Encounters with Hudson mansions

(I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago but neglected to post it until now).

The trips that I took with my family while growing up generally included a visit to at least one National Historic Site or National Park. The many plane rides, long car drives, museums, parks, beaches, and hotels of these trips, however, are no longer separate in my mind, and thus I did not think that I had any mentionable interaction with the Hudson until I read the end of The Hudson: A History by Tom Lewis. The final chapter of the book mentioned Franklin D. Roosevelt’s childhood home and adult retreat of Springwood at Hyde Park. I then remembered that I had visited these house, museum, and library – I specifically remember standing in a second-story room in the back of the house, gazing across the expansive lawn at the Hudson.
Professor Lewis’s book also led me to consider the Hudson’s connections to the Newport, RI mansions, a few of which I have visited. Two of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt’s (1794-1877) grandsons built summer “cottages” in Newport, far from the Hudson, at the end of the 19th century. Cornelius Vanderbilt II built The Breakers and his younger brother, William K. Vanderbilt, built Marble House, which cost $11 million. Cornelius II and William could not have built these large and ornate houses if their grandfather had not earned his wealth on the Hudson. The ice that kept their food cool in the hot summer may have come from the Hudson.
I have more experiences that are connected to the Hudson than I had realized.