Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt


Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Sr. was an American businessman and member of the Vanderbilt family. A sportsman, he participated in and pioneered a number of related endeavors. He died in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

Early life

Vanderbilt was born in New York City, the third son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt.
Alfred Vanderbilt attended the St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. Soon after graduation, Vanderbilt, with a party of friends, started on a tour of the world which was to have lasted two years. When the group reached Japan on September 12, 1899, he received news of his father's sudden death and hastened home as speedily as possible to find himself, by his father's will, the head of his branch of the family.
His eldest brother, William, had died in 1892 at age 22, and their father had disinherited Alfred's second-oldest brother Neily due to his marriage to Grace Wilson, a young debutante of whom the elder Vanderbilts strongly disapproved for a variety of reasons. Alfred received the largest share of his father's estate, though it was also divided among his sisters and his younger brother, Reginald.

Career

Soon after his return to New York, Vanderbilt began working as a clerk in the offices of the New York Central Railroad as preparation for entering into the councils of the company as one of its principal owners. Subsequently, he was chosen a director in other companies as well, among them the Fulton Chain Railway Company, Fulton Navigation Company, Raquette Lake Railway Company, Raquette Lake Transportation Company, and the Plaza Bank of New York.
Vanderbilt was a good judge of real estate values and projected several important enterprises. On the site of the former residence of the Vanderbilt family and on several adjacent plots, he built the Vanderbilt Hotel at Park Avenue and 34th Street, New York, which he made his city home.
Among Vanderbilt's many holdings were positions in the New York Central Railroad, Beech Creek Railroad, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, Michigan Central Railroad and Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad as well as the Pullman Company.

Personal life

On January 11, 1901, Vanderbilt married Ellen Tuck French, in Newport, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of Francis Ormond French and his wife Ellen Tuck, and was close friends with Vanderbilt's sister, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who was married to Harry Payne Whitney. Later that same year, on November 24, 1901, Elsie gave birth to their only child:
In March 1908, Elsie moved to the home of her brother, Amos Tuck French, in Tuxedo Park, New York. Shortly thereafter, a scandal erupted in April 1908 after Elsie filed for divorce, alleging adultery with Agnes O'Brien Ruíz, the wife of the Cuban attaché in Washington, D. C. The publicity, which caused splits over whom to support, ultimately led Agnes Ruíz to commit suicide in 1909. Elsie, who remarried, died in Newport on February 27, 1948.
Vanderbilt spent considerable time in London after the divorce, and he remarried there, on December 17, 1911, to the wealthy American divorcée and heiress Margaret Emerson. She was the daughter of Captain Isaac Edward Emerson and Emily Askew Dunn, and was heiress to the Bromo-Seltzer fortune. Margaret had been married from 1902 to 1910 to Dr. Smith Hollins McKim, a wealthy physician of Baltimore. Together, Alfred and Margaret had two children:
After Alfred's death aboard the Lusitania in 1915, Margaret bought a 316-acre estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, with a 47-room mansion. She remarried twice, first on June 12, 1918, in Lenox to Raymond T. Baker, a politician with whom she had a daughter, Gloria Baker.

Wealth and inheritance

Inheritance

Alfred's father Cornelius Vanderbilt II died in September 1899; during the following weeks the terms of Cornelius' will sparked a minor controversy within New York society when it was revealed that Vanderbilt's eldest surviving son, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, had been effectively disinherited, and was to receive a substantially smaller share of his father's estate compared to his siblings. In his place Vanderbilt’s second surviving son, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, was named as the principal beneficiary under the terms of the will, inheriting over half of their father's $73,000,000 fortune. Cornelius Vanderbilt II also bequeathed to Alfred the Gold Congressional Medallion awarded to the founder of the family fortune Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt I by the United States Congress in 1864—this heirloom had come to symbolise headship of the Vanderbilt family. The final version of the will bore the date 18 June 1896, the same date originally intended for the wedding of Cornelius Vanderbilt III to Grace Wilson despite his parents' disapproval of the union.
As a result of his older brother's dispute with his parents, Alfred's inheritance amounted to approximately $42,000,000.

Estate

Following Alfred’s death aboard the RMS Lusitania in 1915, his estate underwent extensive probate proceedings in the Surrogate’s Court of New York. His widow, Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt, who had already remarried by 1917, made the formal claim on the estate. Estimates of its total value vary significantly depending on whether inter vivos gifts, trust funds, and divorce settlements are included.
A 1917 appraisal filed in the New York County Surrogate’s Court valued the gross estate in the State of New York at $16,769,314 and identified a separate trust fund worth an additional $4,612,086. After the payment of debts, funeral expenses, and administrative costs, the net value of the estate within New York was calculated at $15,594,836.32. These figures may not have reflected additional holdings located in other states or abroad. Contemporary newspaper reports noted that the largest individual bequest in New York—valued at $5,100,930—went to his widow Margaret.
Historian Edwin P. Hoyt, writing in 1962, estimated that the total value of Alfred’s worldwide estate approached $26,375,000. However, this estimate does not include two large financial transfers that occurred during Alfred’s lifetime:
  • A gift of $6,000,000 to his older brother Cornelius Vanderbilt III following their father’s death in 1899
  • A $10,000,000 divorce settlement paid to his first wife, Elsie French Vanderbilt, in 1908
Under the terms of Alfred's will, the estate was divided amongst Alfred's family:
  • $8,000,000 to his second wife, Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt
  • * $2,000,000 per the couple's ante-nuptial agreement, which was treat as a debt against Alfred's gross estate;
  • * $1,000,000 was bequeathed to Margaret as an outright gift; and,
  • * $5,000,000 was held in Trust, from which Margaret would receive the income during her lifetime, after which the Trust would vest into the ownership of their sons Alfred Jr. and George Vanderbilt.
  • The Oakland Farm estate to his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt III
  • A Trust Fund of $4,612,086 to his son William
  • A life interest in $400,000 and the Congressional Gold Medal originally awarded to Cornelius Vanderbilt, which had passed through three generations to his oldest son William Henry Vanderbilt III
  • $500,000 to Alfred’s younger brother, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt
  • The residuary estate—valued in 1917 at approximately $5,106,408—was divided equally between his two younger sons, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr. and George Washington Vanderbilt III, each receiving approximately $2,553,204.
In addition to these bequests, Alfred maintained several estates and residences—including Oakland Farm in Rhode Island, a Fifth Avenue townhouse in New York, and a London residence—alongside a large staff. According to the findings of the U.S. Mixed Claims Commission, Vanderbilt expended approximately $300,000 annually for the support and comfort of his wife and children in the years prior to his death.
In 1929, a further sum of $2,005,015.39 was awarded to Alfred’s residuary estate following a decision by the Surrogate’s Court of New York. The amount represented surplus principal and income from a trust fund created for his mother, Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt, under the will of his father Cornelius Vanderbilt II. As Alfred Sr. had been named as the residuary beneficiary of his father's estate, the court ruled that this surplus—accumulated during Alice’s lifetime—should revert to Alfred's own estate. Under the terms of Alfred's will, this sum was divided equally between his two younger sons, Alfred Jr. and George, who received an additional $1,002,507.70 each.
The 1864 Congressional Gold Medal which had passed to each successive oldest son of the Vanderbilt Family was later bequeathed by Alfred's oldest son William Henry Vanderbilt III to the latter's only son William Henry Vanderbilt IV in 1981. William H. Vanderbilt IV donated the medal to Vanderbilt University in 2022.

Interests

Vanderbilt was a sportsman, and he particularly enjoyed fox hunting and coaching. In the late 19th century, he and a number of other millionaires, such as James Hazen Hyde practiced the old English coaching techniques of the early 19th century. Meeting near Holland House in London, the coaching group would take their vehicle for a one-day, two-day, or longer trip along chosen routes through several counties, going to prearranged inns and hotels along the routes. Vanderbilt would frequently drive the coach, in perfectly appareled suit, a coachman or groom. He is recorded as a regular guest at the Burford Bridge Hotel near Box Hill in Surrey where, when driving from London to Brighton, he would stop to take lunch and to collect telegrams. He loved the outdoor experience.
Vanderbilt was a member of the Coaching Club of New York and his coach, which was named Venture, was custom built in 1903 by coachbuilders Brewster & Co. The coach, actually a "heavy park drag – made road style" was restored by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is on display at The Breakers.
In 1902, he bought Great Camp Sagamore, on Sagamore Lake in the Adirondacks, from William West Durant. He expanded and improved the property to include flush toilets, a sewer system, and hot and cold running water. He later added a hydroelectric plant and an outdoor bowling alley with an ingenious system for retrieving the balls. Other amenities included a tennis court, a croquet lawn, a 100,000 gallon reservoir, and a working farm.
In 1908, he donated $100,000 to build the Mary Street YMCA in Newport, Rhode Island, in memory of his father Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Ground breaking was on August 31, 1908, with the cornerstone laid on November 19, 1908, by Vanderbilt. The dedication was on January 1, 1910.