Sprinkled throughout New York City are a handful of Gilded Age mansions that have
survived to present day. Hi everyone, ken here, welcome to "ThisHouse"!! Today
we are exploring the Payne Whitney House along 5th avenue. Make sure
to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a fascinating episode of "ThisHouse"
William Payne Whitney was born into a powerful and wealthy family.
His father, William Collins Whitney had amassed a fortune while working with the federal government,
earning himself the title, “the Father of the Navy.” We covered his story in an earlier
video which is linked down below in the video description. Even though his father had made
the modern day equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars, William Payne’s uncle Oliver was the
true patriarch of the family. Not only had he inherited the lions share of the family cotton
gin fortune, he had used that money to invest in companies such as U.S. Steel, Standard Oil,
and the American Tobacco Trust, putting him in league with New York’s High Society.
When Oliver’s favorite nephew, William Payne Whitney, announced that he was to
be wed to Helen Hay, Oliver decided to gift the young couple a sophisticated,
brand new mansion along 5th avenue facing Central Park.
In 1902, Oliver commissioned prominent gilded age architect, Stanford White to design a grand
city mansion for his nephew. No expense was to be spared on the 5 story granite
block house which was to be decorated with the finest artisan details. In fact, the house was
so heavily detailed, both inside and out, that it took 7 full years to complete. In that time,
William and Helen had their first two children and Stanford White had been murdered, but the plans
for the house were detailed enough that work could continue without the architect’s supervision.
Completed in 1909, no surface was left unadorned. Entering the home,
we will glimpse the exquisite detailing of the door surround, teasing us of what is to come.
We first arrive in the rotunda, large enough for 75 people to fit between
it’s 16 marble columns. In the center of the room,
Stanford white had designed a space to include a replica of Michelangelo’s statue, Young Archer.
The stair hall was finished out with marble floors and columns as
well as a solid marble staircase floating towards an intricately coffered ceiling.
This will lead us towards the reception room, known as the venetian room,
which was Helen’s favorite room in the house with mirrored walls accented by gold leaf
details below an expansive ceiling mural of twisting leaves and vines
The dining was finished out with wood paneling below European tapestries.
Here I will point out that the budget for interior decorations was 1 million dollars,
the modern equivalent of about 35 million dollars.
The Library doors had been hand carved to feature a myriad of designs between hand fluted columns
with half heigh bookcases wrapping the walls below hand sewn fabric wallpaper.
Next we will see the drawing room decorated with French antiques and the family’s most
prized artworks. The fireplace in this room boasted marble relief work with
maidens protruding from the lower mantel to support the upper mantel.
The family lived happily in the house, being waited on by 15 live-in staff members until
William’s sudden passing in 1927. Helen decided to keep the mansion and continue
her life within its walls, hosting dozens of charity events every year. In her later years,
she even hosted the production of Gone With The Wind for filming inside of her mansion, which
brought her a lot of joy. She passed away in 1944, leaving the house to her son, Jock who auctioned
off the contents of the house before selling it to an investor. That investor then divided up the
interior into 15 suites and offices before selling it to The Republic of France to be used as the
French Embassy to the United States. Thankfully, not all was lost in the house’s renovations.
Helen wanted to preserve her favorite room, so she had the Venetian room disassembled and stored
offsite with the hopes that someone would want to reassemble it and cherish it in the future.
In 1997, the disassembled room was donated back to the house by Jock’s widow and was reassembled.
Today the house serves as a French Cultural center,
and though most of the interior had been discarded before it became a French embassy,
there are still several pieces left of the original mansion which show what life was
like for the wealthiest American’s at the height of the Gilded Age.
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