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The Mansion Then –Arial View
The Mansion Then
The Mansion and the Clowney Gardens Today
The Mansion Today 1
The Mansion Today 2
The Main Hall Then
The Main Hall Today

Hennessy Hall, or simply “The Mansion” is the centerpiece of the College at Florham.

Fairleigh Dickinson University’s College at Florham is in the midst of its golden anniversary this academic year, but the Mansion’s story actually begins 119 years ago.

According to FDU’s Web site, in 1890, Florance Vanderbilt (the granddaughter of tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt) and her husband, the financier Hamilton Twombly purchased 1,200 acres on which to build. They commissioned the very best architects of the time, hiring Fredrick Law Olmstead (the landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park) to design the spacious grounds and the formal gardens. For their house, the Twomblys employed the services of McKim, Mead & White (the firm which designed New York’s Pennsylvania Station and Rhode Island’s state capitol building, according to greartbuildings.com).

The fashion of the time dictated that the social elite model their houses after British palaces and manor houses and the Twomblys did: the Christopher Wren wing of Hampton Court Palace, near London, according to a class lecture by Assistant Professor Gary Darden in fall 2008. Building commenced on their home in 1894 and finished three years later.

Professor Emeritus Walter Savage said in a 2008 lecture on the Twombly family, that the Mansion was built mainly by Italian laborers. These laborers were paid only pennies a day to construct the masterpiece home.

The fantastically wealthy couple christened their new home “Florham”—a fusion of their first names. Besides Florham, the Twomblys also had a brownstone on 5th Avenue in New York City as well as Vineland, a summer “cottage” in Rhode Island. In sharing time among their houses, the Twomblys only lived at Florham during the Spring and the Fall, spending Winters in their brownstone and summers at Vineland, according to the FDU Web site.

Florham was a huge entity. According to the history of the Twombly family on the FDU Web site, at the time of Florence Vanderbilt Twombly’s death in 1952, there were still 125 servants employed to work in the house and the grounds. On the grounds behind the Mansion, Hamilton Twombly built a working farm with a world-renown herd of cattle. Behind the Orangerie, where the campus library currently sits, were also five greenhouses that grew fresh flowers and produce for all three of the Twombly homes. Savage also mentioned in his lecture, that there still remains on the brick wall behind the library, the outline of one of these greenhouses.

Besides being a successful farm, the Florham estate also boasted a private railroad siding, the early twentieth century equivalent of a private jet. This was an essential accessory for the very very rich, according to newyorksocialdiary.com.

Also on the grounds of Florham, was the Playhouse, an indoor pool that used to sit where the Stadler-Zenner Hoffman-La Roche Academic Building (The NAB) and Fergusen Recreation Center are today. The gatehouse for the estate is now the home of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Federal Credit Union and the carriage house now houses the departments of Biological & Allied Health Services and the Chemistry & Pharmaceutical Science, according to Darden.

Today, the Mansion holds the offices of the University President, Dr. Adams and the Campus Provost, Dr. Greene as well as other administrative and faculty offices and several classrooms.

DAN LANDAU
Photo Editor
Published in the February 5, 2009 Issue.