![]() Florence, the youngest and favorite grandchild of the transportation tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, married Twombly in 1877 after meeting him at the two families' summering spots in Newport, Rhode Island. Now part of the Florham Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University, the mansion is one of the ten largest houses in the United States.įlorham's history can be divided into two parts: the establishment of the estate by the family during the Gilded Age, and the 'consecration' of the estate from a temporal use to an intellectual use as the home of Fairleigh Dickinson University.įlorham was built between 18 by Florence Adele Vanderbilt and her husband, Hamilton McKown Twombly, to be the couple's country estate. It was built during the 1890s for Hamilton McKown Twombly and his wife, Florence Adele Vanderbilt, a member of the Vanderbilt family. Stiles Remaking Florham: From Gilded Age Estate to Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University By Walter Cummins, Carol Bere & Arthur T.The mansion at Florham, now the centerpieceĢ85 Madison Avenue, Madison, New Jersey 07940įlorham is a former Vanderbilt estate that is located in Madison and Florham Park, New Jersey. vanderbilt II Olmsted Parks in New Jersey By Jeanne Kolva Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age By Amanda Mackenzie Stuart The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess-In Her Own Words By Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt By T.J. Vanderbilt Olmsted's Vision: The Landscape of Florham By Walter Cummins & Arthur T. ![]() Cunningham "The Richest and Most Famous Private Chef in the World" Joseph Donon: Gilded Age Dining with Florence Vanderbilt Twombly By Walter Cummins & Arthur T. Rae Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White: Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age By Mosette Broderick Florham Park By John T. ![]() Vanderbilt II Mansions of Morris County By John W. There was also an indoor clay tennis court and, most impressive of all, an indoor swimming pool surrounded by exotic trees, shrubs, and frescoed walls.įlorham: The Lives of an American Estate By Friends of Florham & Fairleigh Dickinson University Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt By Arthur T. ![]() When her mother was entertaining, Ruth retreated to what had been - and was still referred to as - her 'playhouse': it was entered via a semi-circular columned portico and was in fact a fully self-contained house with a living room, kitchen, servant's quarters and den. Ruth and her mother lived happily alongside one another at Florham - there was certainly the room - but nonetheless they were careful not to step on one another's toes: they entertained their different sets of friends on alternate weekends and, when Mrs Twombly hosted, the end of an evening was marked by the butler playing a rendition of Brahms' Lullaby on the organ, after which she would then retire to bed. After her father's death in 1910, she accompanied her mother as they moved between Florham, Vinland and their Manhattan townhouse. "The Playhouse" was erected by the Twombly's unmarried daughter, Ruth Vanderbilt Twombly (1885-1954). Doors were mahogany the rooms were panelled in various woods (the billiard room was panelled in chestnut) and, the majority of the bedrooms (all with en-suite bathrooms) also had their own accompanying dressing rooms too. The mansion's staircases and numerous fireplaces were also built of marble, and if not antique, they were all certainly hand-crafted by artisans brought over specifically from Italy. It was decorated with twelve marble busts of Roman Caesars mounted on pedestals and two sets of pre-Gobelin tapestries (ten more hung in the drawing room) that depicted the tale of Rinaldo and Armida and were first presented by King Louis XIII of France to Cardinal Francesco Barberini of Rome in 1630. Inside, perhaps the most imposing room is the 150-foot long marble entrance hall with its 8,000-pipe organ that ran to every room. The stop serves a few more people today, but the journey by car is much the same: past the gate lodge at the end of a long, gravelled drive is the hulking red-brick and white trimmed mansion fronted by a portico of six Doric columns beneath the Twombly coat-of-arms set within the roof's stone balustrade. The Twomblys had an extension made to the railroad so that they could access their country estate directly from Manhattan.
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