Vanderbilt Mausoleum Staten Island New York Some History In The Snow Moravian Cemetary 

I am originally from Philadelphia, lived in Baltimore for 8years and have traveled around. I love seeing building and designs from the 1800 and early 1900s, in Philly, NYC, Jersey, Baltimore, DC etc,buildings that are still around. They really took pride in everything they built back then. Our things built in today's time will be a hill of sand in the next hundred years. 🤣

Just a few points to clear up some of the info posted below. There are just 28 bodies buried inside the Vanderbilt Mausoleum. The last burial was that of the famous horseman Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, in November of 1999. However, there are 30 sealed burial niches with names on them.....one Vanderbilt was lost in the sinking of the Lusitania, and another was lost in a mountaineering accident. Their remains were never recovered, but burial niches are dedicated to them in memoriam. William Henry Vanderbilt set the rules for burial in the mausoleum. Only his male descendants and their wives qualify. as well as their male children the their wives. Unmarried daughters of those males also qualify. The Commodore (Cornelius) and his wives, and his parents are also among the buried. Gloria Vanderbilt does not qualify because she married (4 times). Her last husband, Wyatt Cooper is buried elsewhere. Her son Carter is buried in the Vanderbilt Cemetery, near the mausoleum, but not inside it. Anderson Cooper does not qualify for the mausoleum. There are no seats in the nave of the mausoleum. The floor panels are made of Indiana limestone and can be moved to accommodate burials under the floor. The mausoleum contains 72 burial niches, 36 on either side of the nave, all behind bronze gates on each side of the nave. The glass skylights in the cupolas were sealed off because attempts were made to enter the nave area through them. The glass panels were 6 inches thick. I have never been able to fine any documented reports that any burial niche was violated. But I might be wrong about that. Entry was attempted many time through the front gates, causing damage. A concrete pad was poured over the roof to prevent entry by digging in tr rough the rooftop. The nearby tomb is the Sloane tomb. Sloane married one of William Henry's daughters.....look it up. When Sloane died, his tomb was not finished. He was temporarily stored inside the Vanderbilt mausoleum and then relocated into the Sloane tomb. Contrary to weird rumors, there is NO tunnel between the Vanderbilt mausoleum and the Sloane tomb. There are Shepherds buried(through marriage) nearby in the Vanderbilt cemetery, not the mausoleum. I can't verify any suicides at the mausoleum. The girl who was crushed died when the main entrance archway gate fell from its hinges while she was climbing it. It is a massive piece of wrought metal.....bronze, I believe. Many people who qualified for burial in the mausoleum opted out. Each story is different. I assume there are many more living today who qualify, but I just cannot do that research. Certainly Alfred Vanderbilt and his son (and their wives)qualify. More facts are welcome......Peace.

with out you i would not have seen this beauty.thank you.

My maternal Grandmother and her entire family are buried in Moravian. I'm not exactly sure when the first of our family was buried there but is has to be around 1830. I really need to do a history. As a child when we would visit our family's graves the place gave me goose bumps due to the historical significance of the place. It's a beautiful cemetery. The Moravians are a Protestant sect who fled Moravia to Saxony. They are one of the oldest Protestant church's and were heavily influenced by Martin Luther.

This guy did a great job with this video, I enjoyed it and it seems like he really tried to give us a good look. The word is Moravian (name of the cemetery), That is a religion of Christianity in the old days, It was the product of a hundred year prayer meeting somewhere on the border area of today of Germany, Poland, Russia. The Moravian movement came from that prayer meeting and yes it was a hundred years (It wasn't the same person). They were very dedicated sacrificial missionaries to the world and they were the ones who turned Charles Wesley and John Wesley to the Lord which gave us the Methodist churches we see today. As for the vanderbilts the Bible says "thy money perish with thee" "The love of money is the root of all evil" All the money in the world could not save them from death nor from giving an account of themselves to God Almighty. It is best to put your faith and trust in the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ !!! "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved"

That is something else! Yours is the only video I've seen of someone actually getting up close to it. And in the snow, magical!

Upon it's completion and until around 1929, 24 hrs a day seven days per week around the clock this mausoleum was guarded constantly. The public could not access it. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression put an end to it. The family paid for security for over 40 years to guard this mausoleum. During the depression it was considered an expense.

My wife and I recently toured the Breakers in Newport. Loved it!

All of this was just fascinating....history and architecture.....thank you for taking the time and effort to create this video. And I appreciate many of the comments from others who also have knowledge on this, as well.

What an incredibly beautiful mausoleum....whew, and the money it must've cost to have this thing designed and built. Peculiar thing about most extremely wealthy people is that they spare no expense even when it comes to their places of internment....they surround themselves in beauty and opulence even in death. However, the cold hard fact remains that every dead body eventually decomposes no matter how or where it is interred. Thank you for sharing. Rest In Peace Ms. Gloria Vanderbilt.

Thank you for taking us all along with you.

I live in Greenville,South Carolina,and we like to drive up to The Biltmore House that is about a 2 hour drive to experience their Christmas at The Biltmore celebration..To me there is nothing more beautiful than The Biltmore decked out for Christmas especially during the evening tours..

Thank you so much for this! Always wanted to see the Vanderbilt crypt. Fell in love with Biltmore. Best vacation I ever took.

I live locally by there and have been in the cemetary quite a few times throughout the years when Gloria Vanderbilt comes to visit in her limosine to visit her son

I grew up in Asheville and we had our proms on the Biltmore House. In elementary school all the kids in the 6th grade we to tour it. Fredric Olumsted created the cradle of forestry which started the National Park Service. The first time I went to NYC and saw Central Park I knew it was the image of the grounds of the Biltmore. Thank you for sharing!

This was soooo awesome I love history to and Vanderbilt had helped building up America this was great!!!!

Thank you so much for hiking out to this place. Although I work in Manahatten I doubt I will ever get out to SI to see this place. I love the Gilded Age and the Vanderbilts. Too bad noone can visit inside. Imagine something so beautiful and grand and it is forgotten and neglected over time even though their grand palaces are not.

I live on Staten Island and visit Moravian regularly.. thanks for visiting and taking the video to share with us. I have never seen the Vanderbilt Mausoleum...

Great video and tour. I have to check it out myself one day.

I love the history of the Vanderbilts as well. Thanks for the video. It’s beautiful!

I love history also and I have been to the Biltmore Mansion. It's exquisite. You can feel life as it was there.

Just found this. Very beautiful.

Incredible! Thank you! I had no idea Staten Island was so picturesque

I visited the Biltmore Estate last Saturday, and I am fascinated with the Vanderbelts history thank you for sharing this. I had asked if the was a cemetery on the grounds of the Biltmore and was told about the Mausoleum.

I love history myself and I've been to the Biltmore several different times and I've never seen the mausoleum thank you so much for sharing this video it means a lot to me and I'm sure others that is enjoyed it as well

In summary…. I loved it! 👍

Thanks for sharing.

this place is beautiful. my dad, who grew up on staten island, took me to Moravian when I was a teenager (for some reason we love to look at mausoleums together) and we snuck through a hole in one of the fences and walked through the woods until we reached the the vanderbilt tomb. such a pretty place, really cool to be there. lots of other famous people's tombs placed right near the mausoleum that are also blocked off from the rest of the cemetery. my dad used to sneak in through the woods behind the mausoleum and smoke/drink on the cliff above it... sounds like good times!

Such a beautiful spot. Stunning architecture, pity about the lack of respect some people have that means it can't be seen with all its original features. Really enjoyed this :)

I live maybe a mile or two from their Mausoleum , I went there as a kid to see it, it is a beautiful structure. Aside from the Egyptian pyramids that mausoleum is the largest private burial structure in the world,... just like a Vanderbilt !!! I went to the Vanderbilt school in the 70's. P.S. 14,... nearby, where else,.....Vanderbilt ave !!

The Biltmore estate is beautiful The grounds are stunning

Thank you so much for sharing your historic video.

Thank you for sharing this mausoleum.

Loved the video, I live on Staten Island and have never seen this, I love history as well and have been to The Biltmore quite a few times. I see the similarities it is a shame that a few bad apples mess it up for everyone, would have loved to see inside, and the stained glass windows too.

I'll have to go when I'm up in NY. I live 1 hour from Biltmore and when I had a season pass, I used to go all the time. Thanks for doing this vid.

If you're interested in visiting the Vanderbilt Mausoleum, forget it. It is private property, you have to trespass to see it. There are ways to get to it through High Rock Park, but there is a fence protecting it and the grounds are under video surveillance. Having said that, in my youth it was a Boy Scout ritual to go there at night from nearby Pouch Boy Scout Camp, but we scouts were respectful of the grounds and building. In more recent years youthful visitors have unfortunately been less respectful. Also, FYI, the rest of Moravian Cemetery is quite lovely, and is open to the public.

Thank you! Always wanted to visit being a Vanderbilt and all. Road trip!

Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper rest in peace

This is a wonderful thing that a lot of people that have like a historical things in cemeteries like a mausoleums beautiful I like the History

wow, I live in SC and have been past Biltmore but haven't visited it yet, although it is on my list, but I work in NYC, right now I'm 4.4 miles from it, I'm definitely going to go visit the mosuleum.

I live in Hyde Park in the Hudson Valley not on Long Island and was doing some research about the Vanderbilt's. I always wounded where they were buried. Thank you for the wonderful video.

Thank you much for your video...it is a shame that people are so disrespectful to the final resting place of this family....i wish i would see the inside.....

Very interesting, I really enjoyed it, thanks!

I swear , living in Staten Island , I get so exited when something mentions Staten Island like the news , also loved biltmore house in Asheville North Carolina

Loved your videos and learn so very much ❤️, I love doing things like this , me and my order son Stevie would go together , now I go visit him at the Cemetery , 😘☮️💕😇

You may already know about it but just in case you don't, I'd like to highly recommend the book "Fortune's Children--the Fall of the House of Vanderbilt" by Arthur Vanderbilt II. I found the book so interesting I had to make myself stop reading it when there was something else that had to be done!

Thank you for the video & the respect. Best of luck!

Thank you for sharing!

Wow, thanks for trekking up there...so Gloria's new place...RIP

Look at the amount of buffer Real Estate and what that would be worth in Cemetary terms. Incredible.

Great tour, thank you!

The group photo looks like a family outing, maybe decoration day in early summer. Definitely not a funeral based on the attire. Thank you for posting, great job!

I would LOVE to visit Biltmore

Wow just happen to come across this. I watch your videos ( mostly Elvis) all the time. I enjoy them so much! Your attention to detail amazes me! So to my surprise I saw this I live a couple of blocks away, and my family is all buried there. And yes the Vanderbilt mausoleum is a sight to behold! Like you I love history!!! Never did I think you would have been at Moravian Cemetery! The Vanderbilts have a long history in Staten Island . Keep the videos coming!!

Just as a note; the image shown at 2:58 and towards the end of the video is almost certainly not a funeral. The people are dressed casually in light summer type colors which would never have been worn to a funeral back then. The coach looks like a sort of sightseeing tour bus.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Great video, I liked how respectful you where. It would have been nice to show the back of the property too to get a scale of how big it is.

I was there a few years ago. They are very protective of the place. I asked at the visitor center for directions and they pretended they had no idea what I was talking about. "No Vanderbilts here". I had my Vanderbilt book on the back seat with pictures. I guess the only people that get there do it stealthily.

rip gloria vanderblit 2019 age 95

I used to work security at Moravian cemetery on the 4-12 shift. Vanderbilts tomb used to have a private security guard for a while. People used to break in the crypts thinking they would find valuables.

Cool! Thx. I've never seen that cemetery. :) In the western portion of the Adirondacks the Schuler (potato chip fortune) family has a hunting lodge and mausoleum with the name across the mausoleum's lintel that looks just like the script on their potato chip bags.

what a great tour of past American royalty. I am surprised there wasn't an endowment to keep it maintained. I live at the base of the mountains in East TN and visit Biltmore quit often. it's to bad he was buried at Biltmore Estates. This way it would still be in good repair. Thanks for that interesting tour.

I found this cemetery while looking for Snug Harbor. I was astonished to find that there were Moravian churches in New York City. In North Carolina, especially around Forsyth County, you will find several Moravian villages. Oddly enough, the movie version of "Last if the Mohicans" was filmed at the Biltmore Estate and other locations in the Asheville area, and it was of course about the colony of New York in the 1750's. Thank you for sharing this, Spa Guy!

Its pronounced More Ray Vee An. In high school we would go hang out in the court yard at the wall at night. Some go in the back side into the cemetery. Too many break ins for looting caused the security. My family is buried there.

It is pronounced more-A-Vi-an, and it is a Protestan/Lutheran religion. The name by which the denomination is commonly known comes from the original exiles who fled to Saxony in 1722 from Moravia to escape religious persecution.

Wow...amazing...thank you.

Most interesting and informative. The architecture is stunning. I will never understand what prompts people to desecrate gravesites, mausoleums, etc. Blatant disrespect for the dead. I suspect they show little respect for the living as well. Well done video. Thank you.

The Rise and Fall of the Vanderbilts by Anderson Cooper is a great read!

Hey Spa Guy: I've watched about all of your "Elvis Videos" and I was glad to see that you also do other historic videos. - Another very informative video. Thanks for the information! And thanks to the other viewers who left additional information on the Vanderbilts and the Mausoleum! p.s. - Hey Spa Guy; I swear those hills get steeper with every year that passes, believe me! Be Safe!

I have a book from Biltmore that my friends visited on their way here from Texas, I live in Canada, found it very interesting

You can get permission to go in the tomb you have to ask the cemetery office to call the family and they usually grant permission and the best time to go is in the spring all the graves of his relatives and pets you can see

Live on staten island...was a place to go drink and party as a kid in the late 90s early 2000s...cemetary has much better security these days...people would wrecked it...but it's solid...very .cool place...always think about those nights

New York will always have something to laugh at, thank you for showing :)

Ichabod a church cemetery also on Richmond Ave near Staten Island Mall between Rockland Ave and Signs Road. Elizabeth Seton buried at St Andrews in Richmondtown Rochmondhill Road and Arthur Kill ( named after Dutch waterway) Road.

That’s a hell of a neighborhood.

Moravian is the religious sect the church surrounding the cemetery is. I love on Staten Island. Also Cunard the ship builder lived on Grymes hill where site of Wagner college is. His mansion is the bursars building; which has British soil surrounding it ( Cunard's wife was from England and didn't want to live on Staten Island because she wanted to live in British soil). The Dutch founded Staten Island in 1600s. Vanderbilt was Dutch. Staten Island very old before the American Revolution. We have a very rich history. Even some famous Hollywood actors are from here. I hand Crane buried at a cemetery here on Richmond Ave. Staten Island was known as Richmond County . We are the fifth borough of the 5 boroughs of NYC. I can go on about many things but have written way too much already.

¡Gracias por el reportaje!

It disgusts me as well how people destory historial building like that and make them look ugly

You would think with the money of this family it would be kept in pristine condition and have a guard or at least video surveillance. Great content!

The original iron gated doors are still there but covered by new steel doors, there are images out there with doors open recently and original gates in place, the iron gated cupolas atop the mausoleum were concreted in sadly because of vandals

They say you can't take it with you, but they tried. I grew up in the same area. In the 70's and 80's kids would go up and party there at night. The police never did much about it. There was no security and the place was vandalized. You could access it from high rock park behind it as the mausoleum is buried into a hillside. It was placed there because the commodore was from Staten Island. Their Staten Island estate ( a farm actually) was where the New Dorp high school and Miller Field are now located. At the time of construction you could see the lower bay from the mausoleum. At some point in the 80's Gloria Vanderbilt took action to secure the site and have it restored. It is a well maintained and popular cemetery, so I am sure it is looked after. Gloria and her family are buried near the mausoleum, but not in it.

Morovaian had to look it up. The Moravian Church, formally called the Unitas Fratrum, known in German as the [Herrnhuter] Brüdergemeine [sic], is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the world, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the Unity of the Brethren founded in the Kingdom of Bohemia. Wikipedia Number of followers: 1,112,120 (2016)

Ur awesome for posting this. Keep it up.

This is so interesting. I saw the Anderson Cooper interview where he spoke about his mother. Very interesting people. It's rumored that my husband's grandfather was a captain on one of the Vanderbilts yachts. He was also a captain on the Staten Island Ferry. I wonder if any pictures exist anywhere? It now makes sense to me to learn that the Vanderbilts are very affiliated with Staten Island. I would love to visit the Biltmore now since I am interested in architecture and mansions.

They're dead and gone, what's the use for these earthly relics? In the end we take nothing with us except how we treated our fellow #Human beings

Verry interesting and you got a beautiful voice!

Nice gesture

will Gloria Vanderbilt be buried inside the crypt? 95 yo and she passed recently. I wonder why some one related to them just rehab the place since it is their history and family. 1 million dollar rehab...

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day, earths joys grow dim its glories fade away, change and decay in all around I see oh thou who changes not abide with me.

I’m really glad you made this video! Kinda disappointed you didn’t show the sloane mausoleum as well although it’s less impressive. Glad to know you can get around the fence without much trouble. I would like to go see it sometime I’ve been to the Biltmore just last year and plan to go tour the breakers, another Vanderbilt summer home in Newport RI in the next year or 2. But thanks for the great video!

thanx a lot. I heard many creepy stories about that place, still want to investigate them...

I saw someone recommended Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Quite a few well known people. What a shame that this mausoleum was allowed to run down so badly. But the Vanderbilt fortune was lost through so many generations of inheritance, income taxes, and living like kings and queens who would never run out of money.......and they were our countries kings and queens. I saw Anderson Cooper is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, who told him to not expect any money when she dies...Guess she is leaving it to charity. She did pay for his education, and he is happy with that, and totally understands he will get nothing of the $200 million she has. The reason makes so much sense. She worked for her money, and believes that when kids believe they have a fortune being left to them, they let life go by without accomplishing anything on their own......just waiting for the ship to come in. And then, the money is just used to live a meaningless life, filled with wild parties, pretty much a harem for males, and little of the laws others have to worry about. Sounds wonderful to a kid, but as we age, we understand exactly what she is talking about. A good thing to have would be a trust to ensure good healthcare. But the real things, success in business, personal success in living a moral life, filled with a love of humanity, and caring about the future of all mankind, the planet, etc.....that gets lost in the money. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xqf1kQ9O3og.html

I was at the tomb in the 1990s my friends and I snuck in from high rock park that is next t the cemetery . We never did any vandalism but climbed up on the roof

People that desecrate ANYTHING, especially where someone is buried, must have been raised by WOLVES!!!!

Thank you ! Its beautiful! I wish like you , people would not ,damaged them ! They need to keep there hands off!

Hi Spa Guy, Great video. The next time you are in NYC. Visit Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx if you have not. Everybody is buried there, and the mausoleums are incredible. Alva Vanderbilt-Belmont is buried there The Belmont Mausoleum is really nice

Sorry if you have answered this already...but how did you manage to get permission to go up to the mausoleum?

THANK YOU I FOUND THAT INTERESTING. DONT UNDERSTAND FOLK TOUCHING AND DESTROYING OTHERS PROPERTY AND THINGS................ JEALOUSY ??

Great video. I know you were in a rush that day and hoping not to get caught, but did you have a chance to voyage further and go behind his vault to the private and hidden burial sections. There is another vault way back for the Sloan family. I think they were business partners to the Vanderbilts. You may have to go back and check it all out. I'll go with you if you do lol. I live in Staten Island and all of my family and ancestors are buried in Moravian. For thirty years of exploring that cemetery the only part I have never been in is of course the sectioned off vanderbilt cemetery. For all the business we gave that cemetery you think they would let me go back there for my research too

Miss the perfume made by Vanderbilt.