In 1874, Baron Ferdinand bought the Waddesdon and Winchendon estates from the Duke of Marlborough and started work on preparing the site for his new home. Ferdinand was beset with technical problems in an era that relied on physical rather than mechanical and electronic muscle. Thirty feet of sand had to be shaved off the top of Lodge Hill to ensure a solid foundation; seven miles of pipe needed to be laid to provide an adequate water supply; sixteen Percheron horses had to be imported from Normandy to assist the workforce of hundreds, and a specially built steam railway had to be constructed to transport the many tons of Bath stone up the hill to the site.

The great house was designed by Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur in the style of the French Renaissance. Destailleur was well experienced in the restoration of chateaux's of the 15th and 16th centuries, but Waddesdon's exterior originates from many sources skillfully amalgamated and overlaid with ornamentation that derives from the 17th century. In six years Waddesdon Manor was completed. The interior is a treasure trove of collections from all over the world including French and English 18th century art, paintings of earlier Dutch and Flemish masters; Sevres and Meissen china and late Medieval and Renaissance collections. When the Baron died in 1898 at 59, his sister Alice succeeded him. On her death in 1922, she left the property to her great-nephew, Mr. James de Rothschild. James was awarded the British DCM for service during World War I and became a British subject. He continued the traditional hospitality at Waddesdon until in 1939, when, during World War II, the manor house became a residential nursery for a hundred London children.