1919): 66-67.

“The Garden of Mrs. W. Seward Webb, Shelbume Farms, Shelbume, Vt. on Lake Champlain.” Photographs by Isabelle H. Hardie. Country Life in America 31 (October 1917): 62-3.

Grafton, John. New York in the Nineteenth Century: 321 Engravingsfrom Harper’s Weekly and Other Contemporary Sources. New York: Dover Publishing, Inc., 1977.

Hazleton, Henry I. “Shelbume Farms.” New England Magazine 25 (November 1901): 267-77.

Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company. Classic Wicker Furniture: The Complete 1898-1899 Illustrated Catalog. Gardner, MA: Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Co., 1898-1899. Reprint, Introduction by Richard Saunders, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1982.

Jackson, William H. Company. “Catalog of Ornamental Bronze, Brass, and Iron.” Trade publication. New York: William H. Jackson Co., [190-]. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

------“Fixtures for the Fireplace.” Trade publication. New York: William H. Jackson Co., 1926. Hagley Museum and Library.

James, Henry. ‘The Sense of Newport.” Harper's Magazine 113 (August 1906): 344- 354.

Kent, William Winthrop. “Outdoor Living-Rooms.”Country Life in America 4 (October 1903): 425-430.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. King’s Handbook o f New York City 1893, vol. 1, Second Enlarged Edition. Boston: Moses King, 1893. Reprint, New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1972. Museum of the City of New York.

Lancaster, Clay. New York Interiors at the Turn o f the Century in 131 Photographs by Joseph Byron from the Byron Collection o f the Museum o f the City o fNew York. New York: Dover Publications, 1976.

Lightfoot, Frederick S., ed. Nineteenth-Century New York in Rare Photographic Views. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1981.

Manson, George J. “An American Gentleman’s Estate.” Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly 34 (September 1892): 257-263.

Morris, Charles. Makers o f New York: An Historical Work Giving Portraits and Sketches o f the Most Eminent Citizens o f New York. Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly & Co., 1895. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Nash, Joseph. Mansions o f England in the Olden Time, 4 vols. London: T. M’Lean, 1839-49. Shelbume Farms Archives and The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Newburgh Reed Co. Trade publication of wicker furniture, 1895. Shelbume Farms Archives, trade catalogue #564.

Newport Casino 1906: Official Bidletin and Program. New York: J. W. Grayhurst Publisher, 1906. Morris Library, University of Delaware.

Oakes, Donald T., ed. A Pride o f Palaces: Lenox Summer Cottages 1883-1933; Sixty Photographs by Edwin Hale Lincoln 1848-1938. Lenox, MA: Lenox Library Association, 1981.

Oxley, Giddings & Enos. Trade publication featuring photographs of gas lighting fixtures, n. d. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection..

Powell, Edwin C. “Shelbume Farms: An Ideal Country Place.” Country Life in America 3 (February 1903): 152-6.

Price, Bruce. Modem Architectural Practice, No. 1: A Large Country House. New York: William T. Comstock, 1887. Morris Library, University of Delaware.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Robertson, Robert Henderson. “A Country House.” American Architect and Building N e w s ll (March 19, 1887): 138+

------. “A City House.” American Architect and Building News 14 (July 8, 1893): 31+.

------. “Design for a Country House.” American Architect and Building News 40 (May 20, 1893), 123+.

------. “Dr. Webb’s Office, Shelbume, Vt.” American Architect and Building News 24 (December 8, 1888), 266+.

------. “Dwelling to be built on 5th Avenue, New York New York.” Am erican Architect and Building News 9(March 12, 1881), 127+.

------. “House for J. M. Tooney, Esq., at Garrison on Hudson, New York.”A m erican Architect and Building News 19 (May 15, 1886), 235+.

------. “House of D.C. Blair, Esq., No. 6 East 61st St., New York New York.” American Architect and Building News 74 (Oct. 5, 1901), 8+.

------“The House on the Rocks.” American Architect and Building News 66 (Dec. 2, 1889), 80+.

------. “Proposed House at Seabright, NJ.” American Architect and Building News 65 (Aug 19, 1899), 63+.

“Residence of AS. Bushnell, Esq.” Architectural Record! (July-Sept. 1892).

------“Shooting-box at Tuxedo Park, New York.” American Architect and Building News 21 (May 28, 1887), 260+.

“Robertson, Robert Henderson.” In The National Cyclopaedia o fAmerican Biography, vol. 6. New York: James T. White & Co., 1898. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Round About Burlington Winooski, Vt. VT: Vermont Illustrating Co., 1900. Shelbume Farms Archives.

Schuyler, Montgomery. ‘The Works of R.H. Robertson.” A rch itectu ra l R ecord 6 (Oct- Dec. 1896), pp. 184-219.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sheldon, George William. Artistic Country-Seats: Types o fRecent American Villa and Cottage Architecture with Instances o f Country-Club Houses. New York: Appleton & Co., 1886-7. Reprint, text by Arnold Lewis, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1982.

Sloane, Florence Adele, with commentary by Louis Auchincloss. Maverick in Mauve: Diary o f q Romantic Age. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday & Co., 1983.

Sloane, W & J. “Floor Coverings: 1930.” Trade publication. New York: W & J Sloane, 1930. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

------. “Interior Decoration.” Trade publication. New York: W & J Sloane, 1890. Hagley Museum and Library.

Strahan, Edward. Mr. Vanderbilt’s House and Collection, 2 vols., Holland Edition. Boston: George Bame, 1883-4. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Swift, Samuel. “Garden Ornaments of Pottery.” H ouse and Garden 5 (March 1904): 115- 123.

Trow's Business Directory o f the Boroughs ofManhattan and the Bronx, City o f New York, vols. for 1891-1896 and 1905. New York: The Trow Directory Co., 1891- 1896 and 1905. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Trow's General Directory o f the Boroughs o f Manhattan and the Bronx, City o f New York, vols. for 1880-1889 and 1896-1905. New York: The Trow Directory Co., 1880-1889 and 1896-1905. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Van Pelt, John Vredenburgh. A Monograph o f the William K. Vanderbilt House, Richard Morris Hunt Architect. New York: John Vredenburgh Van Pelt, 1925. Morris Library, University of Delaware.

Van Rensselaer, Mrs. John King [Mariana Griswold]. Art out o f Doors: Hints on Good Taste in Gardening. New York, 1903. Morris Library, University of Delaware.

------. Newport: Our Social Capital. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1905. Reprint, New York: Amo Press, 1975.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “Warwick Castle—I: Warwickshire, The Seat of the Earl of Warwick.” Country Life 35 (May 30, 1914): 792-800.

“Warwick Castle—Hr Warwickshire, The Seat of the Earl o f Warwick.” Country Life 35 (June 6, 1914): 842-851.

Webb, William Seward. California and Alaska and over the Canadian Pacific Railway. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890. Shelburne Farms Archives.

------. Shelhume Farms Stud (Shelburne, Chittenden County, Vermont) O fEnglish Hackneys, Harness and Saddle Horses, Ponies and Trotters. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893. Shelburne Farms Archives.

Weston, George F. “Biltmore: The Great Model Estate of George W. Vanderbilt in North Carolina—Village, Farm, Dairy, Forest, School, Gardens, Nursery, Herbarium, All Welded into One Immense Enterprise.” Country Life in America 3 (September, 1902): 180-185.

Wilson's Business Directory o f New-York, Cityvols. for 1851-1879. New York: John F. Trow, Publisher & Printer, 1851-1879. The Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Secondary Sources

Allen, Annin Brand. The Cornelius Vanderbilts o f The Breakers: A Family Retrospective. Newport, RI: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1995.

Amory, Cleveland. Who Killed Society? New York: Harper & Bros., 1960.

Aslet, Clive. The American Country House. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

------. The Last Country Houses. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.

Auchincloss, Louis. Introduction toNewport Remembered: A Photographic Portrait o f a Gilded Past, by Deborah Turberville. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994.

------The Vanderbilt Era: Profiles o f a Gilded Age. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989.

Biltmore Company, The. A Guide to Biltmore Estate. Asheville, NC: The Biltmore Company, 1997.

Blow, David. Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods. Burlington, VT: Chittenden County Historical Society, 1991. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Boehm, Mary Dutton. “Herter Brothers and the William H. Vanderbilt House.” Unpublished Master’s thesis, Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Parsons School of Design, 1991

Brendel-Pandich, Susanne. “Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina.”The Magazine A ntiqu es117 (April 1980): 855-867.

Bryan, John M. Biltmore Estate: The Most Distinguished Private Place. New York: Rizzoli International and The Octagon, Museum of the American Architectural Foundation, 1994.

Burnett, Charles H. Conquering the Wilderness: The Building o f the Adirondack & St. Lawrence Railroad by William Seward Webb. Privately printed, 1932. Shelburne Farms Archives.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Carlough, Peter. Bygone Burlington: A Bicentennial Barrage o fBattles, Boats, Buildings & Beings. Burlington, VT: Queen City Printing, 1976. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Carpenter, Charles H. Jr., with Mary Grace Carpenter. Tiffany Silver . New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1978.

Celebrating 150 Years ofHaviland China, 1842-1992. Milwaukee, WI: Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum and Haviland Collectors Internationale Foundation, 1992.

Conforti, Michael. “An Art Institute in the Berkshires.” The Magazine Antiques 152 (October 1997): 494-499.

Crouthamel, James L. James Watson Webb: A Biography. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1969.

De Lage, Robert. The Vanderbilt Country Estates and Town Houses along Fifth Avenue New York. Poster. Newport, RI: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1978

Diamonstein, Barbaralee. The Landmarks o f New York II. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993.

Emmet, Alan. ‘The Power Landscape, William Seward Webb’s Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont.” In So Fine a Prospect: Historic New England Gardens. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1996.

Forde-Johnston, James. A Guide to the Castles o f England and Wales. London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1981.

Foreman, John and Robbe Stimson. The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age: Architectural Aspirations, 1879-1901. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

Franklin, Jill. The Gentleman’s Country House and Its Plan 1835-1914. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.

Gale, David. Proctor: The Story o f a Marble Town. Brattleboro, VT: Vermont Printing Co., 1922. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Girouard, Mark. Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.

------. The Victorian Country House. Revised and Enlarged Edition. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1979.

Gregory, Alexis. Families o f Fortune: Life in the Gilded Age. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1993.

Hall, Lee. Olmsted’s America: An "Unpractical ” Man and His Vision o f Civilization. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1995.

Hayward, Susan Cady. “Gardens of a Gilded Age: Vermont’s Historic Estates Are Flowering Once Again.” Vermont Life (Summer 1988): 3-9.

Helfrich, G. W. and Gladys O’Neil. Lost Bar Harbor. Camden, ME: Down East Books, 1982.

Hewitt, Mark Alan. The Architect and the American Country House, 1890-1940. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.

Historic Preservation Program, Department of History, University of Vermont.The Burlington Book: Architecture, History, Future. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program, 1980. Special Collections, Bailey-Howe Library, University of Vermont.

Howe, Katherine S., Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, and Catherine Hoover Voorsanger. Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiorsfo r a Gilded Age. New York: Harry N. Abrams and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1994.

Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. The Encyclopedia o fNew York City. New Haven: Yale University Press and New-York Historical Society, 1995.

Jackson-Stops, Gervase and James Pipkin. The English Country House: A Grand Tour. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., and National Gallery of Art, 1985.

Jones, Joan. Minton: The First Two Hundred Years o f Design & Production. Shrewsbury, UK: Swan Hill Press and Royal Dalton Ltd., 1993.

Kaiser, Harvey H. Great Camps o f the Adirondacks. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. King, Robert B. The Vanderbilt Homes. New York: Rizzoli, 1989.

Labbance, Bob. “Burlington’s Ghosts of Golf.” Vermont G olf (1995): 57-61.

Landau, Sarah Bradford and Carl Condit. Rise o f the New York Skyscraper 1865-1913. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

Lawrence, Ruth. Webb and Allied Family Histories: A Documented Compilation o f Genealogy and Biography. New York: National Americana Society, 1937. Shelburne Farms Archives.

Lipke, William C., ed. Shelburne Farms: The History o f an Agricultural Estate. Burlington: University of Vermont, 1979.

Mackay, Robert B., Anthony Baker, and Carol A. Traynor, eds. Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., and Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1997.

Malone, Dumas, ed. Dictionary o fAmerican Biography, vols. 6,9,13, 17, and 19. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1956.

Menz, Katherine Boyd and Donald McTeman. “Decorating for the Frederick Vanderbilts.” Nineteenth Century 3 (Winter 1977): 44-50.

Moss, Roger. The American Country House. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1990.

Owens, Carole. The Berkshire Cottages: A Vanishing Era. Stockbridge, MA: Cottage Press, Inc., 1984.

Patterson, Jerry E. The Vanderbilts. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989.

------“Xhe Vanderbilt Heritage: A Grand Family and Its Houses.” Town & Country 146 (December 1988): 168-176.

------“The Vanderbilt Inheritors: A Register of the Commodore’s Kin.” Town & Country 146 (December 1988): 180-1.

------and Diane Guernsey. “The 400: Who Created Society?” Town & Country (December 1992): 130-138+.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Placzek, Adolf K., ed. Macmillan Encyclopedia o fArchitects, vol. 4. New York: The Free Press, 1982.

Preservation Society of Newport County. “The Vanderbilt Country Estates and Town Houses: A Brief Description as to their Present State.” Flyer accompanying Robert De Lage poster, “The Vanderbilt Country Estates and Town Houses along Fifth Avenue, New York.” Newport, RI: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1978.

Randall, Anne. Newport: A Tour Guide. Newport, RI: Catboat Press, 1970.

Randall, Monica. The Mansions o fLong Island's Gold Coast. New York: Hastings House, 1979.

“Robertson, Robert H.” In Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathbum, Biographical Dictionary o fAmerican Architects. Los Angeles: New Age Publishing Co., 1956, 516.

Roomet, Louise. “Vermont as a Resort Area in the Nineteenth Century.” Verm ont H istory 44 (Winter 1976): 1-13.

Sandberg, Jeni L. ‘Edward F. Caldwell and Company.” The Magazine Antiques 153 (February 1998): 310-319.

Schezen, Roberto, with Jane Mulvagh, Robert A.M. Stem, and Mark A Weber. N ew port H ouses. New York: Rizzoli, 1989.

Scully, Vincent J. The Architecture o f the American Summer: The Flowering o f the Shingle Style. New York: Rizzoli Publications and Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University, 1989.

Sherman, Joe. The House at Shelburne Farms: The Story o f One o fAmerica’s Great C ountry E states. Middlebury, VT: Paul S. Eriksson, 1986.

Shopsin, William C. Preserving American Mansions and Estates. New York: McGraw- Hill, Inc., 1994.

Sirkus, Nancy. Newport: Pleasures and Palaces. New York: Viking Press, 1963.

Stasz, Clarice. The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty o f Wealth, Glamour, and Tragedy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Stern, Robert A. M., Gregory Gilmartin, and John Montague Massengale. New York 1900: Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism 1890-1915. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1983.

Stillman, Damie. “Queen Anne and Shingle Style in America,” and “Efflorescence of Beaux-Arts Academicism.” Class Lectures. University of Delaware Art History Class, “Late-Nineteenth-Century American Architecture,” September 30, 1997 and October 21, 1997, respectively.

The Story o f Sloane's. New York: W & J Sloane, 1950. Winterthur Library.

Tauranac, Christopher. Elegant New York: The Builders and the Buildings 1885-1915. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985.

Webster, David. “The Webb Bam.” Vermont L ife 16 (Autumn 1961): 46-9.

Wilson, Richard Guy. McKim, Mead & White, Architects. New York: Rizzoli, 1983.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 1. William Seward Webb, ca. 1890. L. Alman, photographer. From the collections of Shelburne Farms.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 2. Lila Vanderbilt Webb in wedding attire, 1881. Mora photography studios. From the collections of Shelburne Farms.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. , , Mansions oEngland f in the Olden Time Periodical Collection. Periodical the panelling [sic] on the wall a copy. copy. a the wall on in [sic] Book 680 1884.” built Printed and the panelling Library, Winterthur The Courtesy, Figure 3. “Small Drawing Room, Levens, Westmoreland.” Westmoreland.” 3. Levens, Room, Figure Nash, Drawing Joseph “Small William Seward Webb, Jr.: “Mrs. Webb’s (Wm. Seward) fireplace in her room in 680 5th was exact copy of this + + ofthis was copy exact 680 room 5th her in in Jr.: Webb, fireplace Seward) Seward (Wm. Webb’s “Mrs. William vol. 4 (London: T. M’Lean, 1849), plate LXXXV. The Shelburne House copy contains the following inscription by by LXXXV. inscription plate T. the4 M’Lean, following vol. (London: copy House contains 1849), The Shelburne

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Superimposed numbers refer to estate buildings: House; (1) Shelburne toAgriculture. of States Department refer estateUnited buildings: numbers Service, Superimposed (2) Coach Barn; (3) Farm Bam; (4) Breeding Bam Complex. BamFarms, Complex. Bam; (4) Breeding (3) Farm Barn; of(2) Coach Shelburne the collections From Figure 5. Aerial view of central portion of Shelburne Farms, ca. ca. Farms, 5. 1920. Figure portion ofShelburne central of Natural Resources view Conservation Photograph by Aerial

ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 102

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 7. Figure ca. House exterior, 1887-1899. Shelburne photographer. Unknown Farms. of Shelburne the collections From

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Room Man's

Room tchen Piazza Entrance

ouS—TZTM ( Hall otisckcep*. o — j Servants

Porch T T L S J q I Passage oom oom r t ^ Kitchcn Room fast ^ “ Pantry I reak- Office/ Gun Hnll Main Room Dining *

l_ h ) 't. __ Porte Cocherc Room Guest siSg>C|iesl' ...... 5 Drt Room „ Piazza blueprint entitled “Residence for W.S. Webb/ Burlington, Vt,,” in the collections of Shelburne Farms, of Shelburne the Vt,,”collections Burlington, in forWebb/ W.S. “Residence entitled blueprint Figure 8. 8. Figure ca. plan, floor House first 1887-1895, Shelburne Not to scale. author by Robert after H. Robertson Sketch Covered

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Shelburne Farms. Shelburne Figures 9 and 9 and Figures 10. House, ca. Shelburne Piazza, 1886-1895, South photographer. Unknown of the collections From

105

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hill plan, Robert H. Robertson, architect. H. Robert architect. Robertson, plan, Farms. Hill ofShelburne the collections From Figure 11. West elevation, “Residence for Dr. W. Seward Webb/Shelburne Vt,” ca. Vt,” ca. Lone Tree Dr. Figure W. for 1887-1893. Seward Webb/Shelburne 11. Revival “Residence elevation, West Colonial

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dir. PORCH BRBAK- BRBAK- ROOM- I S S FAST PANTRV GUN ROOM Shelburne Farms. Shelburne Figure 12. First floor plan, “Residence for Dr. W. Seward Webb/Shelburne, Vt,” ca. Vt,” ca. Tree Lone W. Dr. for Webb/Shelburne, Figure 1887-1893. Seward 12. Revival “Residence Colonial plan, floor First H, clarification. offor Robert Robertson, architect. plan, collections From the over originals Hill superimposed names Room

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1899- 1899- service areas and PIAZZA NOKvH ROOM NORTH ROOMS CLEANING TRAPAND GUN p a n t r y T tX J OPFICB W S WEBB I CORRIDOR HALL ROOM SMOKING v*tjQOM ■ J R SOUTH PIAZZA 1900 Westerly Extension. The 1895-8 Service Wing, demolished in 1986, extended to the right from the Pantry and Trap and to Pantry theTrap and and theextended from in right Extension. 1986, demolished Westerly Wing, The 1900 Service 1895-8 Gun Cleaning Rooms. The semi-circular Conservatory, demolished during the 1940s, was located along the right exterior wall thewall was right theexterior located along during 1940s, Rooms. demolished Conservatory, Cleaning Gun The semi-circular of the Dining Room. Room. the Dining of those theto of altered reflect period. Courtesy 1887-1900 names Room of Paul S. Eriksson, Publisher. Figure 13. Shelburne House floor plan, ca. 1986-present, including 1895-8 modifications to original to original modifications 1895-8 Figure ca. including 13. floor plan, House 1986-present, Shelburne o 00

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission Hal1’ She,bume House> ca' ,900' House> She,bume T. #3146. E. Hal1’ Marr, photographer, image of the collections From

109

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission collections of Shelburne Farms. of Shelburne collections Figure Figure 16. House, ca. 1900. Shelburne South Piazza, T. #4286, E. Marr, photographer, image the From

I ll

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure Figure 18. House, ca. North T. #3144, Room, E. Marr, photographer, 1900. image Shelburne the collections From of Shelburne Farms. of Shelburne

113

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 19. South Piazza with glass windows, Shelburne House, ca. 1900. T. E. Marr, photographer, image #3136. From the collections of Shelburne Farms. Figure 20. Lila Webb reading on South Piazza, Shelburne House, ca. 1888-1900. Unknown photographer. From the collections of Shelburne Farms.

115

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 116

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 22. Frog feet and acanthus leaf base, Dining Room floor lamp, E. F. Caldwell & Co., ca. 1899-1900. Photograph by author.

117

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 23. Ancient Roman Medusa Head. Photograph by author.

118

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 24. Porcelain dinner plate with Webb crest, Haviland & Cie, ca. 1876-1889. Photograph by author.

119

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 24. Silver Loving Cup, Tiffany & Co., 1899. Courtesy of Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont.

120

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (QA-3)

1.0 if IS I S i s I IM l.l .8

1.25 1.4 1.6

150mm

IM/IGE .Inc 1653 East Main Street Rochester. NY 14609 USA Phone: 716/482-0300 Fax: 716/288-5989

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.