The Waldorf-Astoria was born from a feud. As we explored in the discussion of New York’s Four Hundred, after the death of her father-in-law, Mrs. William B. Astor Jr (Caroline) declared herself “Mrs. Astor”, to the fury of her nephew William Waldorf Astor who felt that his wife should be called simply Mrs. Astor since he was head of the senior branch of the Astor family. But Caroline wouldn’t budge and the sublimely frustrated W.W. Astor exacted his revenge after his father’s death and tore down his side of the connecting Astor brownstones to build the Waldorf Hotel (1893). This move was tantamount to throwing down the gauntlet. W.W. Astor soon moved to England and watched with glee as the thousands of visitors to the hotel invaded his aunt’s staunchly-held privacy. Caroline eventually capitulated and her move uptown happened to concede to both her nephew’s vengeful behavior and the social prominence of the Vanderbilt family, who in the early 1880s, built their massive Fifth Avenue mansions well above the streets the Mrs. Astor considered fashionable.

Now titular head of the family after W.W. Astor’s defection to England (who also became a British citizen), John Jacob Astor IV (yes, the one who went down on the Titanic) contacted his cousin to build a hotel on the site of his mother’s former residence to accompany the Waldorf Hotel. Four years after the Waldorf Hotel opened its doors, the Astoria made its debut and the duo-hotel became the Waldorf-Astoria. It immediately became a sensation and outshone any hotel built before, with its forty public rooms and 1300 guest rooms, and also opened the door for public dinners and dining in a way Sherry’s and Delmonico’s had been unable to do as mere restaurants.

Known colloquially as “the Hyphen,” between noon and the early hours of the morning, the Waldorf-Astoria was the place to see and be seen. From the 34th Street entrance, a wide, three-hundred foot amber-marble corridor where guests could relax on the luxurious chairs and sofas provided, became known as “Peacock Alley,” and the primary restaurants of both hotels featured wall-to-wall mirrors, allowing easy viewing of other diners while one supped. So coveted were seats in the Palm Room that tables were frequently engaged weeks in advance and at seven o’clock, the velvet rope barring entrance signaled that those less fortunate would have to dine at the less prestigious Empire and Rose Rooms overlooking Fifth Avenue.

Prior to the 1890s, dining at home or in an exclusive restaurant summed up the gastronomy of the era, but as people began to “dine out” hotels such as the Waldorf-Astoria and later, the Ritz-Carlton, or the Hotel Regis, they adapted to this new form of social amusement. Now there was a great emphasis on eating well and people “thought out their meals and hired foreign chefs more extensively than before. Americans began to explore menus with French names more confidently and found that the dishes they signified had as exotic a flavor as the cooks who created them.” Guiding this new movement was Oscar Tschirky, better known as “Oscar of the Waldorf.” Born in Switzerland, Tschirky emigrated to America in the 1880s and set about changing the way 19th century society ate one step at a time. He advanced quickly in the restaurant world and by 1891, had become maître d’hôtel of Delmonico’s Restaurant. His fame spread throughout New York City and he then went with Hoffman’s to take charge of its famous Down-Town Restaurant, where he remained until he was hired by George C. Boldt to take charge of the Waldorf’s restaurant.

Under Oscar’s delicate tutelage, gastronomy became a form of art for even ordinary Americans. Despite not being a chef, he lent his name to such dishes as Veal Oscar, and aided in the popularization of Thousand Island dressing. However, it was the Waldorf Salad that remained immortal, and this simple yet exotic salad made of chopped celery, walnuts, and apples drenched in mayonnaise and displayed on a bed of lettuce was wildly popular, no doubt because of the ease with which ordinary housewives could recreate some of the glamor of the hotel in their own homes. Chicken a la King and Lobster Newburg were specialties of the hotel, and the chafing-dish, introduced by the hotel, became a very popular wedding gift in which the two dishes could be made. So famous was the hotel, and so aligned it was with fine dining, Oscar Tschirky is certainly one of the first persons to have a nationally distributed food product with his “Oscar sauce.”

Not simply a place for after-supper dining or afternoon tea and lunches, the Waldorf-Astoria was also a favorite of men. The Men’s Cafe, a lofty, spacious hall paneled in dark wood, provided liberally with tables and arm chairs, the four-sided mahogany bar was the magnet for such financial luminaries as J.P. Morgan, Henry Clay Frick and “Bet-A-Million” Gates. It dominated the room where eight bartenders slung out drinks of nearly five hundred varieties, and not far from it was the “free lunch” table where habitues could snack on crisp Virginia hams, Vermont turkeys, various hot delicacies in casseroles and an assorted cold buffet. The concept of the “free lunch” was a new one, and one that paid off for much of the food offered for free was of a salty, dry nature that required a drink–so a man who was liable to linger in the cafe snacking on free food was likely to purchase a surfeit of cool, refreshing liquids to quench his thirst.

Besides dining and gawking, the Waldorf-Astoria was the perfect venue for social events, and the hotel’s most famous and infamous event was the Bradley-Martin ball of 1897. The publicity reaped by the hotel was such that the ballroom in which the ball was held was promptly renamed the Bradley-Martin room, and visitors to the hotel for years afterward were anxious to see the site of this much-derided night. Other less hearty events which the Waldorf-Astoria hosted was the investigation into the Titanic’s sinking in 1912. But on a lighter note, the hotel witnessed the habits of many celebrities, from princes to presidents to Wall Street tycoons to diplomats. Until the late nineteen teens, the Waldorf-Astoria reigned supreme, but as with all wild successes, it is inevitable that it suffer from a decline. In the case of the Waldorf-Astoria, the passing of the old guard in society and the subsequent shift of the younger generations away from Fifth Avenue, and the onset of Prohibition–which devastated many of the Gilded Age’s popular restaurants–sounded its death knell. The hotel closed in 1929 and was razed to make room for the Empire State Building. A new Waldorf-Astoria was built on Park Avenue later on in the 1930s, and it was purchased in 1949 by Conrad Hilton who added the double-hyphen flourish, “completely in the spirit of gilded ornamentation.”

Further Reading:
Incredible New York by Lloyd R. Morris
The Story of the Waldorf-Astoria, Old and Sold Antiques
Peacocks On Parade by Albert Stevens Crockett

As cities began to expand after the Civil War, the crowded quarters boded ill for health, and the suburbs began to lure city dwellers with promises of fresh air and the pleasures of country living. One commuter of 1883 wrote:”

I live in a good neighborhood, close to a country station, ten miles from the city, where each house has its garden…The families are not rich, but intelligent and of good taste. They like to make their salaries go as far as possible, to have something for concerts and journeys… Each one raises potatoes enough for the year, summer berries and green corn for the season…Everybody says a garden is a great help.

This was a complete opposite of what was occurring in Britain, where a “rural exodus” of would-be farm laborers and domestic servants abandoned the countryside for industrial and office positions in the major cities. Though there was a push for “fresh air” and a sentimental view of the vibrant landscapes of suburban and rural Americans, only the wealthy could afford to leave the city to enjoy both bucolic attributes. Wanting to follow the advice of the leading physicians of the day, and consume conspicuously, America’s wealthy elite began to build country houses.

The American country house, as an unique, individual entity, developed in their fullest form after 1885. Yes, there were the large farms along the Hudson, which were built by the early Dutch settlers, and the plantation houses of the antebellum South, but the prototypical “country house” was created as a social center, a product of wealth and leisure, and a place where the privileged classes could “escape” the hustle and bustle of city life. Once the Vanderbilt family threw down the gauntlet with such estates as Idle Hour in Long Island, The Breakers and Marble House in Newport, and Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, America’s wealthiest citizens began a frenzy of building which resulted in a score of celebrated country houses and estates in all corners of the U.S.

But these socialites wanted not simply a country house, but an “all-around country place,” complete with a variety of other structures such as lodges, stables, garages, gazebos, terraces and other garden architecture, glass houses, sports buildings, workers’ cottages, model farm and churches. And many were situated on large plots of land where they could hunt, ride, play polo, croquet and other outdoor sports. In a way, these Americans wished to mimic the much-vaunted “English country house,” and those grandiose characteristics served to distinguish these houses built around the turn of the century from any other dwelling designed and built in America up to then. However, according to Clive Aslet in 1990′s The American Country House, the British model upon which Americans based their estates upon had moved away from its original focus by the 1890s: “its meaning had both narrowed and spread…because the country house no longer occupied the position of real power it had held in previous generations; the motive forces were now prestige, tradition, gardening, and sport…[T]he people who built new houses tended to prefer the illusion to the substance of country life [and] to many people it was important to be near a major city.”

Though being part of a landed class did not secure political influence or ensure that the owner would have some role in running the country, nor was the American country house a place where political stratagems were hatched, the construction of an estate in the country was considered vital to anyone claiming to a part of the smartest, wealthiest social sets. When a Vanderbilt, or an Astor, or a Drexel wanted a country house, they turned to the top architects of this time: H. H. Richardson (-1886), Frank Furness, Richard Morris Hunt and the celebrated firms of McKim, Mead and White (the “White” being Stanford White) Warren and Wetmore, and Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. The popular architectural styles of the day were:

• Stick Style, which derived from the Carpenter Gothic style, and embodied the idea that architecture should be truthful
• Queen Anne, which was generally a eclectic mash of an asymmetrical silhouette shaped by turrets, towers, gables, and bays
• Shingle Style, which grew from the Queen Anne style, but was less ornate and more horizontal than the typical Queen Anne house



• Richardsonian Romanesque, named after architect H.H. Richardson, who interpreted Romanesque architecture into a distinctly different style, and created one which abandoned the vertical silhouettes and smooth stone facings of earlier times.
• Beaux Arts, which was named for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and refers to the aesthetic principles practiced by the American architects who trained there.
• Classical Revival, which was less theatrical than the Beaux Arts and based primarily on the Greek architectural orders.

These aforementioned architects designed, and popular architectural styles appeared in, not only country estates, but clubs both urban and suburban, museums, libraries, railroad stations, churches, monuments, bridges, city halls and other government buildings, banks, hospitals, schools and universities. Richardson’s most celebrated work is Trinity Church in Copley Square, Boston, but the William Watts Sherman House in Newport, RI and the Crowninshield House, also in Boston, which is also the earliest, still surviving, example of his private residence work, are equally famous. The designs of Furness were mainly found in Philadelphia and outlying areas, and over the course of his 45-year career, he designed more than 600 buildings, one of which what is now the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia. Hunt was and is considered the preeminent individual architect of the Gilded Age. He designed not one, but five Newport cottages, and was responsible for Alva Vanderbilt’s glorious Marble House. Ironically, he also designed the cottage of her second husband, O.H.P. Belmont.

The stamp of McKim, Mead and White can be found throughout New York City, almost all of which have survived today. Ex. the Washington Arch in Washington Square Park, the Morgan Library, and Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus. It is Warren and Wetmore who are responsible for Grand Central Station, the New York Yacht Club and CBS Studio Building, which at the time was built for the Vanderbilt family for use as a guest house. The firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge grew out of Richardson’s architectural practice, when, after the latter’s untimely death, Mssrs Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge completed all of Richardson’s commissions. Based in Boston, this firm designed the South Station, the Ames Building, and a new campus for the Harvard Medical School in 1906.

Now that this wealthy American possessed a country house, it was time to fling open the doors for a week-end party. As with all new things suddenly deemed fashionable, etiquette sprang up to guide those uncertain hostesses thrust into a new world. According to The Etiquette of New York To-day, “the success of a house-party depends on inviting people who know each other well, or who, when introduced, will find each other’s acquaintance agreeable.” When a hostess sent out invitations, she was advised to definitely state the period of the visit, which is where the word “week-end” was formed, though the British disdained this Americanism for “Saturday to Monday.”

Guests would arrive by rail, and since so much of the Four Hundred’s wealth was built upon railroads, many estates were right on the railroad lines (or was it vice versa?). In some houses, the cards bearing the names of guests were found in their rooms, and they were expected to tie their keys to their trunks or suit cases on the cards to aid their maids and valets in keeping track of their belongings. The party was largely informal, with hostesses offering guests the option of rising for breakfast or having it in their rooms, and allowing them the opportunity to take part in any activity they chose or did not choose. This was all quite similar to what occurred in Britain, with one exception–week-end in the country did not include the casual adultery and bedroom swapping common within the Marlborough House Set–a fact that shocked many an American who moved within European social circles.

Though English-style country estates were built after the 1920s, the period between 1885 and about 1920 is considered the golden age of the American country house. Because few if any of the houses built were intended as dynastic seats, to be handed down from generation to generation as did the Europeans, and the advent of income tax ate away at the fortunes of the Four Hundred’s outrageous fortunes, many of these famed Gilded Age manors fell into disrepair and neglect. Many still stand, whether preserved as museums (such as the Newport mansions), or as businesses and schools, though many more were demolished or destroyed by disasters (such as Clarence McKay’s Harbor Hill).

Further Reading:
The American Country House by Clive Aslet
Newport Villas: The Revival Styles 1885-1935 by Michael C. Kathrens
Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society by Wayne Craven
Harbor Hill: Portrait of a House by Richard Wilson
The Etiquette of New York To-day by Ellin T. Craven Learned
American Country Houses of To-day by Samuel Howe
American country homes and their gardens by John Cordis Baker
One Hundred Country Houses: Modern American Examples by Aymar Embury
Society in the country house by T. H. S. Escott,
Vintage Designs (interiors of many Gilded Age mansions and houses)

On this day, at this very moment, 97 years ago, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank two and a half hours later. 706 people survived, and 1,517 people perished.

Encyclopedia Titanica
BBC Archive: Titanic
Titanic Historical Society