“HOW OLD IS THIS HOUSE?”

The mansion’s present form dates from 1895;  it was enlarged and remodeled from a 25-room house built in 1832.  You can easily tell if the area you’re in dates from 1832 or 1895 by looking at the height of its ceiling.  Ceilings on the first floor of the older, central part of the mansion are about fourteen feet high.  Ceilings on the first floor of the north and south wings are about eighteen feet high.

“HOW MANY...?”

Rooms - 65, plus 14 bathrooms

Floors - in the north and south wings:  subbasement,
            basement, 1st and 2nd floors in the central
part of the mansion: basement, 1st, 2nd and
3rd floors, attic

Fireplaces - 23

Bedrooms - 47, including 26 bedrooms for employees and 21                  bedrooms for family and guests

“WHO WAS THE ARCHITECT?”

Stanford White, of the McKim, Mead and White firm.

“HOW DOES THIS HOUSE COMPARE WITH THE VANDERBILT MANSION IN HYDE PARK?

Both houses were designed in the 1890s by McKim, Mead, and White.  Stanford White was the principal architect of Staatsburgh, which was designed and built between 1894 and 1896.  Charles Follen McKim was the principal architect of the Vanderbilt mansion, which was designed and built between 1895 and 1899.

The Vanderbilt mansion is somewhat smaller than Staatsburgh:  It has fifty rooms to the Staatsburgh's sixty-five.  Unlike Staatsburgh, which was enlarged from an existing house, the Vanderbilt mansion was built as entirely new construction.  It reportedly cost $350,000 to enlarge and remodel Mrs. Mills' childhood home;  construction of the Vanderbilt mansion cost over $660,000.

Today, Staatsburgh is operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.  The Vanderbilt mansion is operated by the National Park Service.

“ARE THE FURNISHINGS ORIGINAL TO THE MANSION?”

The overwhelming majority of the mansion’s contents are original to the house.  Exceptions include most of the tableware in the Butler’s Pantry, the upholstery silks in Mr. Mills’s bedroom and two guest bedrooms and scattered other objects, most of which have been gifts from the Friends of Mills Mansion.

“DID THE HOUSE HAVE ELECTRICITY?  CENTRAL HEAT?  GAS LIGHTS?”

When the mansion was enlarged in 1895, the Millses built their own electric generating plant at the river’s edge;  it powered 500 lights in the mansion and on rest of the estate.  Gas lights were then used in servants’ areas and many of the bedrooms;  it is not certain when the house was fully electrified, though there is evidence it may have been in 1914.

The mansion was also equipped with central heat in 1895.  The Millses burned coal.  Hot water radiators concealed inside ductwork heated air drawn in from the outdoors to warm the principal rooms, while exposed radiators heated servants’ areas and the upstairs central hall.

“HOW BIG WAS THE ESTATE?”

When Mrs. Mills inherited her childhood estate in 1890, it was about 334 acres.  The estate remained this size until 1911, when Mr. and Mrs. Mills began purchasing land from their neighbors to enlarge it.  These purchases continued even after Mrs. Mills’s death in 1920:  Ogden Mills kept buying contiguous lands up to the month of his own death in 1929.  By that time the estate had grown to over 1600 acres.  It is presently unknown why the Millses sought to increase the size of the estate so much.