Occupation Horse breeder Name William Vanderbilt | Parents William Henry Vanderbilt Siblings Cornelius Vanderbilt II | |
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Spouse Anne Harriman (m. 1903), Alva Belmont (m. 1875–1895) Children Consuelo Vanderbilt, William Kissam Vanderbilt II, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Similar People Alva Belmont, Consuelo Vanderbilt, William Henry Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Cornelius Vanderbilt | ||
William Kissam Vanderbilt I (December 12, 1849 – July 22, 1920) was an American heir, businessman, philanthropist and horsebreeder. Born into the Vanderbilt family, he managed his family's railroad investments.
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Early life
William Kissam Vanderbilt I was born on December 12, 1849 in New Dorp, Staten Island in New York. His parents were Maria Louisa Kissam (1821–1896) and William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885), the eldest son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, an heir to his fortune and a prominent member of the Vanderbilt family who was the richest American after he took over his father's fortune in 1877 until his own death in 1885.
He was the third of eight children born to his parents. His siblings were Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899), Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt (1845–1924), Emily Thorn Vanderbilt (1852–1946), Florence Adele Vanderbilt (1854–1952), Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856–1938), Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt (1860–1936) and George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862–1914).
Career
Vanderbilt inherited $55 million (equal to about $1.5 billion today). from his father. He managed his family railroad investments. In 1879, after taking over P. T. Barnum's Great Roman Hippodrome which was on railroad property by Madison Square Park, he renamed the facility Madison Square Garden.
Thoroughbred horse racing
Vanderbilt was one of the founders of The Jockey Club. He was a shareholder and president of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Brooklyn, New York and the owner of a successful racing stable. In 1896, he built the American Horse Exchange at 50th Street (Manhattan) and Broadway. In 1911 he leased it (and eventually sold it to) the Shubert Organization who then transformed it into the Winter Garden Theatre.
After his divorce from Alva, he moved to France where he built a château and established the Haras du Quesnay horse racing stable and breeding farm near Deauville in France's famous horse region of Lower Normandy. Among the horses he owned was the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame filly Maskette, purchased from Castleton Farm in Lexington, Kentucky for broodmare services at his French breeding farm. Vanderbilt's horses won a number of important races in France including:
Personal life
On April 20, 1875, Vanderbilt married his first wife, Alva Erskine Smith (1853–1933), who was born in 1853 in Mobile, Alabama, to Murray Forbes Smith, a commission merchant, and Phoebe Ann Desha, daughter of US Representative Robert Desha. Together, they had three children:
Alva later coerced Consuelo into marrying Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough on November 6, 1895. Alva divorced Vanderbilt in March 1895, at a time when divorce was rare among the elite, and received a large financial settlement reported to be in excess of $10 million (equal to about $290 million today). The grounds for divorce were allegations of Vanderbilt's adultery. Alva remarried to one of their old family friends, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, on January 11, 1896.
In 1903, Vanderbilt married Anne Harriman (1861–1940), daughter of banker Oliver Harriman. She was a widow to sportsman Samuel Stevens Sands and to Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, Jr., a son of the astronomer Lewis Morris Rutherfurd. Her second husband died in Switzerland in 1901. She had two sons by her first marriage and two daughters by her second marriage. She had no children by Vanderbilt.
Residences
Like other prominent Vanderbilts, he built magnificent houses. His residences included Idle Hour (1900) on Long Island and Marble House (1892), designed by Richard Morris Hunt, in Newport, Rhode Island. Hunt also designed Vanderbilt's 660 Fifth Avenue mansion (1883).
Vanderbilt was a co-owner of the yacht Defender, which won the 1895 America's Cup and briefly owned the large steam yacht Consuelo. Vanderbilt was a founder and president of the New Theatre. He was also a member of the Jekyll Island Club aka The Millionaires Club.
Vanderbilt made significant charitable contributions to Vanderbilt University, a private university in Nashville, Tennessee named for his grandfather.
Death and legacy
Vanderbilt died in Paris, France on July 22, 1920. His remains were brought home and interred in the Vanderbilt family vault in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island, New York.
Vanderbilt's portrait, painted by F. W. Wright from an original painting by Richard Hall between 1911 and 1921, was donated to Vanderbilt University in 1921; it is hung in Kirkland Hall.
In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS William K. Vanderbilt was named in his honor.
Founding member of the Jekyll Island Club on Jekyll Island, Georgia.