The Downfall of the Vanderbilt Family?

 Not Another Click Bait Blog About The Vanderbilt Family

As a child, growing up in North Carolina, I remember going to the mountains to visit the Biltmore Estate. Ashville, is a beautiful place to enjoy nature or enjoy the festive and quirky city life. We were usually camping. The whole trip to Biltmore my mother went on about how glamorously stylish, beautiful, and wealthy Gloria Vanderbilt was, I thought it must be her home. I honestly remember very little about the magnificent mansion, but I do remember the cows. For whatever reason I was very impressed with the estate's dairy cows, and not the gilded age architecture or the amazing Christmas decorations.

Image from AC's Facebook Page

I keep seeing a lot of click bait posts about the ‘downfall’ of the Vanderbilt's. I know that historically the period in the mid 1900’s has been called the downfall of the Vanderbilt's. It was a time period when the family’s modern patriarchy was dying and heirs were no longer interested in the massive Fifth Avenue homes that had made the family a New York status symbol, but why now? 

Image from GQ

Today, CNN’s most popular anchor Anderson Cooper and one of the sexiest men alive actor Timothy Olyphant are both Vanderbilt heirs at the top of their game. The family’s famous southern home,  Biltmore Estate, is still one of the most popular tourist attractions in North Carolina. Perhaps it is the downfall of the brand Vanderbilt, as many of the prominent heirs no longer bear the name of their Dutch descendants. To me, the family still seems successful, and continues to be interesting historically.

Let's go back, way back in American history... To Early Colonial America;

In the 1600’s a Dutchman came to New Amsterdam (New York) as an indentured servant. The family had been farmers in Holland, and had to work without pay until their debts from traveling to the new world were paid off. The heirs of Jan Aertson Vanderbilt (Jan, son of Aert from the town of Bilt in the Netherlands,) would create a legacy that has carried their name well into the 21 century. Known for their philanthropy the family name still appears on endowments and projects across the country. Perhaps they had tax reasons or social pressure but perhaps it’s because the family wasn’t always filthy rich.

Jumping forward a few generations...

The great great grandson of Jan was Cornelius “the commodore” Vanderbilt. He began working for his father at a young age. They had a ferry that charged to move goods and passengers across New York harbor. Soon the family business expanded into multiple steam ships.

Sophia

At the age of 19, Cornelius married his cousin, Sophia, they had 5 sons and 8 daughters, the youngest son was favored to be the heir. Unfortunately, he died and the oldest son, William, called Billy, became the one the commodore looked to to run the business. They were shipping goods needed in the budding industrial age. They expanded into railroad. And architecture.

Frank

The family business flourished. The era's unregulated expansion and industrial growth provided more and more opportunities for the Vanderbilt logistics operation. During the Civil War Cornelius donated his best ship to the Union Navy.

Sadly, Cornelius lost his wife and, in mourning, he moved to Canada where he married his cousin from Mobile, Alabama. She was an ardent supporter of the Confederacy. Her name was Frank. She signed a prenup. They had no children.

Cornelius and his holdings were growing in worth, he was a millionaire several times over.

The Commodore, Billy, the Spiritualist, and a Hundred Million Dollars!

Billy urged his father to begin consulting with a spiritual advisor about business. He introduced him to a man who gave him advice on all matters. The business had more success, growing the Commodore’s net worth into the hundred million plus area. His trust in the spiritual advisor also grew. This advisor convinced the commodore that his other children were not trustworthy and only Billy was.

Billy

Upon his father’s death Billy and his family received 95% of his father’s assets leaving the remaining five percent to be divided by the other living brother, the sisters, and their families.

The girls brought a law suit. They alleged in court that their brother Billy had paid the spiritual advisor to dupe their father into giving him the lions share of the inheritance.

In order to save the family reputation further damage Billy paid off his siblings. He was still outrageously wealthy and running an international logistics conglomerate.

Billy had inherited 100 million dollars and doubled it by the time he passed away less than a decade later. The fortune was divided between his eight children though not evenly, the two eldest sons received the majority of it, though the others were still all worth millions. 

Billy's Famous Heirs

From The New York Times, Gloria, Gloria, and Reginol

The Vanderbilt heirs built ten gilded mansions on New York City's Fifth Avenue. 
Billy's son Cornelius II married a woman named Alice, and had seven children. He built the grand Fifth Avenue home who's gates still exist as an entrance to the botanical gardens. Their son, Reginol Claypole Vanderbilt married twice and had a daughter with each wife. As every Vanderbilt seems to have an interesting story, Reggie was one for the books, an avid partier, his second wife was a teenager who gave birth to their daughter shortly before Reggie died of cirrhosis. The teen bride, Gloria, named her daughter Gloria, the child heiress was soon at the center of a tabloid furor when her mother was accused of being unfit by the family. She scandalously drank and cuddled with female friends. Gloria Vanderbilt grew up to be a famous designer and the mother of Anderson Cooper. 

Emily 1933

Billy Vanderbilt's daughter Emily married Henry Sloane, and donated massive amounts of money to charities, including funding the Sloane Hospital for women. They had five children, their daughter Emily had 4 children, and her daughter Adele married JK Olyphant, they had a son who married and had a son, the actor Timothy Olyphant. Emily's daughter Emily married attorney and politician John Henry Hammond, their son John Henry Hammond was a 20th century record producer and civil rights advocate. His son John Hammond is a blues singer.

It was Billy’s youngest son George Washington Vanderbilt, that most thought was his favorite. A bright well read youngster who would go on to learn eight languages and travel extensively abroad. Though the family all had a long history of building grand homes, (check out the history of their 5th avenue mansions) GW was the Vanderbilt who's home topped them all. In fact it tops all others, as the largest private home in the US.

Biltmore

GW was interested in creating a life (at least for himself) that was reminiscent of the preindustrial revolution agrarian society his family had helped to destroy. He dreamed of an entirely self sufficient southern estate. In 1889 he broke ground on his project. A village developed quickly around the estate simply because of the logistics of the massive construction efforts. It took six years to complete. Biltmore is the largest private home in the country.

GW married a few years later and his wife Edith took over as the head of the home, hosting parties and events as well as seeing to the day to day care of the staff and the people of the village which had a church and a school and market. GW focused on business. The estate had a profitable dairy.

The couple was lobbying the government to pass the Week’s Act which would allow for federal purchase of private lands in order to conserve natural resources like waterways and woodlands.

Sadly, GW died in 1914, leaving the estate to his young daughter Cornelia. Cornelia was raised in the estate and educated at the school in the village. Edith remarried to a senator Peter Gerry. The Week's Act passed and Edith was able to sell 87,000 acres to the government for what would become Pisgah National Forest. 

Cornelia married a man named Amherst Cecil, they had two sons born at Biltmore but educated them in Europe. The couple eventually divorced and Cornelia, always tabloid fodder, colored her hair bright pink and moved to Paris. Amherst stayed in the estate until his death in 1954. Locals say he let the businesses go downhill and was living in a small suite of rooms while the majority of the home was closed up and empty. They were loosing as much as $250,000 a year and things were falling into disrepair.

Cornelia's sons and their families are responsible for saving the Biltmore Estate and turning it into a profitable and self sustaining business again.

Downfall?

According to Forbes "Cornelius Vanderbilt II managed the railroads until his death in 1899. William Kissam Vanderbilt took over but retired soon after to concentrate on his yachts and thoroughbred horses, while brother George Vanderbilt's 146,000 acre Biltmore estate ate into his branch of the family fortune." The third generation of wealthy Vanderbilt's also gave away vast amounts of money to charities and spent lavishly on art and of course the ten mega mansions on Fifth Ave. Reggie gambled away hundreds of thousands and spent millions partying. It was their generation who stopped growing the size of the wealth and started shrinking it instead. 

Alas, by 1947 all of the NYC mansions were torn down. I'd say the decline of the family prominence was the mid 20th century, and if anything caused the downfall of the Vanderbilt’s, I would have to suggest it was the dilution of wealth through generations of heirs with large families. The name perhaps became less recognized because the women of the family who became prominent heirs in the 20th century did not pass family names to their now successful children.

Gen X Vanderbilt may even be the family's modern resurgence. Billy Vanderbilt’s great great grandsons run Biltmore. The prime time news anchor on CNN is also Billy’s great great grandson. Star of Deadwood, Justified, and The Santa Clarita Diet is Billy’s great great great grandson. That sounds like a pretty successful family to me. Perhaps the family is no longer a power player in global industry, but 'round here the name is still synonymous with gilded age architectural wonders and philanthropy. 

Click HERE for a list of Ten Castles in the Carolinas.