The Breakers in Newport RI

The Breakers in Newport RI , originally uploaded by sfinley_nh.

Here is another Vanderbilt home. This will be the last one I post on this site.

Beat the Block will be going back to tips for beating writer's block format. The Vanderbilt home photographs will continue, though, as I find them, on my other blog, Vanderbilt Family Homes.

Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion (demolished) from Library of Congress

Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion (demolished) from Library of Congress, originally uploaded by whitewall buick.

Yet another photograph found on Flickr.

Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion NYC

I've been searching for some new links and photos while I watch "Ghost Adventures" on the Travel Channel - my power was out earlier so I'm catching the reruns.

Here's what I've found so far:

Vanderbilt 1

Vanderbilt 2 (scroll almost halfway down the page to view the picture)

Vanderbilt 3 (scroll down to post #5 by The Charioteer - has three pictures of the house)

Vanderbilt 4 (first pic is of a fountain with the Berdorf Goodman department store behind it (where the house used to be) and the one below it is of the house behind the same fountain)

Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion 5th avenue NYC

Mansion floor plan (Cornelius Vanderbilt II), originally uploaded by Chauncy.Primm.

Here is the floor plan for the house. Wonderful. I just love Flickr!

1925c - Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion; 5th Ave., bet. 57th & 58th

1925c - Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion; 5th Ave., bet. 57th & 58th Sts. (demolished 1927), originally uploaded by straatis.

If you like researching about the Vanderbilt's and their houses, you need to get your hands on a copy of "The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Age" by John Foreman and Robbe Pierce Stimson. I was able to find a used (1st edition) copy on Amazon for $25 (with shipping) - finally getting my first glimpse inside this 5th Avenue mansion by Cornelius Vanderbilt II.

I've mentioned before I had a dream about this house. I've been to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC enough times that I can easily imagine what the inside of this one would have looked like. But having not seen pics inside this house, I've often wondered why I would think this was the location from my dream? 

The pics inside are not really enough to determine if my dream actually matches the house itself. And since it was destroyed, there is no way for me to determine accuracy.

If you can find a copy, buy it immediately! You won't regret. I'm sharing a few photos of the inside. No copyright infringement intended.

 

the search for ideas

I spend entirely too much time on Flickr. It's almost unhealthy. LOL

I have lots of interests. More than what's good for me probably. But those interests can sometimes be the inspiration for ideas.

The photo to the right is (I think) page 3 of my favorites from Flickr. I have about 7 pages currently. I look for things I would like to make (one day) but I'm also on the lookout for images that inspire characters or ideas or anything.

Even looking at quilts and quilt pieces that people have completed or are currently working on inspire me. Has the quilting left a clue in the quilt as to who might want her dead? Maybe the sewer of the quilt top and the actual quilter are different people. Or maybe clues are hidden in the quilts by the pattern designs themselves like those telling slaves along the Underground Railroad which homes and families were safe. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I hope so.

vanderblt mansion 5th avenue new york city

I took a photograph this morning of a print I found on eBay. 

This was the home of  Cornelius Vanderbilt II, son of William Henry Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt and older brother to George Washington Vanderbilt, builder and owner of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.

I'm fascinated by this house so I keep looking for articles and photographs of it to use as inspiration.