From the late 1870s to the 1920s, the Vanderbilt family employed some of the best Beaux-Arts architects and decorators in the United States to build a notable string of townhouses in New York City and palaces on the East Coast of the United States. Many of the Vanderbilt houses are now National Historic Landmarks. Some photographs of Vanderbilt residences in New York are included in the Photographic series of American Architecture by Albert Levy (1870s).
The list of architects employed by the Vanderbilts is a "who's who" of the New York–based firms that embodied the syncretic (also called "eclectic") styles of the American Renaissance: Richard Morris Hunt; George B. Post; McKim, Mead, and White; Charles B. Atwood; Carrère and Hastings; Warren and Wetmore; Horace Trumbauer; John Russell Pope and Addison Mizner were all employed by the descendants of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built only very modestly himself.
Townhouse (1882), part of the Vanderbilt Triple Palace at 2 West 52nd Street, provided to them by her father and shared with her sister Emily Thorn Vanderbilt and their families. Demolished.
"Château Vanderbilt", a Louis XIII style manor house built in 1907 along with three thoroughbred race tracks in Carrières-sous-Poissy, France. Designed by M. Henri Guillaume.
Townhouse at 684 Fifth Avenue, New York (1883). Designed by John B. Snook, who also designed her sister Lila Webb's townhouse next door. Demolished.[4]
George Washington Vanderbilt Houses, 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue, New York, called the "Marble Twins". 1902 to 1905. Number 647 survives, a designated landmark, as the flagship store for Versace;[5] the site of 645 is now Olympic Tower.
"Pointe d'Acadie" (1869), the Bar Harbor, Maine cottage purchased and renovated in 1889. Demolished 1952
Townhouse (1882)[7] part of the Triple Palace at 640 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York. The house was completely renovated in 1914 by Grace Vanderbilt at a cost of $500,000. Demolished c. 1945.
^"Newport Mansions – The Preservation Society of Newport County". newportmansions.org.
^ abFile:5th avenue - 54th NY 1885 Albert Levy.jpg
^Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes: 647 Fifth Avenue; A Versace Restoration for a Vanderbilt Town House" New York Times (April 9, 1995) accessed 2 December 2008.
^"History of Fisher Island – Fisher Island Club & Resort, Miami Beach, Florida". fisherislandclub.com.
^"The Gilded Age Era: The Last Vanderbilt Stronghold, 640 Fifth Avenue, the Home of MRS. Cornelius Vanderbilt". 18 August 2012.