Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brothers John D. Rockefeller and William A. Rockefeller Jr., primarily through Standard Oil. The family had a long association with, and control of, Chase Manhattan Bank. By 1987, the Rockefellers were considered one of the most powerful families in American history.
The Rockefellers originated in the Rhineland in Germany and family members moved to the Americas in the early 18th century, while through Eliza Davison, with family roots in Middlesex County, New Jersey, John D. Rockefeller and William A. Rockefeller Jr. and their descendants are also of Scots-Irish ancestry.
Background
The Rockefeller family traces their origin to the now abandoned German village Rockenfeld in the early 17th century. The American family branch is descended from Johann Peter Rockefeller, who migrated from the Rhineland to Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania around 1723. In the US, he became a plantation owner and landholder in Somerville, and Amwell, New Jersey.One of the first members of the Rockefeller family in New York was businessman William A. Rockefeller Sr., who was born to a Protestant family in Granger, New York. He had six children with his first wife Eliza Davison, a daughter of a Scots-Irish farmer, the most prominent of whom were oil tycoons John D. Rockefeller and William A. Rockefeller Jr., the co-founders of Standard Oil. John D. Rockefeller was a devout Northern Baptist, and he supported many church-based institutions. While the Rockefeller family are mostly American Baptists, some of the Rockefellers were Episcopalians.
Wealth
The combined wealth of the family—their total assets and investments plus the individual wealth of its members—has never been known with any precision. The records of the family archives relating to both the family and individual members' net worth are closed to researchers.From the outset, the family's wealth has been under the complete control of the male members of the dynasty, through the family office. Despite strong wives who had influence over their husbands' decisions—such as the pivotal female figure Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr.—in all cases they received allowances only and were never given even partial responsibility for the family fortune.
Much of the wealth has been locked up in the family trust of 1934 and the trust of 1952, both administered by Chase Bank, the corporate successor to Chase Manhattan Bank. These trusts have consisted of shares in the successor companies to Standard Oil and other diversified investments, as well as the family's considerable real estate holdings. They are administered by a trust committee that oversees the fortune.
Management of this fortune today also rests with professional money managers who oversee the principal holding company, Rockefeller Financial Services, which controls all the family's investments. The present chairman of the Rockefeller Center is David Rockefeller Jr.
In 1992, it had five main arms:
- Rockefeller & Co. ;
- Venrock Associates ;
- Rockefeller Trust Company ;
- Rockefeller Insurance Company ;
- Acadia Risk Management.
Real estate and institutions
- Rockefeller Center, a multi-building complex built at the start of the Depression in Midtown Manhattan. The construction of Rockefeller Center was financed solely by the family
- International House of New York, New York City, 1924
- Wren Building, College of William and Mary, Virginia, from 1927
- Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1927 onwards, Abby Aldrich, John III and Winthrop, historical restoration
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City, from 1929
- Riverside Church, New York City, 1930
- The Cloisters, New York City, from 1934
- Rockefeller Apartments, New York City, 1936
- The Interchurch Center, New York City, 1948
- Asia Society, New York City, 1956
- One Chase Manhattan Plaza, New York City, 1961
- Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, 1962
- Lincoln Center, New York City, 1962
- World Trade Center Twin Towers, New York City, 1973–2001
- Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, 1974
- Council of the Americas/Americas Society, New York City, 1985
- Major housing developments:
- * Forest Hill Estates, Cleveland, Ohio
- * City Housing Corporation's efforts, Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, New York City
- * Thomas Garden Apartments, The Bronx, New York City
- * Paul Laurence Dunbar Housing, Harlem, New York City
- * Lavoisier Apartments, Manhattan, New York City
- * Van Tassel Apartments, Sleepy Hollow, New York
- * A development in Radburn, New Jersey
- * A further project involved David Rockefeller in a major middle-income housing development when he was elected in 1947 as chairman of Morningside Heights, Inc., in Manhattan by fourteen major institutions that were based in the area, including Columbia University. The result, in 1951, was the six-building apartment complex known as Morningside Gardens.
- Senior's donations led to the formation of the University of Chicago in 1890 and the Central Philippine University in the Philippines. This was one instance of a long family and Rockefeller Foundation tradition of financially supporting Ivy League and other major colleges and universities over the generations—seventy-five in total. These include:
- * Brown University
- * Case Western Reserve University
- * Columbia University
- * Cornell University
- * Dartmouth College
- * Harvard University
- * Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- * Princeton University
- * Spelman College
- * Stanford University
- * Tufts University
- * University of California, Berkeley
- * University of Pennsylvania
- * Yale University
- * Institutions overseas such as the London School of Economics and University College London, among many others.
- Senior also created
- * Rockefeller University in 1901
- * General Education Board in 1902, which later evolved into the International Education Board
- * Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1910
- * Bureau of Social Hygiene in 1913
- * International Health Division in 1913
- * China Medical Board in 1915.
- * Rockefeller Museum, British Mandate of Palestine, 1925–30
- * In the 1920s, the International Education Board granted important fellowships to pathbreakers in modern mathematics, such as Stefan Banach, Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, and André Weil, which was a formative part of the gradual shift of world mathematics to the US over this period.
- * To help promote cooperation between physics and mathematics Rockefeller funds also supported the erection of the new Mathematical Institute at the University of Göttingen between 1926 and 1929
- * The rise of probability and mathematical statistics owes much to the creation of the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris, partly by the Rockefellers' finances, also around this time.
- * John D. Jr. established International House at Berkeley.
- * Junior was responsible for the creation and endowment of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which operates the restored historical town at Williamsburg, Virginia, one of the most extensive historic restorations ever undertaken.
Residences
- One Beekman Place - The residence of Laurance in New York City.
- 10 West 54th Street - A nine-story single-family home, the former residence of Junior before he shifted to 740 Park Avenue, and the largest residence in New York City at the time, it was the home for the five young brothers; it was later given by Junior to the Museum of Modern Art.
- 13 West 54th Street - A four-story townhouse used by Junior and Abby between 1901 and 1913.
- 740 Park Avenue - Junior and Abby's famed 40-room triplex apartment in the luxury New York City apartment building, which was later sold for a record price.
- Bassett Hall - The house at Colonial Williamsburg bought by Junior in 1927 and renovated by 1936, it was the favourite residence of both Junior and Abby and is now a house museum at the family-restored Colonial Revival town.
- The Casements - A three-story house at Ormond Beach in Florida, where Senior spent his last winters, from 1919 until his death.
- The Eyrie - A sprawling 100-room summer holiday home on Mount Desert Island in Maine, demolished by family members in 1962.
- Forest Hill - The family's country estate and a summer home in Cleveland, Ohio, for four decades; built and occupied by Senior, it burned down in 1917.
- Golf House at Lakewood, New Jersey - The former three-story clubhouse for the elite Ocean County Hunt and Country Club, which Senior bought in 1902 to play golf on its golf course.
- Kykuit, also known as the John D. Rockefeller Estate - The landmark six-story, 40-room home on the vast Westchester County family estate, home to four generations of the family.
- The JY Ranch - The landmark ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the holiday resort home built by Junior and later owned by Laurance, which was used by all members of the family and had many prominent visitors, including presidents until Laurance donated it to the federal government in 2001.
- The Rocks - 1940 Shepard Street NW and 2121 Park Road NW, Washington, DC - The 12,000 square foot house sits on 15.9 acres bordering Rock Creek Park; and is the largest residential property in the District of Columbia. Built by Daisy Blodgett for her daughter Mona in 1927, the name refers to its location, not the current owner. The property was purchased by Jay Rockefeller in 1984 when he became US Senator for West Virginia. He and his wife, Sharon Percy Rockefeller continue to live there.
- Rockwood Hall - The former home of William Rockefeller Jr..
- Rockefeller Guest House - The guest house of Blanchette Ferry Rockefeller.