As soon as the weather broke, activity resumed on the mansion project. Brickwork was completed by November, and electrical, plumbing, and heating systems were installed. The heavy construction was barely completed when plasterers, stone carvers, and other artisans swarmed over the building. Working under the direction of the noted interior decorators, Ogden Codman and Georges A. Glaenzer, these men installed ceilings, wall tapestries, marble mantels, columns and pilasters, and beautiful mosaics and woodwork. Many of these items came from the Emperor Napoleon’s former chateau of Malmaison near Paris, also owned by Vanderbilt. A mural was painted by H. Siddons Mowbray on the drawing room ceiling. The curious public was barred from the estate during these operations for fear of damage to the exquisite and costly decorations. But speculation concerning the interior of the mansion could not be stopped. One reporter, commenting on the number of skilled workmen and artists who daily tramped into the building, surmised that “... the inside will be as rich and beautiful as the outside is massive and splendid.” Another writer seemed gripped with nostalgia for a simpler day when he wrote: “The modest dwellings which satisfied wealthy landowners along the Hudson half a century ago ... are disappearing. On their sites are rising baronial halls fit for royalty....” By April 1899, the furniture was being installed in the mansion, and on May 12 the Vanderbilts gave their first house party there. Guests for this auspicious occasion arrived at Hyde Park by special train. Actual cost of the new mansion, unfurnished and without fixtures, was $660,000. The total cost of all construction and improvements, from May 1895 to March 1899, has been estimated at $2,250,000. And this was an age when a man worked all day for a dollar. _Estate Development_ During the period when work on the mansion was at a standstill, and while work on the smaller houses was progressing, a large force of men was engaged in improvement of the grounds. In the larger portion of the estate lying east of the Albany Post Road, the order was to leave nature undisturbed to the greatest extent possible. Following the natural windings of a forest path, a carriage drive was laid out. A few obstructing rocks and trees were removed, and brooks were spanned, but generally the route of the drive was marked by outcropping ledges, overhanging forest trees, masses of ferns growing down to the wagon tracks, and a myriad of wildflowers. Readers of the _Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier_ were regaled with this description of the drive: “As you wind along in the midst of its solitude and verdure, you might imagine yourself far away in the Adirondack forest, so sweet and still is the fragrant woodland....” [Illustration: _View of mansion from the north._] [Illustration: _Brougham carriage used by the Vanderbilts._] [Illustration: _White Bridge from the south._]