Lance Reinheimer, executive director of the Museum, said, “These generous volunteers use their time and talent to create an atmosphere of charming holiday grandeur and sophisticated living. We’re grateful to them for bringing magic to this historic house.”
Decorating the mansion this year were the Dix Hills, Centerport, Honey Hills, Nathan Hale and Three Village garden clubs; Claudia Dowling Interior Designs and Harbor Homestead & Co. Design.
Stephanie Gress, the Museum’s director of curatorial affairs, said “Most of these garden clubs and designers have been decorating the mansion for more than 20 years.
“We look forward to seeing them each year, and to how they use their creative skills to bring elegant holiday charm to the house.”
JoAnn Canino chairs the Three Village Garden Club (Old Field, Setauket and Stony Brook), which has decorated a mansion room every year for more than a decade.
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| Above: Mary Schlotter (left) and Krishtia McCord of Harbor Homestead & Co. Design in Centerport create a Christmas dress for Rosamund Vanderbilt in her dressing room.
Vanderbilt Museum photo
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“The Portuguese Sitting Room is very masculine,” she said. “We wanted to bring out the colors of the rug and of the sculpture of the knight on the horse – teal, turquoise, pinks, blues and greens.” In addition to decorating the tree, club members added boughs, ribbons and ornaments to the centuries-old mantelpiece.
The Dix Hills Garden Club decorated the striking paneled library, the grandest room in the 24-room Spanish-Revival mansion. “It’s a dark room, with not much natural light coming in,” said Christine Lagana. “So we added a wide deep-red ribbon that winds down from the top of the tree. The ‘pop’ of the red brightens the tree in that dark space.”
The club used many gold ornaments and enhanced the mantel of the imposing fireplace with green boughs and gold ornaments. “Since this is a museum, we can’t use glue or nails on the carved wood,” Lagana said. “So we wrapped hidden bricks in dark-green felt and used them to secure the boughs, which are intertwined with golden ribbons. Then we were able to hang ornaments securely from the large length of bough that runs along the mantelpiece.”
Claudia Dowling of Claudia Dowling Design in Huntington said, “We’re blessed to help decorate the Vanderbilt Mansion. It’s such a beautiful historic, Long Island treasure.
“In one of the guest rooms, we used gold and cream and a very traditional tree, in keeping with the original concept of how the Vanderbilt rooms were designed and decorated. We added subtle ‘whisper’ touches in one of the guest rooms – a garland on the mantelpiece and surprise gifts on the club chair.”
Jenny Holmes, vice president of the Nathan Hale Garden Club, and her friends decorated the upstairs Organ Room, a paneled parlor with an Aeolian pipe organ, large fireplace and sofa, and a table for playing cards and board games.
“Because Mr. Vanderbilt loved the sea, we created a nautical theme with lots of shells from the beach – including a gold-sprayed horseshoe crab shell – and added pine cones and large magnolia leaves,” Holmes said. “We sprayed the magnolia leaves and shells silver and gold, and made ornaments from shells, adding pearls, glitter and tiny stones. We wanted to make the large room as elegant as possible, and lightened it with silver and gold ribbon, and bows. And of course, a large trimmed tree and wrapped presents.”
Mary Schlotter and her daughter, Krishtia McCord – who operate the Centerport design firm Harbor Homestead & Co. – decorated Rosamund Vanderbilt’s mirrored dressing room and the family’s breakfast hallway.
Using a dress-form mannequin, they added green boughs as a skirt. “Our friend, dress designer Lorri Kessler-Toth of Couture Creations, created a fitted turquoise-blue velvet cover for the dress-form torso,” Schlotter said.”We added a necklace of chandelier crystals and a pendant, and embellished the skirt with teal ornaments, champagne ribbon, and filigreed poinsettia leaves. This is a dressing room, so we created a Christmas dress.”
They also added chandelier crystals and champagne poinsettia leaves to the bough that decorates on the mantelpiece on the marble fireplace. The crystals on the mantel complement those that hang from the sconces in the mirrored, hexagonal dressing room.
The Centerport club decorated the dining room and Mr. Vanderbilt’s bedroom, and the Honey Hills club decorated Mrs. Vanderbilt’s bedroom.
Guided Tours of Decorated Mansion
Guided tours of the decorated Vanderbilt Mansion began on the day after Thanksgiving, and will be given each Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday at 12:30, 1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m. – and each day during the week between Christmas and the New Year, December 26-30.For a tour, visitors pay the general admission fee plus $5 per person for a tour. General admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students with ID and seniors (62 and older), and $3 for children 12 and under.
Special Twilight Tours of Decorated Mansion
These intriguing evening tours will be given for two days only: Monday-Tuesday, December 26-27, from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $9 for students and seniors (62 and older) and $5 for children 12 and under. A limited number of tickets are for sale at www.vanderbiltmuseum.org. Click on the Events link on top of the home page.
Museum Holiday Season Hours: Open 12:00-4:00 on December 26-30. Closed: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
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MUSEUM AND PLANETARIUM INFORMATION
****(Museum administrative office hours: Monday through Friday, 10:00 to 4:00. Closed weekends and holidays.)
Winter Hours – Museum and Mansion
Through April 10, 2017: Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, 12:00 – 4:00. Last mansion tour begins at 4:00. (The Museum and Mansion are closed Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.) Planetarium open Friday and Saturday nights.
Winter Hours – Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium
Through April 10, 2017: Daytime shows Tuesday at 2:00, and Saturday and Sunday at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00. Evening shows on Friday and Saturday at 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00. (The Planetarium is closed Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but is open Friday and Saturday nights.)
PLANETARIUM SCHEDULE – Fall 2016
Open December 26-30
Friday Nights
8:00 – Long Island Skies
9:00 – Black Holes
10:00 – Pink Floyd: The Wall – Laser show!
Saturday Nights
8:00 – Night Sky, Live!
9:00 – Stars: Powerhouses of the Universe
10:00 – Pink Floyd: The Wall – Laser show!
Saturday & Sunday Afternoons, plus December 26-30
12:00 – One World, One Sky
1:00 – Earth, Moon, and Sun
2:00 – Stars: Powerhouses of the Universe
3:00 – Season of Light
4:00 – Laser Holidays – Musical laser show!
Tuesday Afternoons
2:00 – Stars: Powerhouses of the Universe
Museum Admission
General museum admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students with ID and seniors (62 and older), and $3 for children 12 and under. General admission includes estate-grounds access to the Marine Museum, Memorial Wing natural-history and ethnographic-artifact galleries, Nursery Wing, Habitat Room, Egyptian mummy and Stoll Wing animal-habitat dioramas. For a mansion tour, add $5 per ticket. (A video tour of the mansion is available on request.)
Mansion Tours
Guided tours of the Vanderbilt Mansion – listed on the National Register of Historic Places – are available Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00.
Planetarium Admission
During the day, visitors to the Planetarium pay general museum admission ($7 for adults, $6 for students with IDs and seniors 62 and older, and $3 for children 12 and under), plus $5 each for a Planetarium show. Since the museum is closed in the evening, no general museum admission is charged – visitors pay only for Planetarium show tickets: $9 for adults, $8 for students with IDs and seniors 62 and older, and $7 for children 12 and under.
Vanderbilt Observatory
Night-sky viewing on Friday (weather permitting), 9:00-10:00 p.m. Observation is free to visitors with a planetarium show ticket, $3.00 for those without a show ticket.
Location and Website
The Vanderbilt Museum is located at 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport, NY. Directions and updated details on programs and events are available at www.vanderbiltmuseum.org. For information, call 631-854-5579.
Images
Available upon request. Call Patrick Keeffe at 631-854-5562.
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum
The Vanderbilt—a unique combination of mansion, marine and natural history museum, planetarium and park—is dedicated to the education and enjoyment of the people of Long Island and beyond. This mission is achieved through the thoughtful preservation, interpretation and enhancement of the Eagle’s Nest estate as an informal educational facility. Exhibition and program themes focus upon Long Island’s Gold Coast Era and build upon William K. Vanderbilt II’s desire that his marine, natural-history and ethnographic-artifact collections promote appreciation and understanding of the marvelous diversity of life, other cultures and scientific knowledge.
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