Comments by "Andrew Brendan" (@andrewbrendan1579) on "Inside The Most Opulent Lost Gilded Age Mansion in Manhattan" video.

  1. What a loss! Bad enough the house is gone but that the fittings went too. The waste is sickening. Ken, along with others who have already commented, I'm thinking the room with the built in seating may have been used for the gatherings of some kind of lodge or fraternity. I didn't see anything to indicate the Masons thought maybe such indications were intentionally kept out sight of the photographer and the outside world. I noticed that the room had a couple of portraits (indistinct) that may have been of a man and a woman. Ken, I don't know if there's enough material for a video but I'll mention a house that interests me is Rosewell, the 1725 colonial mansion built in Virginia and that is now a ruin. Rosewell was one of the grandest and may the grandest of the homes of the colonal period in the U.S.
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  2. Things actually could have been worse. I read Monica Randall's book, "Winfield: Living in the Shadow of the Woolworths". Ms. Randall told about how on Long Island after World War II there were mansions being bulldozed with the CONTENTS STILL IN THEM. On of the treasures lost was a statue by Michelangelo. At least the furniture and other times were taken from the Salomon house.
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  3.  @xanthopanmorganii229  It makes no sense to me either. Items could have been auctioned or sold outright or given to museums and historical societies and the "developers" could have made more money and/or possibly gotten tax deductions or refunds, depending on how incomes taxes were done in those days. Or even just open the houses to the public and say, "Here, take what you want". Monica Randall wrote about how she and her sister did get into some of the mansions and were removing what items they could such as gold door fittings and, if my memory is correct, a hanging globe light by Tiffany. The sisters were even removing clothing from the houses; not trying to make money but were trying save what they knew where historical items. Sometimes retired servants who still lived on the estates , though the mansions were no longer occupied, actually helped the two sisters.
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  4. If you haven't already read it, I want to highly recommend the book "Empty Mansions" about Huguette Clark. I read the book several years ago and could hardly put it down.
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