Ever wonder what authors go through to create a mystery? It’s the same thing that historical fiction writers go through. Essentially, getting the details, however small they may be, absolutely right.

Sometimes that means pouring over old archives, reading books, magazines, documents and ephemera to get the tone, and style of a time period, industry or profession. While that means time in libraries and digital archives is part of the process. So is actually going to the places that inspire the scenes.

On a recent trip to Lyndhurst Mansion, no spoiler here, Jay Gould is one of the characters you’ll meet in Season One’s: To Have and Have More.

Lyndhurst Mansion 2025

Lyndhurst Mansion is located on the Hudson River in Tarrytown. Now managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, you can take guided tours of the interior and see many of the objects and furnishing from Jay Gould’s time.

He did not build the mansion, but he did substantial renovations to the building. Walking through the various rooms, it is easy to picture the lifestyle of the gilded age.

There are some special things to take a look at while you are visiting the mansion. Some of the rooms may be familiar to viewers of the HBO series The Gilded Age since Lyndhust served as filming locations for the show. Jay Gould had a model of his railcar Atalanta made in silver sitting atop his famous rolling desk.

Jay Gould’s desk adorned by the silver model of the Atalanta Railcar.

This railcar still exists, and is located in Jefferson Texas as part of the oldest continuously operated hotel in Texas. The Excelsior House Hotel has been operating since 1961, has been overseen by the Jessie Allen Wise Garden Club. The garden club and hotel operate as non-profit entities under 501(c)(3) status.

We like to promote these types of businesses because they are preserving American history. If you stay at the hotel, you are supporting the preservation a historic landmark and contributing to the local community. Two things that is part of our mission.

But back to the railcar. The location of Jefferson Texas is not some random place. According to Excelsior, Jay Gould travelled to Jefferson sometime in the 1880s to make arrangements to bring his rail line through the town. The town refused the offer. And so, after spending a night in the Excelsior hotel, Jay Gould wrote what he thought of the town in the Hotel’s Guest Register, “The end of Jefferson.”

Gould’s purpose of linking the port of New Orleans with the Pacific was the same reason that the Panama Canal was dug in the early 1900s. Shipping goods was good business, and quite lucrative too.

Jay Gould died in 1892, but his son George Gould continued the family work in railroads. He was president of the Texas and Pacific Railroad. By the 1930s, George and his family moved to East Texas at the height of the oil boom. In 1953 it was purchased by the Jessie Allen Wise Garden Club and moved to Jefferson in 1954.

Today the luxurious 88-foot railcar sits across from the Excelsior Hotel on Austin Street in Jefferson, Texas.