In addition to her husband's fortune, Anna Gambrill had inherited a substantial sum from her father, Alexander T. Van Nest, a railroad baron.

Gambrill's sister, Jane and brother-in-law, Giraud Foster, had commissioned Carrère and Hastings a year earlier to design her estate near Lenox, Massachusetts, Bellefontaine (one of the Berkshire Cottages).

[1] Although Carrère and Hastings typically considered the grounds and the architecture together as an ensemble, Gambrill hired her florists, the firm of Wadley & Smythe, as landscape architects for the property.

From 1963 until its closing in 1972, it served as the administration building for Vernon Court Junior College, an all-girls school.

In 1998, Vernon Court was acquired by Laurence and Judy Cutler, founders of the National Museum of American Illustration.