Look inside Lyndhurst Mansion, a historic 14,000-square-foot Gothic Revival home featured in 'The Gilded Age'

I booked an hourlong Classic Mansion Tour, which costs $25 and visits 16 rooms. The full list of tour offerings is available on Lyndhurst Mansion's website.

On "The Gilded Age," Lyndhurst appears as the home of characters Charles and Aurora Fane, played by Ward Horton and Kelli O'Hara.

The estate grounds also served as Sheep Meadow in Central Park in the show.

Other grand New York homes from the period also serve as film sets for the show. An ornate library at Hempstead House in Long Island, for example, is used for George Russell's office.

Built in the 1860s, the carriage house's horse stables have been reimagined as booths.

The original metal hooks on the walls that once held saddlery now help display the assortment of clothes, accessories, and other merchandise sold in the gift shop.

The New York Globe was a Black newspaper founded by Timothy Thomas Fortune, played by Sullivan Jones in "The Gilded Age."

Visitors can watch an educational video about Lyndhurst Mansion and its history.

In 1836, former New York City mayor William Paulding and his wife, New York real-estate heiress Maria Rhinelander Paulding, purchased the land overlooking the Hudson River to build a summer home.

Architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed the home and much of its furniture. Construction began in 1838 and was completed in 1842.

In 1864, the Pauldings' son sold the mansion to George Merritt, who made his fortune as the patent holder of a rubber spring used in railroad cars, and his wife, Julia. The Merritts rehired Davis to design an addition to the home, doubling its square footage.

After George's death, Julia sold it in 1880 to Jay Gould, a railroad tycoon and businessman who was one of the wealthiest figures of the Gilded Age, and his wife, Helen Day Miller. Adjusted for inflation, his net worth totaled approximately $71.2 billion.

Gould's daughter, Helen Gould, then took ownership of the property, followed by his youngest daughter, Anna Gould, who married a French aristocrat and spent most of her adult life abroad. After her death, Anna left the Lyndhurst estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which manages the site today.

The Linden trees still grow on the grounds today.

The Merritts had Davis enclose the open porte-cochère from the Pauldings' era of the house with floor-to-ceiling doors and windows and construct a second porte-cochère outside.

Closets were a sign of wealth, indicating that the owners could afford to use a room's valuable real estate for storage, the tour guide said.

The Merritts could have afforded real marble, but it was more expensive to decorate with faux finishing than actual stone, making it a status symbol for their wealth.

All of the furniture is original to the Pauldings, the home's first owners from 1842, except for the cabinet in the bay window.

The piece was painted by American artist Rembrandt Peale.

"The Gilded Age" brought all of its own furniture in for filming since the existing furniture pieces are valuable artifacts original to the home.

Staff prepared food in a downstairs kitchen, brought it up on a dumbwaiter, and plated it in a butler's pantry off to the side of the room.

The walls were also hand-stenciled to look like they were covered with leather wallpaper.

The Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge would not have been visible in the Gilded Age since it was completed in 2018.

The Dining Room appears in episode three of the first season of "The Gilded Age."

Priceless paintings covered nearly every surface of the walls.

When the Merritts moved in, they turned the Pauldings' old dining room into their library and built the new dining room as part of the expansion.

Gould's collection included pieces from French, German, and Spanish artists.

The room featured a Tiffany & Co. stained-glass window.

The bathroom also included a claw-foot tub and rain-style shower.

Anna Gould continued to sleep in her childhood bedroom when she visited Lyndhurst.

The tubes connected to the butler's pantry downstairs.

Gould's 100-pound Wooton desk, known today as his "laptop," held all of his business paperwork and accompanied him to work in New York City every day.

Even though the railroad passed right by Lyndhurst Mansion, Gould commuted with his desk down the Hudson River on his steam yacht called the Atalanta. The journey took around 45 minutes.

The Vanderbilts also owned a mansion upstate during the Gilded Age in Hyde Park, New York.

The property is full of walking trails, gardens, and scenic picnic spots with views of the Hudson.

The wooded paths, park benches, and grass lawns looked just like Central Park.

The bowling alley can be rented for special events where guests bowl with the lightest possible balls to help preserve the historic space, according to The National Trust for Historic Preservation.

With so many notable residents and original furnishings, the home preserves the opulence of the real Gilded Age.