McCLURE'S MAGAZINE VOL. XXIV APRIL, 1905 No. 6

THE ASTOR FORTUNE BY BURTON J. HENDRICK

ILLUSTRATED BY JULES GU^RIN AND WITH PORTRAITS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

J E are accustomed to regard tition, the eastern half utilized by what the great American for­ may be called the Foreign, or English tunes as peculiarly the Department, the western by the American product of American gen­ branch. Day after day files in a procession in ius and enterprise. We every way typical of New York. At one time have an unbounded admi­ it is an unkempt Russian Jew from the East ration for the aggressive Side ; at another a paragon of fashion from leaders who have built our railroads, laid Fifth Avenue ; at another a dapper business our telegraph and cable lines, and organized man from downtown. They come to lease our manufacturing plants — an admiration fashionable residences or great business based largely on the conviction that, in piling buildings, in many cases to pay over the up riches for themselves, they unconsciously counter their monthly tribute. Every mor­ created the nation's wealth. Activity is so ning arrives a mass of mail, from which the much the national watchword that we can clerks collect a huge bulk of checks — the hardly conceive of a great fortune accumu­ rent money for the thousands of Astor lated by slow and easy stages, with no un­ tenements, residences, hotels, office build­ due display of energy by its possessors. One ings, docks, and leased lands. Periodi­ of the largest American estates, however, is cally a certain portion of this is sent not an over-night growth ; not the creation of up to Fifth Avenue and Sixty-sixth Street, dazzHng enterprise or the green baize of Wall where Mr. John Jacob Astor, fourth of Street. It is the result of a century's sav­ that name, fives in state. How much it ings, the product of the old-stocking school is few men except the recipient know, of finance. Its beneficiaries can lay claim to the Astors, above all, never talking of no great genius, except the genius, perhaps their wealth. According to the closest the rarest of all, of profiting by others' labor. observers, however, it cannot be less than They have contributed practically nothing to $3,000,000 a year. Twice, if not three times upbuilding the Republic, and yet few have that amount, is sent to Clieveden, Taplow, reaped so richly from its growth. Bucks, England, where lives the greatest ab­ The headquarters of the Astor estate is a sentee landlord in the world, the present head two-story red brick building on Twenty- of the Astor family. His one connecting sixth Street, just west of Broadway. Its link with his abjured country, and the one heavily barred windows are expressive of the touch of sentiment in the Astor office, is a policy of exclusiveness and silence which little back room, formerly the business head­ reign within. It is divided by a heavy par- quarters of William Waldorf's father, the Copyright, igo^, by The S. S. McClure Co. iAll rights reserved.

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 564 THE ASTOR FORTUNE third John Jacob. The desk is precisely as ficiently obvious fact to his own advantage ? he left it when he died in 1890, and every Astor looked north from the City Common — morning, by the orders of his now British now City Hall Park — and found his answer son, a cluster of fresh roses is placed upon it. in the sweeping fields and forests and swamps Most of the income obtained from their of the Knickerbocker yeomanry. Not many holdings, both John Jacob and William Wal­ years hence, he said, these neglected farms dorf reinvest in New York real estate. No will be occupied by the houses and business such nonsense as university endowments, buildings of a hard-working, rent-paying charity hospitals, people's institutes, or li­ people. At present their owners, year after brary chains for them. They have learned year, plant their corn and wheat and pota­ the lesson of the unearned increment too toes, altogether oblivious of the golden crop well. the future is to yield. Many of them are Here, then, in the most democratic city of pinched for money ; their great estates are democratic America, is a great family, estab­ heavily mortgaged ; anyone so foolish as to lished on purely aristocratic lines. It has buy would be a welcome deliverer. And after many branches — the Delanos, the Chanlers, I have purchased them, what then ? Simply the Careys, the Van Alens, the Wendels, and sit down and wait. No anxiety, no sleep­ the rest — whose collective fortune cannot be less nights, no work. Year after year the far from 1450,000,000. The story of how city will grow northward and gradually en­ this immense store was heaped up, and the velop these farms. It can make no progress forces contributing to it, should be one of the without first coming to terms with those who most suggestive chapters in American eco­ then own them. If I should be that happy nomic history. Ultimately it is based upon man, I would not even take the trouble to the foresight of one man — the first in a long make my own improvements or put up my line of American prophets who, unlike the own buildings. A sharp-witted man could seers of old, have translated their vision into so manage matters that, in most cases he substantial dollars and cents. This man, the could even escape taxation. In ten, twenty, ragged son of an idle German butcher, land­ and thirty years the people will need the land ed from the steerage at New York one hun­ badly enough to do these things themselves. dred and twenty years ago. According to Never was man given so splendid an oppor­ his great-grandson, William Waldorf, Johann tunity to reap where others have sown. Jakob Astor was descended from one Jean And thus began the extended land pur­ Jacques D'Astorga, a Spanish grandee of the chases which have continued uninterruptedly twelfth century. Soon after his arrival in to this day. New York, however, he was a delivery boy Perhaps Astor received his earliest hint for a German baker. "Yacob was nodding from his brother Henry, who antedated him but a little paker poy," once remarked his in this country several years. According to sister, a Mrs. Ehringer, "und soldt pread und tradition, Henry came over during the Rev­ cake." With the main facts of his life most olution as a sutler in the Hessian army. of us are familiar : how he made solitary Heinrich Astor was a rotund, rollicking trips through the unfrequented forests of butcher, whose keenness for money-getting New York State; how he bartered gold, was tempered by good-humor. Every day beads and firearms with the Indians for furs; he jovially pushed his merchandise in a how he sent these to China in his own ships, wheelbarrow from the Bull's Head market in bringing back cargoes of tea, for which the the Bowery to his stall in Hanover Square. Americans of those days had a famous appe^ To that daily exercise the great Astor tite. That he made a snug fortune" is evi­ fortune owes its beginning. Henry Astor dent from the fact that, by 1800, he was liv­ bought several acres on the Bowery, part ing on the Broadway block where the Astor of which he later sold to his brother Jacob. House now stands, with such neighbors as In the neighborhood of Hester Street, in a Rufus King, David Lydig, and John Ruth­ district now densely populated by ItaHans, erford ; but Astor's ambitions reached far "Jacob Astor, furr merchant," purchased beyond this. About this time he made the largely. The prices paid seem ludicrous to­ discovery which has proved so profitable — day. Thus the Bayards, whose hayricks that America was to be a great and populous stood on a great stretch of land now covered country, and that New York was to be its by the sky-scrapers of lower Broadway, glad­ capital. How best could he turn this suf­ ly sold dozens of lots at I200 and $300, which

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SIX or NEW YORK'S LARGEST HOTELS ERECTED AND OWNED BY THE ASTORS

This group in­ cludes the AstoT House, the finest hotel of old New York, and the St. Regis, the finest of new New York. THE KNICKERBOCKER THE ST. REGIS

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR ' The richest absentee landlord in the world '' are now worth $300,000 and 1400,000. Thus chuckled over his bargain. "Mit dis eight one John Samler and his wife Catharine — tousand tollar," replied Astor, "I vill puy who signed the deed, with "her marli"— me eighty lots up der Broadway, near Canal parted with their East Side farm and rope- Street. In ten years dey vill be vorth |i,ooo walk for |2o,ooo. Had they held on, their each, und dis Vail Street house vill be vorth descendants would now have a fortune of at just vat it is now." So the event proved. least 18,000,000. Astor's transactions were And in this one episode we find the secret of the sensation of the day. Much of the prop­ the Astor wealth. erty he bought was marsh and rock, and the William Waldorf Astor, in an article pub­ sellers signed it away with tongue in cheek. lished some years ago in his Pall Mall Maga­ There was, indeed, little less than a stampede zine, almost indecently exults over the fact to "unload". Astor's best friends begged that few of the great landholders a century him not to fritter away the fortune so indus­ ago are landlords to-day. The estates of triously acquired in legitimate trade. He nearly all have passed into the hands of for­ patiently listened to their advice and then eigners. More interesting still are the cir­ bought more land. cumstances under which they have been lost. Astor purchased nothing that seemed John Jacob Astor's record, for example, is really worth while. Well-rented dwelling- constantly crossed by embarrassed families, houses and business buildings had no at­ prodigal sons, mortgages, and foreclosure tractions. He was daft on farms. Such sales. Many of the victims of his foresight paying property as he had he sold. He thus were those highest in church and state. He disposed of a Wall Street house for |8,ooo. thus acquired for $75,000 one-half of Gov- The purchaser, after the deed was signed. enor George Clinton's splendid Greenwich

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED JOHN JACOB ASTOR The richest land owner in America, with a fortune of over one hundred million dollars country place. With this, however, Astor wormed his way into this property. For was not content. After the Governor's eight years its history is a miserable tangle of death he kept persistently at the heirs, lent judgments, mortgages, foreclosure sales, and them money, and acquired additional slices trusteeships. From the whole unsavory of the family property. Clinton's most dis­ affair Astor finally emerges, foreclosing a tinguished son-in-law was Edmond Charles mortgage and securing at about $23,000 a Genet^Citizen Genet, who, after his troubles property now worth |6,ooo,ooo. Thus, in with Washington, became an American citi­ '797. one Medcef Eden inherited a princely zen, married Clinton's daughter, and settled farm on Broadway, from Forty-second to in New York. From Astor he occasionally Forty-sixth Streets extending northwesterly borrowed money, pledging real estate which to the ffudson. Medcef appears to have frit­ the former ultimately acquired. Nearly two- tered it away. While it is being pledged for thirds of the Clinton farm is now held by loans and attached for debt, Astor acquires Astor's descendants, and is covered by scores a third interest in an outstanding mortgage, of wholesale business buildings, from which forecloses, and obtains for $25,000 a prop­ is derived an annual income estimated at erty now worth at least twenty millions. about 1500,000. Associated with him is one William Cutting. Frequently these farms got into the chan­ On the division, poor Cutting is no match for cery courts, and Astor was always then on Astor. The latter gets all the Broadway hand. Thus, one John Cosine, in 1809, in­ blocks and Cutting is forced, for his share, herited a great tract extending on Broadway toward the water-front. Astor, however, from Fifty-third to Fifty-seventh Street, is not permitted to enjoy the property in westward to the Hudson River. Astor slowly peace. Certain Eden heirs in England come

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 568 THE ASTOR FORTUNE to New York, and appeal to the courts, letters to Theodosia show that the sale of where the matter drags twenty years. Astor Richmond Hill was the only possible way of finally buys them off for |9,ooo. It is too forestalling ruin. So, as his mortgage came bad that John Eden, of Yorkshire, England, due, and just a month before the Hamilton who surrendered his well-grounded claim at duel, Astor bought the place for |i6o,ooo. this figure, cannot visit this property to-day. Unquestionably this money facilitated Burr's He would find the place where his brother flight; perhaps it was used, who knows, in gathered his modest crops now ablaze with his wild Southwestern scheme? Burr re­ the electric lights of the city's great office turned to New York after his miserable wan­ buildings, theaters, restaurants and hotels. derings in Europe, but never succeeded in He would see two enormous Astor hotels, val­ rehabilitating himself. His old law clients ued at $7,000,000, on the borders of his old shunned him ; his former friends ignored Bloomingdale Road, and westward from this him ; the only faithful ones were his credi­ some three hundred dwellings, all erected on tors. Among these was Astor, who acquired, the Eden farm, now paying tribute to the piece by piece, all that was left of Richmond descendants of his old enemy. Hill. Between the lines of the moldy real Again, the little fur merchant got more estate records of New York we can trace the than one-third the whole estate of Trinity wretchedness of Aaron Burr. Church. In Astor's time. Trinity was afflict­ All Astor purchased was Burr's leasehold, ed with the prevailing financial malady — it which had sixty-two years to run. Astor was land-poor. Originally, it owned nearly paid Trinity $269 a year. For half a century all the land on the West Side, reaching from the land had been worth little more. Al­ Chambers to Christopher Street. Much of most as soon as Astor obtained possession, this Trinity had leased for ninety-nine year however, it became very valuable. Astor periods at nominal rentals. Other portions it himself was not responsible for this. Trinity sold to pay current expenses. One of the Church laid out the present streets, built St. earliest to profit by this ecclesiastical pov­ John's Park just south of Richmond Hill, erty was John Jacob Astor. Was the church and in other ways tempted fashion and back on its pastor's salary ? Mr. Astor wealth from lower Broadway and Franklin would kindly advance the amount, taking in Square. Soon Astor obtained about $25,000 payment several useless lots on the church yearly from this part of the church farm. farm. Was money needed for the support From this he deducted every year $269, of the parish poor, to start a parish school, to which he paid as rent to Trinity. As late as assist some orthodox congregation in ex­ 1856, when the Astor family drew a great tremis ? Mr. Astor always had a few hun­ income from the Trinity Farm, that church dred or a few thousand dollars for this char­ itself had a standing debt and an annual itable purpose — provided he could have a deficit which it met by selling more land. block or so of land in exchange. It so hap­ In 1866 the lease expired and Trinity came pened that one of the Trinity leases, cover­ again into her own. Almost immediately, ing a third of the whole farm, was held by however, the residential popularity of the section began to decline. Aaron Burr. Under Burr and his brilliant daughter, Theodosia, Richmond Hill became Astor's active periods were almost coinci­ the most famous place of hospitality in New dent with cycles of public misfortune. When York. Talleyrand, Jerome Bonaparte, and his adopted country was engaged in the sec­ Louis Philippe were entertained there. As­ ond war with Great Britain, and New York tor, however, was not charmed by its literary was daily expecting a bombardment — that and political associations, or its natural was Astor's harvesting time. He was a beauty. But he did see that the city was large money-lender on real estate security, inching up to Richmond Hill, and that it and, in the war of 1812, did not hesitate to would soon be needed for building lots. foreclose. In the panic of 1837, however, he Meanwhile, Burr lived recklessly and extrav­ was especially active. New York has never agantly and, even while vice-president of the known such suffering. Philip Hone, ex- United States, was threatened with impris­ Mayor and inimitable annalist, writes in his onment for debt. Richmond Hill, too, was diary : " Here, in the city of New York, trade heavily mortgaged ^ the mortgage payable is stagnant. Local stocks are lower than in July, 1804. About this time Burr became ever; real estate is unsalable at any price ; involved in his quarrel with Hamilton. His rents have fallen and are not punctually

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JOHN JACOB ASTOR

THE FOUNDER OF THE VAST ASTOR FORTUNE AND ESTATE

Redrazi'17 by Gcorgr T. 'Tohiij from tb^ painting by Chappell

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED THE EDEN FARM AS IT WAS WHEN n. farm extended from Broadway to tl,e Hudson River, from Forty-seeond to Forty.sixth From tlie mural decoration hy Edward paid, and taxes have increased most ruin­ he always found him fair and just. His life ously. The pressure is severe enough upon was made unhappy by a great domestic sor­ the owners of houses and stores who are out row. His oldest son and, namesake was an of debt, but if the property is mortgaged, and imbecile from birth. In his famous will he the seven per cent interest must be regu­ sets apart a plot in the Clinton farm for larly paid, God help the owners !" No one "my unfortunate son John," and provided profited so much from this state of affairs as 110,000 a year for his maintenance. Here a Astor, because few had ready cash. "Go­ large house, surrounded by a high stone-wall, ing, going, gone —to John Jacob Astor!" was constructed, and in this,with a few atten­ was the familiar cry in the auction-room. dants, the solitary idiot lived for many years, Astor's last real estate transaction, put an object of superstitious awe to the neigh­ through a month before his death, was a bors. Astor found consolation in his second foreclosure on one of the tenants of the Burr son, William Backhouse, from his earliest estate. In all, he appeared as the complain­ years his heir apparent. William B. Astor ant in some sixty different proceedings dur­ seems to have been a very worthy, though ing this trying time, the properties in all somewhat colorless, person. He established cases going to himself at absurd figures. Thus his social position by marrying the daughter he obtained, at |2,ooo, a block in Harlem of General Armstrong, Madison's unfortu­ now worth 11,000,000. His foreclosures nate Secretary of War, and lived in con­ aroused the greatest indignation. In one siderable state. He was hard-fisted, but not instance, after Astor had bid in lots for so stingy as his father. When the latter died 15,600, now worth |6oo,ooo, the court com­ without remembering any of his faithful life­ pelled him to pay a bonus. long servants, William B. pensioned them Thus, by fifty years' incessant labor, buy­ himself. He was educated at Gottingen, af­ ing vacant property, which rapidly became fected the society of literary men, and even available for building, and reinvesting the took a shy at authorship himself. He early income in more farms, Astor became the became a partner with his father in the fur richest man in America. And what was the business, and dealt largely in real estate. His nature of the man himself, outside of these uncle Henry, the original American Astor, sordid details ? He was not popular in his left him a large amount of choice property. generation, and is treated somewhat harshly He was thus rich in his own right, and had by contemporary commentators. He had no several millions when his father died. In some ways he was even a better judge of real pity for backward tenants. James Parton estate. The greatest family possession, the tells how Astor was tossed in a blanket for Thompson farm, on which the Waldorf- exercise in his last days, and between throws Astoria now stands, was his acquisition. anxiously inquired whether certain back­ Father and son rigidly attended to business sliders had paid up. The picture, however, in the same office — a little one-story building is not unrelieved by an occasional human in Prince Street, just east of Broadway. Their touch. Here and there are stray tributes to constant companion there was Fitzgreene Astor's honesty. Philip Hone testifies that

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ACQUIRED BY JOHN JACOB AS TOR Street. This was obtained for ^25,000 by foreclosure of a mortgage — now worth ^20,000,000 G. Vnitt in tlje new Astor hotel Halleck — Marco Bozzaris Halleck. Halleck Mr. Astor and his son, William B., stood ad­ became a clerk for Astor in 1832, and miring it from City Hall Park. worked seventeen years. The employment, "Well, William, what do you think of it ?" he himself said, was not "profitable, but asked the proud proprietor. permanent." Astor warned him when he be­ The young man expressed his admiration gan not to talk to anyone of his wealth. The in appropriate terms. "two men became great friends. Halleck spent "William, it's yours," replied the old man. months with his patron at his country seat, And, indeed, a few days later John Jacob and became one of the trustees of the Astor conveyed the property to William Backhouse Library. The poet frequently rallied the Astor, the consideration being "one Spanish old man on his wealth, " Why, Mr. Astor," he milled dollar and love and affection." Bold would say, "if I had $200 a year and as was the experiment, the Astor House was was sure of it I would be content." The a good revenue producer. In 1850, WilHam great land-owner took him at his word, and B. Astor obtained an annual income of in his will, much to the amusement of Bo­ 130,000 from it. hemian New York,'left Halleck an annuity To his children, indeed, Astor was always of $200. kind. Each of his daughters on her marriage The Astor House is a monument to the af­ received a hberal, though not extravagant, fection between father and son. This build­ dot. He himself always lived, not lavishly, ing was the outcome of a vow made by John but dignifiedly. He had a handsome town Jacob early in life. When a young man, house on the west side of Broadway, between Astor was disgusted at the sensation caused Prince and Houston Streets, a country place by a new Broadway " mansion." " Some day at Hoboken, another at Hell Gate. In the lat­ I'll build a better house on this very street," ter, then far out in the country — the house he said. Years afterward, in fulfilling this stood in the middle of what is now Eighty- pledge, he selected a great preserve of fash­ eighth Street, east of Avenue A— he spent his ion— the block between Vesey and Barclay last years. Here he frequently entertained Streets. One of the houses he owned him­ Washington Irving. Astor was not without self, the rest he bought, paying about $30,000 vanity. He was ambitious, for example, that each. He struck a tartar in John G. Coster, his Astoria enterprise be written up, and the last to move — one of the few men who importuned Irving to undertake it, offering squeezed Astor in a real estate deal. For handsome compensation. The work was two years and more they fenced over the written at Astor's Hell Gate home. " For up­ price, Astor finally being compelled to pay ward of a month," wrote Irving in 1835, "I Coster |6o,ooo, or just twice what the others have been quartered at Hell Gate with Mr. had received. The Astor House cost about Astor, and I have not had so quiet and de­ |6oo,ooo. It was commonly described as a lightful a rest since I have been in America. Palais Royal. It was, indeed, a noble pile, He has a spacious and well-built house, with as much a marvel with Europeans as Ameri­ a lawn in front of it and a garden in the rear. cans. A few days "after it was finished, old The lawn sweeps to the water's edge, and full

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED •;^M\fM I Drawn by Jules Giicn'n THOMPSON FARM AS IT LOOKS TO-DAY Half of this tract, extending from Thirty-second to Thirty-sixth Street on both sides of Fifth Avenue, was bought in 1826 for $25 000. V is now worth $35,000,000

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED BURTON J. HENDRICK 573 in front of the house is the httle strait of Hell in fact, never began the building, but did Gate, which forms a constantly moving pic­ provide $450,000 for it in his will. He died ture. Here the old gentleman keeps a kind in March, 1848, aged eighty-four. of bachelor's hall. Halleck, the poet, lives Astor had invested about $2,000,000 in with him. The only other member of his New York real estate. At his death its value family is his grandson, a fine boy of fourteen was $20,000,000. When William B. Astor died, years of age (Charles Astor Bristed). I can­ in 1876, it had increased to 1100,000,000. not tell you how sweet and delightful I have By 1890, competent authorities estimated it found the place." Elsewhere Irving bears at more than $250,000,000. The total Astor witness that Mr. Astor is a " strong-minded holdings now, distributed among several man, and one from whose conversation much branches of the family, amount to at least curious information is to be derived." In $450,000,000. Here, evidently, we have a spite of this, other pictures of Astor's last most notable instance of the unearned incre­ days are not agreeable. His health was ment. When John Jacob died, the NewYork poor, his faculties somewhat impaired. He Herald, in an editorial article, gravely sug­ was affected by that millionaire's malady — a gested that his property be divided in two disordered stomach — and in his last days parts, one-half to go to his heirs, the other to was nourished at a woman's breast. Phihp the City of New York. For it was not Astor's Hone dined at Hell Gate in 1844. "Mr. As­ energy or genius, said the Herald, which had tor," he records, "presented a painful spec­ made him so rich ; it was the city's commerce, tacle of the insufficiency of wealth to prolong its fashion, its men of progress and enlighten­ the life of man." In the letters of Joseph ment, which had converted his goat-farms Green Coggswell, Astor's "companion" and and swamps into the richest rent-bearing first librarian of the Astor Library, we have a soil. The owner of great railroads or steel rather pathetic picture of his last years. corporations must constantly nurse his About 1835 he began to form plans for his one fortune, must join in the competition for public benefaction — the Astor Library — improved methods and the indispensable but constantly hesitated. The library was men. Under these conditions, a great fortune wrenched from him by main strength. Coggswell was at him day and night. " Had is a great burden, maintained only by con­ I not foreseen," he writes, in 1838, "that stant vigilance. The whole Astor family, this object would never have been effected however, could sleep for a hundred years, and unless someone had been at the old gentle­ at the end find that their riches had grown man's elbow, to push him on, I should a hundredfold. All the economic and social have left New York long since." Astor forces which have made New York the was so fond of Coggswell that he paid American metropolis have, entirely without him $1,500 a year to live in his house their instigation, also made their wealth. and talk German with him. To this per­ John Jacob was a capitalist of the leisurely sonal attachment we owe the library. In school. He was in no great hurry to benefit 1840 Coggswell reports that everything was by his land operations. The Astor empire all settled; then, a month later, that the could always wait. It is not quite true that "whole form is knocked into pi." His he never sold any land, but, in general, he patron "keeps shrinking from a decision." held tenaciously to what he bought. Hardly Finally, in March, 1842, Irving offered Coggs­ was he securely interested in the city's most well the post of secretary to the Legation at strategic points, however, before it began to Madrid. Astor begged him with tears not to grow. As in obedience to a natural law, its leave. Coggswell finally consented to stay growth almost invariably tended along the on one condition — that his patron definitely line of Astor's purchases. Astor himself did settle the library question. Then again nothing to encourage this. The city fathers Astor consented. Yet, a month later, Coggs-' ran streets through his farms, laid out parks, well writes : " Immediately after the first of and otherwise embellished the neighbor­ April I began with him about the building, hoods— usually, however, against Astor's when he got together architects, masons, will. He was not fond of paying, assess­ contractors, etc., and just as all seemed to be ments, even when he gained enormously going on rightly he got into one of his ner­ thereby. Nor did he tempt the population vous fits, and as yet I have not been able to to settle upon his lands. In fact, his bring him back to the work again." Astor, business policy in every way discouraged it. As his plots became available for building.

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 574 THE ASTOR FORTUNE

naturally he had many offers to sell, frequent­ his property was usually the last built upon. ly made by people who would put up ornate For years many of his great holdings stood buildings that would greatly improve the vacant, oases surrounded by the buildings of value of the remaining property. Astor more progressive men. Not all of it is built turned them off scornfully. Well, then, upon even now. Great blocks of land, pur­ would Mr. Astor himself erect the building chased by John Jacob Astor a hundred years and rent it on fair terms ? Then again Astor ago, still stand unused in what are to-day withdrew into his shell. The people became thriving locations. Property worth millions urgent. Here were hundreds of acres; the of dollars is utilized for coal-sheds, black­ city was rapidly growing around them. Why smith-shops, and lumber-yards. At first it did not Mr. Astor erect dwelling-houses, seemed as though no greater blight could fall from which he was sure to obtain a large in­ upon a section than to have Astor buy near come? Still Astor sullenly held back. To it. Every hvely operator knew that the every inquiry he gave the same ultimatum: Astor land would lie neglected, and naturally would not purchase or build within gunshot of it. John Jacob, however, was never wor­ ried nor annoyed. He knew that he had se­ lected the inevitable sites of business or resi­ dence, and that ultimately the pubhc would be forced to accept his terms. So gradually the larger part of his real estate was leased and improved. As the leases fell in, Astor became the owner of scores of tenements, dwelhngs, and business buildings which had cost him nothing. How his policy has im­ peded progress is graphically shown by that section of Broadway between Thirty-fourth and Forty-second Streets, where several blocks are owned by collateral Astor de­ scendants. They are covered by one and two-story buildings, in the heart of a great hotel, theater, and shopping district. The owners will not sell and will not build ; and up to date no business men have seen their

Vtr HKF "^r-^ way clear to accepting their terms. — „ —I ^ ^S.e„»^^,e--. Astor himself might sleep, but the great FIRST OFFICE OF THE ASTOR ESTATE city inevitably marched on. While he held Prince Street, East of Broadwiiy back, that he might eat his cake and have it " 1 will not sell my land. I will not put up too, the busy brains and sinews of progres­ buildings on it. One thing, and one thing sive Americans worked day and night mak­ only, will I do." That is, he would lease the ing New York great, and, unconsciously, ground. Any citizen attracted by one of making John Jacob Astor the richest man of Astor's lots could obtain the use of it for his time. When DeWitt Clinton projected twenty-one years. He must erect his dwell­ the Erie Canal, he became the leading pro­ ing at his own expense and, when the ground moter of the Astor fortune. This diverted lease expired, this dwelling became the abso­ the great trade of the West to New York, and lute property of Astor. The tenant, mean­ increased its population by hundreds of while, in addition to paying rent on the basis thousands. In whatever direction these of five or six per cent of the value of the land, new citizens turned, they were obliged to seek paid all taxes, made all repairs, and became their dwelling-places on Astor land. The responsible for all charges. Thus year after builders of the railroads and steamship lines year Astor compelled his fellow-citizens to terminating at New York were equally the improve his property, pay his taxes, and a builders of the Astor estate. Immigration has doubled and tripled it. From 1840 to yearly tribute besides. Astor imported the 1850 came a wretched mass of Germans and idea, of course, from Europe, which became Irish, setthng mainly on the lower east side. accustomed to it centuries ago; but it was At first the Astors were alarmed. Their never popular in New York. As a result.

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED BURTON J. HENDRICK 575 great holdings there were tenanted by the re­ a popular shopping section. The owners of spectability and wealth of New York, which several of the largest department stores — fled before the unsavory influx. The Astor Altman ; Simpson, Crawford ; Siegel, Coop­ lands thus seemed in danger of depreciation. er; et al — were obliged to lease land here On the contrary, they grew in value. The from the Astors. In spite of this, William httle dwellings which had previously shelter­ B. Astor fought the enterprise. The Sub­ ed one family, now housed three and four and way makes available for apartment houses five. Consequently they yielded a greater large blocks of Astor land now vacant. The revenue. About 1880 began an invasion of several inventors of the elevator and the Russian and Polish Jews, who gradually steel system of construction are the greatest forced out the Irish and Germans. More re­ cently the Jews have been displaced in part by Italians; The more wretched the immi grants, the more valuable the land becomes For with immigration has grown the tene ment system. The three-story gabled houses built in John Jacob's day are replaced b} five, six, and seven story barracks. Fre quently one hundred people are sheltered on the same amount of land that fifty years ago furnished room for five and six. The soil is thus cultivated intensively. William Wal­ dorf Astor makes twenty blades of grass grow where John Jacob planted one. On the East Side to-day is the greatest Jewish community in the world, containing some 700,000 souls In the Eleventh Ward there are more people to the acre than in the slums of Calcutta and Bombay. For three or four unventilated rooms in an Astor tenement the wretched Pole or Russian pays more than a cozy, three- story dwelling cost in John Jacob's time. Great public improvements, for which the Astors can claim no credit, and which, in PRESENT OFFICE OF THE ASTOR ESTATE deed, they sometimes opposed, have helped T^cciUy-sixlb Street, West of Broadway to make them rich. The very city plan, adopted by a commission appointed in 1807, contributors to Astor wealth. Here was most unsatisfactory from the standpoint of something of which John Jacob, when pur­ beauty and convenience, has been highly chasing the old Knickerbocker farms, never profitable to them. When Broadway was dreamed. His imagination could picture run through from the City Hall to Fourteenth thousands of business buildings and dwell­ Street, it bisected several large plots pur­ ings, all tributary to his descendants, but chased by John Jacob, and gave him valuable he could not see that some day his little frontages. North of FourteentL Street, the leafy town would cease growing laterally, old Bloomingdale Road, now Broadway, and suddenly start into the air. One mor­ was the only great Manhattan thoroughfare ning the Astors woke up and found that retained. Had this, like the other country they had acre after acre of land, previously roads, been cut out, the Astors would be sev­ useful for four or five-story structures, upon eral millions poorer. Its elimination, for which twenty and twenty-five story office exam.ple, would have largely destroyed the buildings and hotels could be built. The value of the Eden farm, already described. humble inventor of the elevator had thus Again, the great thoroughfares. Fourth, Fifth, doubled and tripled their wealth. The old and Sixth Avenues, ran directly through Astor House plot, which previously was great Astor tracts, now used for the most worth $2,000,000, suddenly acquired a valu­ profitable retail trade. The influence of all ation of 15,000,000. transit changes has been important. The Elevated Road converted Sixth Avenue into Let us see how, in one specific case, the forces upbuilding New York have contributed

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 576 THE ASTOR FORTUNE to the Astor wealth. Take the Thompson this was also owned by the'Astors. So he farm — a tract extending east and west of will continue handing over a considerable Fifth Avenue from Thirty-second up to percentage of his receipts. Thirty-fourth Thirty-sixth Street. William Backhouse Street, from Fifth to Sixth Avenue, accord­ Astor purchased one-half of this in 1826 for ing to conservative investors, will be a great­ $25,000; it was then mostly marsh and er shopping street than Twenty-third. Lots rock. In 1841 a single lot sold at auction for on the south side and the north side of Thirty- 11,200. It is recorded that, when it was third Street now average in value about knocked down, "a universal titter went $200,000. The Astors own forty-two. Thus through the room" — the price was so ludi­ the drift of population and great public im­ crously large ! A few weeks ago this very provements have increased the Astor invest­ lot sold for $400,000. The mere cutting of ment in this district from $25,000 to about Fifth and Madison Avenues through this $35,000,000. If the present rate of increase estate was worth millions to the Astors. goes on twenty years more, this $35,000,000 Fashion pressed up from Washington Square will swell to $ 100,000,000. How values grow until, about i860, it reached the Thompson — as well as the profits derivable from an swamp. Where the Waldorf-Astoria now Astor connection — is shown in an episode stands, William B.'s two sons, John Jacob in the life of George Boldt, lessee of III and William, built the two famous the Waldorf-Astoria. Mr. Boldt was really Astor houses. Alexander T. Stewart lo­ a poor man when he was engaged by cated at Thirty-fourth street, in the splen­ William Waldorf Astor, in 1893, ^'^ man­ did palace recently torn down. It is only age the new hotel. In 1900, however, after with the last wave of prosperity, however, six years, he had accumulated enough to buy and the consequent utilization of Fifth Ave­ the southeast corner of Thirty-seventh Street nue for business, that its full possibilities and Fifth Avenue for $1,200,000. A year have been realized. About three years ago ago he sold the plot for $2,000,000 — making R. H. Macy located just beyond the western a clear $700,000 in two years — the greatest border-of the Thompson farm. The Rapid speculative profit ever made on one parcel Transit Subway skirts its eastern edge. With­ of New York real estate. That was merely in a stone's throw is now building the new a crumb that dropped from the Astor tabfe. $50,000,000 Pennsylvania Railroad terminal. Indeed, the Astor properties now increase Its tunnel will bisect the old Thompson es­ as never before. Land values, in the last five tate. These corporations, of course, have years, have jumped fifty and one hundred not located here with the idea of increasing per cent. The forces already described have the Astor wealth, but that has been the effect. been especially marked since 1900. The Thus, at present, there is a stampede among city's population grows at the rate of 100,000 the most expensive retail establishments for a year. In many sections New York has a building on Astor land. It is now the rec­ been largely reconstructed ; new headquar­ ognized headquarters of the " carriage trade." ters of retail-trade and business have devel­ Banks are settling on Thirty-fourth Street. oped ; pubHc improvements initiated since Tiffany is building a twelve-story store at then — tunnels, bridges, subways, railroad Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street; terminals — aggregate in cost not far from Gorham Mfg.Co., at Fifth Avenue and Thirty- $300,000,000. There has been a general sixth Street. The latter concern will annu­ movement of corporations toward New ally pay William Waldorf Astor $36,000 for York; practically all the newly organized the privilege of erecting its own building on combinations, for example, have located fifty feet of land. The greatest change of all, there. When John Jacob died, in 1890, his however, is the new Altman store, which will estate, inherited by William Waldorf, was es­ occupy all the block from Fifth to Madi­ timated at $150,000,000. If it were worth son Avenue, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth that then, it is worth $300,000,000 now. The Streets. When Benjamin Altman built on estate of William Astor, who died in 1892, in­ Sixth Avenue, in 1878, he found that the As­ herited by the present John Jacob, was gen­ tor family owned precisely the land he need­ erally placed at about $65,000,000. If that ed, and has been paying them handsomely were an accurate figure, it must now aggre­ ever since. Almost a year ago he selected gate at least $100,000,000. The combined the above Fifth Avenue location as Astor fortune thus increases with accelerated suited to his needs. And the larger part of momentum. In fifteen or twenty years, at

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED BURTON J. HENDRICK 577 the present rate of progress, it will have Transit Subway through the heart of the reached the billion mark. And then it will Astor properties in the Bronx! go on even faster, until the ordinary mind is The Astor policy of inaction, however, is appalled at the portentous figures. We have most expensive to themselves. This is strik­ seen that the $2,000,000 invested by John ingly shown by the difference in the fortunes Jacob has multiplied at least two hundred of William Waldorf and John Jacob. The times in one hundred years. If the same rate former, as already noted, owns at least three be maintained for another century, the Astor times as much property as his cousin. Their fortune will attain the unimaginable total of respective fathers, however, started even. In eighty billions. We stand aghast at such a 1876 William Backhouse Astor's 1100,000,- possibility; but not more so than would have 000 was divided equally between them. John John Jacob's contemporaries had they fore­ Jacob III, the father of William Waldorf, seen the present reality. In 1830 John Jacob was the best of the Astors. He enlisted in Astor was the only man in New York who the Civil War and joined General McClellan's was worth a million dollars. staff. He was something of a scholar, giv­ The Astors of to-day are preparing for this ing up much time to the Astor Library. With stupendous future. Their great incomes, as his wife, a woman of exceptionally beautiful already said, are not spent in charity or gen­ character, he was unobtrusively charitable. eral benevolence. The usual forms of invest­ He worked hard; could invariably be found ment, except at rare intervals, do not appeal at certain hours at his office, and invested 10 them. They are wedded to the soil. The his income with good judgment. Above all, spirit of old John Jacob still inspires his he somewhat relaxed the prevailing Astor descendants. William Waldorf and John conservatism ; made more liberal leases, en­ Jacob have profited enormously from the couraged the improvement of his properties, foresight of their great-grandfather, and even put up a few important buildings him­ likewise intend that future generations of self. William, on the other hand, lived in Astors shall profit from theirs. We h^ve the penumbra of his brother's popularity; seen how John Jacob sold his Wall Street spent httle time in New York; cared more house and reinvested the money in outlying for his horses and yachts than for business or sections. William Waldorf and John Jacob " society''; and left the management of his do the same. In the last ten years they have property to agents. It was a great neglected sold whole blocks of East Side income-produ­ estate. The income, while absolutely very cing land. This was all leased to tenants who large, bore little relation to the capital value. had erected tenements, their sole source of In a lesser degree, similar conditions prevail income, and who naturally created a distur­ in the present generation. William Waldorf, in bance when their holdings were about to be spite of his absurdities, is a man of brains and turned over to outsiders. The Astors have character, and his property, according to the adopted the fixed policy, now, in selling their opinion of the best observers, is far more ca­ East Side lots, to offer them first, at reason­ pably managed than his cousin's, and grows able prices, to those who own the buildings. in value much faster. The William Waldorf With the money thus obtained, William Wal­ office seldom errs, runs like clockwork, and is dorf and John Jacob have gone far up into noted for its fair dealings. Perhaps the the Bronx, where the land is partly wood scheme of organization is somewhat respon­ and partly farm, and purchased hundreds of acres. Now, like the Thompson farm, when sible for this. William Waldorf owns abso­ William B. Astor bought it, these great lutely in fee simple all his properties. John tracts are all but worthless; but sometime, Jacob, however, owns outright only a small perhaps ten, perhaps twenty, fifty or a part. He simply has the income; his estate is hundred years hence, they will be used for managed by three trustees, of whom he him­ residences, office buildings, and hotels. The self is one. William Astor recognized William Astors are in no hurry. They will be content Waldorf's ability, and in his original will also to vrait until the enterprise of others has made him a trustee. After the two cousins made these Bronx farms profitable; then they quarreled, however, this nomination was will let them out on the old leasehold plan. withdrawn. Though now upon bad terms That they have selected wisely, is already ev­ personally, William Waldorf and John ident. Only the other day the city authori­ Jacob frequently have to work together in ties solemnly voted to extend the Rapid business. Each owns, for example, half the Waldorf-Astoria, managed as one hotel.

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 57^ SONG and also one-half of the old Astor House. great store on Sixth Avenue, just north of an John Jacob also flatters William Waldorf by Astor block. So he went up to the Astor es­ imitation. The latter can hardly make a tate and blandly leased the latter property move not obediently followed by his cousin. at the prevailing valuation. As soon as the He builds the Waldorf, and demonstrates its Siegel-Cooper store was up, he easily sublet success; John Jacob follows with the Astoria. at a greatly increased rental. The disad­ He goes up to Longacre Square and builds vantage of their leasehold system is that the Hotel Astor; John Jacob takes the hint leased property, by increasing suddenly in and puts up the Knickerbocker. The William value, may enormously profit the holders. Waldorf office is much more businesslike The Astors were badly caught by the great than John Jacob's. His great estate is man­ property increase dating from 1899. They aged by a force of seven clerks, while John had let out hundreds of lots on the old valu­ Jacob, who has only one-third the property, ations, which have appreciated fifty to one struggles along with twenty. hundred per cent. Their tenants, by sub­ William Waldorf now spends a certain letting, have profited greatly. The trick part of his income in new buildings. He has turned against Trinity Church by old John sensibly recognized that conditions have Jacob has been revived to plague his de­ changed; that the great cost of modern scendants. buildings is a reason why they cannot be However, the Astors will not starve. Their erected in great numbers on-leased land. Old fortune rests upon an absolutely secure basis. Jacob would stand aghast at the millions There is no accident, except confiscation, now put by William Waldorf and, in fewer which can make them poor. The discovery instances, by John Jacob, into great hotels, of some new illuminant might make useless commercial buildings, and apartment houses. the present source of the Rockefeller wealth. In the main, however, all the Astors adhere The collapse of the steel industry would en­ to the original Astor scheme, and have also danger the Carnegie fortune. A successful succeeded in persuading many investors to airship might depreciate enormously the put up great office buildings and stores on riches founded upon railroads. But what­ their properties. Probably the Astors ever industrial revolutions there may be, the derive less, proportionately, from their land itself will be perennially useful. It is properties than other holders. Not in­ one of the necessities of life, like light and air frequently more wide-awake people profit and food. Thus did John Jacob Astor build at their expense. One lively real estate ope­ better than the really great creators of rator had advance information, a few years wealth. He took out a first mortgage on Fate ago, that Siegel & Cooper were to build a itself.

SONG

BY

A. E. HOUSMAN

OVELIEST of trees, the cherry now L Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten. And since to look at things in bloom Twenty will not come again. Fifty springs are little room. And take from seventy springs a score, About the woodlands I will go It only leaves me fifty more. To see the cherry hung with snow. " A Shropshire Lad '

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