Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site

The House of Vanderbilt: Cornelius Vanderbilt

"I have been insane on the subject of money-making all my life," Cornelius Vanderbilt once admitted. He was born on Staten Island in 1794 into a family rich in the Dutch heritage of colonial New York but modest in means. His entrepreneurial talent emerged at age16 when he began a ferry service to Manhattan. By the 1840s his steamship lines to ports all along the Atlantic coast placed him on a par with the most successful industrialists and earned him the name Commodore. Vanderbilt began buying up struggling railroads in the 1860s and making them profitable. His trains ran on schedule and the service was good. His New York Central Railroad grew into the nation’s biggest business by the 1870s. The hub of this network, which he expanded throughout the Northeast and to Chicago, was Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

Long after his death, the Cornelius Vanderbilt was described thus: "The largest employer of labor in the United States, he despised all routine office work; kept his figures in a vest-pocket book; ate sparingly; never speculated in stocks; never refused to see a caller; rose early; read Pilgrim’s Progress every year, and, for diversion, played whist and drove his trotters whenever he could." At his death in 1877 he had $100 million. By leaving the bulk of his fortune to one heir, his son William Henry, he established a dynasty that promised to take the name and fortune to still greater heights.

Though he lacked the enthusiasm for the business wars his father thrived on, William Henry Vanderbilt died in 1885 with twice what he had inherited. In his will, he explained that $200 million was too much for any individual. "There is no pleasure to be got out of it as an offset – no good of any kind." He was generous to all eight childrenof the Vanderbilt family, with the larger shares going to his two oldest sons who now managed the railroads. It was this generation who would elevate spending money to an art and who, with the exception of Frederick, would dissipate most of it in the process. The Commodore’s dream of keeping the fortune intact died with the century.

The Vanderbilt Family of Hyde Park New York

"An unassuming philanthropist," wrote Times magazine about Frederick Vanderbilt in his obituary, one of the few press accounts of the millionaire, "he possessed the twin talents of most of the Vanderbilt family for railroading and yachting." A biographer described him as "a thoroughly good fellow, entirely devoid of any snobbishness or nonsense." Frederick William Vanderbilt was born at the family’s Staten Island farm in 1856. Upon graduation from Yale with a degree from the Sheffield Scientific School, he joined the family business, acquainting himself with every department of the railroads.

In 1878 Frederick married Louise Anthony Torrance, 12 years his senior and recently divorced from one of his cousins. Though they married against the wishes of his parents, Louise Vanderbilt in time became one of William Henry Vanderbilt’s favorites.

Louise Vanderbilt was at home in New York society. Frederick’s name was usually absent from the columns that chronicles his relatives, but his tastes were similar to others who lived in this rarified world. Besides a Fifth Avenue townhouse, the Vanderbilts owned a private railroad car, yachts, automobiles, and homes in Bar Harbor, Newport, and the Adirondacks, as well as in Hyde Park. The Hyde Park New York property was, by all accounts, their favorite.

Louise delighted in entertaining at their Hudson River estate. Visitors arrived by boat or rail – the estate had its own dock and station – or by private car. There were several guest chambers in the mansion and additional guest rooms in the Pavilion. Thirteen rooms on the third floor housed visiting ladies’ maids. For entertainment, the Vanderbilts would drive friends around the grounds and countryside, or arrange  tennis at neighboring estates. Meals were prepared in the basement kitchen and sent up to the dining room on the dumbwaiter. No matter the season, the dining room table was always adorned with flowers which Louise selected from her greenhouses or gardens. Formal dinners might be followed by an evening of bridge or a dance in the drawing room. On Saturday night, dancing was brought to a halt precisely at midnight in observance of the Sabbath. Frederick avoided social occasions when he could, preferring to slip away to his trees and gardens. A former butler remembers how his employer would meet the estate superintendent for an inspection of the grounds "and they would go off probably for hours, traveling around, way over into the woods. Oh yes, that was his pride…And the trees, of course."

Vanderbilt University

Not all of the Vanderbilts’ wealth went for lavish living. Many of the new aristocrats pursued their philanthropies as diligently as their pleasures. Beginning with the Commodore’s million-dollar gift in 1873 to the Vanderbilt University that now bears his name, the Vanderbilt fortune underwrote opera houses, art galleries, museums, hospitals, libraries, and educational institutions. Frederick Vanderbilt gave generously to Yale University and other organizations. Louise Vanderbilt never tired of helping the community, particularly its young people. She established a reading room at St. James Chapel in Hyde Park and provided for the higher education of qualified young women. She was instrumental in bringing the Red Cross to town and in founding the District Health Nurse Service. Her principal charities outside Hyde Park were the St. Anthony’s Home for Working Girls and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

By comparison with his brothers Cornelius II and William Kissam, Frederick Vanderbilt led a private life. His accomplishments, though, were impressive. He was the first in his family to graduate from college. He sat on the boards of 22 railroads – he was a director of the New York Central for 61 years. Unlike any of his brothers or their children, he managed to increase the $10 million inheritance he received age 29 to $70 million by the time he died. Finally, it was a lifelong source of pride that he turned a neglected estate on the Hudson into a place of beauty and scientific interest.