Not until after the Civil War, when new fortunes rose out of oil fields, railways and other monopolies, did the affluent turn for inspiration to the French chateau, as updated by the fashionable architect Richard Morris Hunt. In the Gilded Age, faux chateaux sprouted in the Northeast, but the biggest of all was Biltmore, designed by Hunt and set in a princely 130,000 acres in North Carolina. Here, George W. Vanderbilt II dined among Gobelin tapestries, played chess on a set that belonged to Napoleon and perused his rare books under a magnificent Tiepolo ceiling. Perhaps Gates House, too, will someday acquire a period patina, with its video monitors taking on the aura of Chippendale commodes. Maybe, but I doubt it.
Nothing dates faster than yesterday's hi-fi or computer monitor.
If Republicans in San Diego cheering the promises of still-greater tax cuts want to see their cold and egoistic architectural fruit, they need only look around on the Pacific Coast. Karl E. Meyer wrote this column for the New York Times News Service.