I did an amazing interview on Friday with someone who lived in a Victorian mansion on Staten Island in the 1970s, with a group of dancers, surfers, artists, and drug dealers.
He said that from their window, they could see the Vanderbilt mansion, high on a hill overlooking New York City. I’ve tried to do research all morning, and I can’t figure out what mansion it is, or if it still exists.
Commodore Vanderbilt, the patriarch of the family, and one of the richest men in American history, was originally from Staten Island. His children, of which I believe there are 13, had mansions all over the United States, some of them on their father’s home borough.
In 2009, the last one remaining on Staten Island, which belonged to his daughter, was in threat of being demolished. The one above, I believe, belonged to his son. They were both large, but far cries from the grand Vanderbilt homes such as Biltmore, the Breakers, and Hyde Park. Bitches got shafted! Or maybe they were just less insecure.
In any case, when it gets warmer, I’m going to ride my bike out there, and solve the mystery of what remains myself.
