Edith Wharton's Re-imagining of Staatsburgh

Just as Staatsburgh is a time-capsule of the Gilded Age, the literature from the era provides a lasting insight into the period. In fact, the term 'Gilded Age' comes from the title of an 1873 Mark Twain novel of the same name. Beyond this literary association, the decades following the Civil War produced some of the most famous American authors, including Henry James, W.E.B. Du Bois, Hellen Keller, and Upton Sinclair. Works still widely read today, such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), White Fang (1906), Tarzan of the Apes (1912), and O Pioneers! (1913) were all written during the height of the Gilded Age. However, one author over all others truly captures of the essence of Gilded Age American society: Edith Wharton.

As the first female author to win a Pulitzer Prize, in 1921, Wharton was truly a pioneering individual of the era. Raised in the old-moneyed class of New York elites, this background deeply influenced and informed her novels and poetry, which explored the morality, anxieties, and general pretension of the 'American Aristocrats'. Wharton's stark criticism of her social peers is best remembered in her 1920 novel The Age of Innocence, which won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. Yet her early novel, The House of Mirth, published 15 years before, covered these themes of irony and inequality closely within the backdrop of the Hudson Valley.

Edith Wharton at her writing desk, early 1900s.

The House of Mirth follows young, as-yet-unmarried, protagonist Lily Bart through the intricate social interactions played out at elite Hudson Valley estates. The author certainly drew inspiration from her own upbringing in the valley for her illustration of wealthy New York society.

Edith's parents, George Frederick Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, both came from prominent old New York families. Mr. Jones made his fortune primarily in real estate and was the cousin of Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, the famous Queen of New York society before Ruth Mills and others competed for her crown. This familial connection placed the Jones family into the close-knit group of New York families with illustrious pedigree, like the Livingstons (as opposed to the nouveaux riches families including the Vanderbilts and Mills families). Edith's paternal aunt, Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones, was one of the first of this elite group to build a country estate along the Hudson. Named Wyndcliffe, the impressive Gothic-style estate, built in 1853, the same year the New York Central Railroad was established, is thought to have inspired the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses."

Wyndcliffe, in its current state of ruin. Courtesy of Abandoned Hudson Valley.

On Edith's maternal side, Lucretian Rhinelander's family, had strong ties to this old-money society and the Hudson Valley. Lucretian's brother-in-law Thomas Haines Newbold built his country estate "Fern Tor" on 30 acres in Hyde Park along the river. Marist College currently owns the land where the mansion once stood, yet all that remains is the carriage house and a cottage. In 1885, Thomas's son, and Edith's cousin, Thomas Newbold, purchased his own estate adjacent to the James Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park. Named Bellefield, the 18th-century house was enlarged in 1909 to its current Colonial Revival style by the McKim, Mead, & White firm (14 years after they completed a similar project for Newbold's neighbors, the Mills). Edith Wharton was certainly a common sight at these Hyde Park estates, even spending the night at Bellefield following the 1906 premier of  "The House of Mirth" on Broadway. Years later, Thomas enlisted Edith's niece, budding landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, to design the walled gardens surrounding the estate. Today, the house and gardens can still be seen from Route 9 and the entrance to the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Park.

Bellefield. The walled gardens can be seen to the left of the house. Courtesy of the NPS.

Between Aunt Elizabeth's Rhinecliff estate and Thomas's Hyde Park home, did Edith Wharton ever visit the Mills at Staatsburgh? It is difficult to determine, so unfortunately we cannot say for certain. If the author was ever a guest at Staatsburgh, she likely visited with her parents, as they were social peers of the Mills among the Hudson Valley elites. However Wharton's father died in 1882 and her mother relocated to France, so their visit would have occurred while Staatsburgh was still occupied by Ruth's parents and long before the 1895 remodeling of the mansion. In 1885, Edith married Teddy Wharton, whose illness prevented the couple traveling extensively. After their divorce in 1913, Edith relocated permanently to France (initially, at 53 Rue de Varenne in Paris, down the road from the Mills' Parisian mansion). So while her parents possessed the social standing to rub elbows with the Mills at Staatsburgh - a status Wharton herself could have maintained in New York society - the combination of her invalid husband and subsequent life in France means Edith Wharton would likely never have made the trip up the Hudson River as a guest of Ruth Mills.

Louis Auchincloss has suggested that the Mills estate was the inspiration for the fictional Bellomont estate in her novel The House of Mirth. Located somewhere near Rhinebeck, according to the novel, the descriptions of Bellomont do not quite match the interior of Staatsburgh. Certain elements of the novel's description, such as the nearby church and walking trails, seem to correspond to the hamlet's St. Margaret's Episcopal Church and the acres of carriage roads (now hiking trails) on the Mills property. Yet this is where the similarities largely stop, and the author's arguments contain little evidence. In an August 2020 blog post, New York State Bureau of Historic Sites furniture conservator David Bayne drew out the parallels - room by room - between Wharton's text and the Mills' home. Staatsburgh's previous curator, Allen Weinreb, suggested: "The physical details of the house are changed, enough to disguise it minimally and protect the author from charges of infringing on the Millses’ privacy.” The general consensus now is that Wharton drew on elements of Staatsburgh and the Mills, in combination with her own upbringing and adult life in these elite New York circles, for her novels.

Advertisement for The House of Mirth in Scribner's Magazine, 1905.

In addition to possible parallels between Bellomont and Staasburgh, scholars have wondered if Judy and Gus Trenor, the host and hostess of Lily Bart at Bellomont, were based on Ruth and Ogden Mills. Eric Homberger postulated this with little evidence. Yet even contemporaries of the Mills and Wharton saw similarities. While reading The House of Mirth, Winthrop Chanler, owner of the nearby Rokeby estate, wrote to his wife saying "One knows all the people without being able to name one of them. Save I think Walter Berry in the hero, a little, and of course a sketch of the Mills.” While the connections of wealth and a Hudson Valley estate are clear, those seem to be the limit of any comparison. Weinreb suggested, "Changing details again, both to protect herself and to advance the intrigues of the plot, Wharton depicted Judy Trenor as a tall blond and Gus Trenor as a lecherous dullard." There is in fact no evidence that Ogden Mills resembled the flawed character of Gus Trenor. Additional perceived parallels like the two Trenor daughters, Muriel and Hilda Trenor, matching perhaps the twins, Beatrice and Gladys Mills, and the importance placed on the game of high-stakes Bridge by both the fictional Trenors and by Ruth and Ogden Mills, have also fueled the comparisons.

Of all the volumes in the Mills' collections, there is not one written by Edith Wharton, and their opinions on The House of Mirth are unknown.

The Millses' bridge table and book collections at Staatsburgh.

While The House of Mirth may not be directly based on Staatsburgh, as mentioned earlier, Wharton certainly drew inspiration from her own life experience and the activities of families like the Mills in her novels. The social etiquette of the era, hardwired into Wharton through her upbringing, and shared by Ruth Mills and her daughters, was central to the plots of her novels. Moving between wintertime New York during the ball and opera season, summers in Newport, European tours, and autumns in the Hudson Valley, Wharton and the Mills led parallel lives, alongside many of their social peers.

From Bellefield and Wyndcliffe to Caroline Schermerhorn Astor and Thomas Haines Newbold, the gilded life of Edith Wharton provided ample inspiration for her novels, works that would cement her place in 20th-century American literature. While a direct connection cannot be made between Wharton and the Mills at Staatsburgh, her novels provide a unique glimpse into their shared world of money, etiquette, social machinations and lavish parties.