The Cornelius Vanderbilt II House was a large mansion built in 1883 at 1 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City.

Post and Richard Morris Hunt to construct a much larger mansion, filling the entire block front.

ft. summer "cottage" in Newport, Rhode Island), Cornelius suffered a stroke that left him confined to a wheelchair for the remaining three years of his life.

As with the rest of the residences on Fifth Avenue, the mansion at 1 West 57th Street began to be encroached on by commercial skyscrapers, but Alice remained.

A week before the wrecking ball was scheduled to demolish the 43-year-old home, Mrs. Vanderbilt arranged to have it opened to the public for fifty cents admission, which would be donated to charity.

Before selling it, she donated as many elements from the interiors as she could, including the baronial Augustus Saint-Gaudens-designed fireplace and the Moorish ceiling piece from the smoking room.