[log in to unmask] writes:

<<at Van Cortlandt Park last week while on a field trip
to look at stone mock-up columns Vanderbilt had built for Grand Central
Terminal - so I was told. Well, there are 13 stone columns standing in
the woods w/ anti-graf gray paint on them. >>

This account is from the Real Estate Record & Guide, November 18, 1905:

The New York Central Railroad Co. has had erected in the open air along side
of its tracks, about one-quarter of a mile above the Van Cortlandt Park
Station, a series o samples of various stone, consisting of granite, marble
and limestone, etc., with the idea of selecting after an exposure to the
weather during the winter, the stone deemed most suitable for the new station
building at the Grand Central Depot.  ...In front of the samples is a grass
plot, which is kept nicely mown, and is fenced around on three sides. Each
sample of stone has the firm's name on the back of ti.  Mr. Masterson, of
Norcross Brothers, stated that he believed this was the first time samples
had ever been submitted in this way, the usual custom being to send a small
piece of stone in the rough, or, possibly polished on one side, but never in
his experience had sample been kept in the open and exposed to the elements
for any period.  It has entailed expenses on each firm sending samples, but
the New York Central Railroad has taken up all freight charges.>>

I, too, had trouble finding this interesting exhibit.  One way to direct the
newcomer is to find, at the foot of Van Cortlandt Park, the southbound exit
ramp of the Major Deegan, as it crosses under Van Cortlandt Park South Road.
Just to the west of the exit ramp, there is an apparent gully retreating
north into the park, which is actually the rail bed of the old Putnam
Division of the NYCRR.  Follow that railbed north perhaps a quarter mile
north to the stone - which itself is just over a berm from the playing fields
of VCP.  The route seems empty and scary upon entering, but, just a few yards
up you can see it is a frequently used and picturesque bikeway/hikeway),
clearly defined.  The right of way is good at least as far as Tibbetts Brook
Park in Yonkers.

Christopher