The grandAmerican castlethat may have inspired the super rich to " keep up with the Joneses " has become a collapse ruination that sell for a miserable $ 120,000 at auction bridge in September .
" keep up with the Joneses " is that conversational expression that total to life when neighbors and frenemies engage in one - upmanship , purchase position detail both pocket-size ( name - brand wearable ) and large ( vacation houses ) to outdo the other . In fact , the latter diversity is reportedly how the saying began .
There was an genuine Jones family who build a7,690 - satisfying - footmansion in Rhinebeck , New York , a summer holiday situation for well - heeled , wealthy families fromNew York City . Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones commissioned the formidable brick - and - ticket social structure in 1853 after purchasing 80 acres of land overlooking the Hudson River . She was related to two large New York family that let in the Astors , a favourable American industrialist family , on one side and Pulitzer Prize - winning novelist Edith Wharton on the other .
Jones ' red - brick vacation domicile , called Wyndclyffe , was one of the preeminent exercise ofNorman Romanesquearchitecture , a manner popularized in 11th- and 12th - century France and England . It featured arch and towboat , and an asymmetrical panache that resulted in unnerving Angle . Notably , it was the grandest star sign along the river , feature 24 rooms with ornate finishes like Tiffany skylight . It also had wholesale grounds with tennis courts , and boat and passenger car houses . The sign of the zodiac was so pretentious that it is believed to have single - handedly propel a building boom . affluent neighbors expanded and remodeled their house to " keep up with the Joneses . "
The trend proceed through the 1920s , but theGreat Depressionchanged the focus from one - upmanship to more pedestrian chase , like catch enough to eat .
Wyndclyffe ’s recent sales agreement brings to light the struggle the various successive proprietor have had to keep the mega - sized mansion in sound repair . Long Island - basedMaltz Auctionssold the property , and you’re able to find more detail on their situation as well . The estate has recoil from 80 acres to 2.5 acres , and pregnant parts of the household ’s social organization have fallen in , forget monumental piles of bricks and detritus . The once well - tend shrubbery has turn wild and grow over the flat coat . What would the Joneses consider of that ?
