Comments by "" (@hewitc) on "The Biggest Mansions Ever Built in Manhattan | DOCUMENTARY" video.

  1.  @michelletodd4893  You mean the absence of income tax, right? Servants worked for pittances before the New Deal of the 1930's.
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  2. They had steam shovels for excavation. Otherwise, hammer, saw, etc.
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  3.  @bluewren2  Everyday people didn't have the money. They never will. These homes were built for the 1% of that era. Until the New Deal there was no limit to wages. The servants who worked in these mansions, usually young Irish women 'right off the boat' were lucky to get $1-2 dollars/week.
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  4. The Breakers is a museum with guided tours
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  5. Now people spend fortunes for glass walled "modern" homes with "open-concept" so that all the rooms are in one big barn-like area. They spend big money on show kitchens that are never used. These older mansions had large but basic kitchens. Only the servants ever went in there, so no need to showcase them to the neighbors.
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  6. As if that's all it takes.
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  7. Large numbers of laborers, dirt cheap. They had steam powered earth movers, some still call them steamshovels.
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  8. Rockefeller Sr. used to hand out dimes to people in the street who asked for a hand out. But the Rockefellers endowed universities, hospitals, cultural institutions and have been extremely philanthropic.
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  9. No "Home theater room" but a "smoking room" and art gallery
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  10. Vanderbilt's (the one with the gate now in Central Park) is now Bergdorf Goodman, a high end clothing store.
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