Cultural Landscape Report for Vanderbilt Mansion NHS, Vol. II: Treatment

Hammond, John

The Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) serves as the primary treatment document for cultural landscapes and the primary tool for managing those landscapes. It provides treatment guidance within the context of the site’s history and significance, extant features and historic character, and current planning objectives and management goals. This report, the second volume of the CLR, includes overall treatment strategies for the site as well as direct treatment actions that are needed to ensure the long-term protection, preservation, and continued use of the landscape. Although ongoing park and volunteer efforts have succeeded in protecting and preserving many of the essential elements of the historic landscape, they have been operating without a comprehensive plan for managing the landscape as a whole. Volume 2 provides a comprehensive plan under the umbrella of the broader goals established in the park’s General Management Plan. Volume 1 of the CLR for Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site was completed between 1990 and 1992 by Patricia O’Donnell, Charles Birnbaum, and Cynthia Zaitzevsky and published by the North Atlantic Region Cultural Landscape Program, the predecessor of the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation. Volume 1 describes the physical and contextual history of the site, assesses its significance within its historical contexts, and documents the existing conditions of the estate in 1990 to 1992. Volume 1, consisting of exhibits, photographs, and text, forms a baseline of information upon which a treatment framework and specific recommendations can be made. The publication of Volume 1 was followed in 1994 by a draft “Volume 2: Landscape Preservation Treatment Recommendations” prepared by Patricia O’Donnell, Barbara Wilson, and Peter Viteretto. The unpublished draft includes implications for treatment alternatives and specific recommendations for the various areas of the site. Information contained in the 1994 draft was used to inform treatment strategies in this report, while being updated and supplemented to reflect current conditions and evolving park needs. Treatment guidelines and recommendations developed in the CLR are grounded in research, inventory, documentation, and analysis and evaluation of the landscape characteristics and features that contribute to the site’s historic character. The methodology used in this report follows A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports. Recommendations are based on the findings of CLR Volume 1 and on the work completed for the draft of Volume 2 in 1994. Additional research conducted for this volume includes documentation of existing conditions, examination of historic photos, aerial photos, maps, and primary documentation such as purchase ledgers kept by the Vanderbilt estate.

Cultural Landscape Report for Vanderbilt Mansion NHS, Vol. II: Treatment

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