As the state of New York enters a new era of reform, energetic and popular figures such as Teddy Roosevelt and Charles Evan Hughes seize the reins of power. Yet, less scrupulous men still wait in the shadows, hoping for an opportunity to turn back the clock and line their own pockets- along with those of their benefactors.

A chronicle of the political wars waged in the state of New York, and a history of the grandiloquent mansion in which the winners lived during the Gilded Age and the following Progressive Era, 1875 - 1913. The first of two installments.