The Columns at the Vanderbilt

Wow, what a surprise I just got, researching this photograph!  I went out to the Vanderbilt Museum because we needed to do some testing of the audio-visual system for the resumption of in-person meetings of  The Astronomical Society of Long Island, come September.  How unusual for me to be here during the daytime!  I am usually here at night for the meetings and our observing sessions.  I have seen and photographed these columns before in the years I have been coming here, but I had no idea of their historical significance.  So I Googled the columns and am stunned by what I found!  These six marble columns are ancient and come from Carthage, now Tunisia!  When William K. Vanderbilt II (1878-1944) began building Eagle’s Nest, his Centerport estate and the home of the Vanderbilt Museum, he installed them here.  Each column is 14 feet high, 59 inches in circumference, and weighs 4,000 pounds. The Cipollino marble was quarried on the Greek island of Euboea.  I am blown away by all this new information!