Guilded age mansions

On the avenue dubbed the “Millionaire’s Colony” in the late 19th century thanks to its unbroken line of ornate mansions, one house stood out as the most insanely overdone: William…

The Astor mansion at 65th Street and Fifth Avenue, circa 1900. Designed by society's famed architect, Richard Morris Hunt, who had designed many a mansion for the Vanderbilt family, the mansion was built by the John Jacob Astor IV, the Astor family playboy, for him and his mother, Caroline, the self-appointed queen of New York society and known to everyone as simply, THE Mrs. Astor. Mrs. Astor had originally reigned at a four-bay brownstone on 34th Street ~ currently today the present site…

The wealthiest families of the Gilded Age lived in enormous mansions outfitted with gold, marble, and priceless art. Take a look inside.

Next time you’re in one of the city’s former Gilded Age mansions—reborn as a museum, perhaps, or a cultural center, store, or some other public building—be on the lookout for tiny butto…

Our 1909 living room, looking into the sun parlor 📸 Photo by Grant Webster for the Wall Street Journal

The George J Gould Mansion was first a very gothic looking mansion with a carriage house in the back. The original mansion But soon the home outgrew the family and they had a much larger home constructed on the property. The large home would be designed by Horace Trumbauer and would be in the Modern Renaissance Style and would be 5 stories high with the fifth floor hidden behind the copper crest of the roof. Mixed into the floor plan were several large entertaining spaces such as a ballroom…

Lynnewood Hall, located in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, is a Gilded Age mansion built between 1897 and 1900 for industrialist Peter A.B. Widener. Designed by renowned architect Horace Trumbauer, this 110-room Neoclassical Revival estate is one of the largest surviving Gilded Age mansions in the United States. Widener, a prominent figure in American business and an investor in the Titanic, used Lynnewood Hall to house his extensive art collection. Despite changing ownership and periods of…

One of my favorite Fifth Avenue Mansions. A very little known house that, from the outside, looks dull and dreary.The inside, however, is all marble, gilt, crystal and opulence. The layout couldn't be better than a Hollywood movie set of a Fifth Avenue Mansion. It has it all! Mr. Salomon died in 1919, and, after the dispersal of his fine art and antiques collection, the house was demolished in 1924. Today, on the site of 1020 Fifth Avenue is now one of Fifth Avenue's finest apartment…

DailyMail.com takes a look back in history at Manhattan's most glamorous Gilded Age mansions - owned by the likes of the Astors and the Vanderbilts - and reveals what stands there today.

A wealthy financier built the 32-bedroom estate for family who never set foot in it. Now the eerily decrepit mansion is set to get a big renovation.