The Vanderbilts Lie at Last in Quaint New Dorp
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Though They Roam 'Midst Pleasures and Palaces The Vanderbilts Lie at Last in Quaint New Dorp A Quiet Hillside on Statten Island Is the Burial Plot of the Family By Arnold Prince similar residence on Fifth Avenue ANOTHER of the Vander- and Fifty-second Street. bilts has been placed beside Cornelius was an aristocratic look¬ his fathers in the family ing man, with fair features and a mausoleum in the placid, narrow, finely modeled head. But inconspicuous little hamlet of New for the fact that he wore no side Dorp, Staten Island. whiskers he would have looked much like the old and this When alive he in a sense, a Commodore, was, may be said also of William. Wil¬ citizen of the world, although, of liam never severed his alle¬ was, perhaps, better looking course, he than either of giance to the United States, the the others, and, in land of his birth. His great wealth fact, had little of the appearance of the business man and enabled him to move about at wilL. financier. He looked more like a man For this good fortune he was in¬ destined the thrift and of for society than the money marts, debted to energy and this his sturdy grandfather of Dutch an¬ impression was heightened tecedents, who piled up an amazing by the slight wave of his abundant lot of in a few years. He hair, the part in the middle of it, money and the smooth was able to go where he liked, and fresh, complexion. home of the Van- he liked the interesting places. In Home To Be Buried *piRSTderbilts at New Dorp, New York he had a home built after But a strain as as that Staten Island a famous château which is still sturdy pointed out by megaphone to visitors laid by the old Commodore and his on sightseeing busses. He had an¬ tenacious forbears cannot be ex¬ other at Newport, the social capital tinguished by any manner of wear¬ of the and a on country, ^hird Long ing the hair or the color of a tie, Island. He had a residence in Paris and when Cornelius passed on and and two estates in France outside Willie K. succeeded to the the capital. leader- Knew the World's Capitals He was familiar with the capi¬ tals of Europe, had more than a speaking acquaintance with royalty, and in his more youthful days at least, when he desired to make a trip across any of the seven seas, did not have to wait for the car¬ riers catering to ordinary travelers. He had a yacht generally described in the newspapers as a K. "floating pal¬ ff\Y* ace," and could go where and when watchingVANDERBILj]a race at Av? he liked, without stopping to make teuil, France reservations or troubling to find out whether his stateroom had a port tensively aboard this yacht, touchinf opening on the ocean or was too at many ports in interesting lands, near the propeller to be comforta¬ ble. His later years, however, were de¬ He lived in the voted to winning triumphs in other splendid places mausoleum at the old family home at New of the world, but after death his THEStaten in which the Dorp, fields. He became a patron oí tí» body, in with the family Island, body of W. K. Vanderbilt French and keeping was * turf, his entries wot was taken back to New laid traditions, many notable prizes, tin Dorp, the small community on the including outskirts of Staten Island where he withdrawn because of the Crimean business leadership of the family. Grand Prix de Paris and the Prend was born. It rests there now in a War, and built three of the finest He built two princely mansions, the Derby. He had a superb stud firs tomb whieh is impressive enough in gate at Idle and fastest steamers between New one on Fifth Avenue and the other called Le Quesnoy in Normandy así appearance, but in *-*PNTRANCE surroundings Hour, one of the Vander- York City and Havre. in Newport. That on Fifth Avenue racing stables at Poissy-St. Look contrasting sharply with the bril¬ He to invest in the stocks bilt homes began is He went about a great deal in so¬ liance usually associated with the of the New York & New Haven elaborate wich carvings, decora¬ name of Vanderbilt. tions and furnishings selected ciety, and the entertainments gira ship, he himself a true Van- Railroad, and gradually transferred by proved by hira were never in sump From New Dorp he had come derbilt. A touch of reserve in his his capital from shipping to rail¬ experts. The exterior is of brick lacking and to New he returned. road He tuousness of detail or il Dorp manner kept him from being as enterprises. bought heavily and light Bedford stone, the archi¬ costliness The name of this of the shares of the New York & Vanderbilt was popular in his young days as some tecture being u graceful reproduc¬ arrangement. William Kissam Vanderbilt. He died of the other members of the Harlem Railroad, the Hudson River family, tion of the French château. It re¬ The Finest in his home at Paris on July 22 last. and he never aspired to be known Railroad and the New ifork Central Farm in France father was William Railroad. Several mains one of the few homes of the His Henry Van¬ as particularly democratic; but still stocîV transac¬ He was frequently at his place it derbilt, eldest son of that Commo¬ tions in which he rich on Fifth Avenue which has re¬ afterward, when society and horse 1NTtKN¿T°M- flHOJO badly squeezed Normandy, and those who had ti» dore Cornelius Vanderbilt who built racing in Paris claimed most of his his competitors in the market added sisted conversion into a business good fortune to be admitted wen up the transportation system and attention, he never forgot to pay AND MRS. largely to his fortune. He procured establishment. with the wealth. W. K. warm in their to it family his home land a visit at least once MR.VANDERBILT. Above an act in the Legislature for the The other home in Newport, description of Loyal to Staten Island a year, and his last journey was is an iyidividual photograph consolidation of the New York Cen- known as The Breakers, was built beauty. The farm was nst only tie made a few months before his death. finest in France W Although Willie K., as he wat of Mrs. Vanderbilt <*,- in appointments, He was in his seventy-first year it was also the in «extoat called in former days, traveled about when he largest died, and when he was in The a great deal and lived most of hit his final illness he directed that his hills in this part of the count! later years in Paris and other Euro¬ body be taken overseas and placed are strikingly berautifu!, and tb pean cities, he remained loyal tc in the sepulchre at New Dorp, a wide acres of Le Quesnoy were «ni- America and New Dorp. In this h« place which comparatively few New ditionally decorated by the wonder- displayed some of the Dutch char¬ Yorkers know very much about. fui château. acteristics which distinguished hit As to this fidelity to New Dorp, Here the American millionsi» father and grandfather. There was the of is that explanation, course, would much of his Sw¬ a great similarity between the three it saw the beginning of the Van- spend time, men, and, in fact, they looked much derbilts as a family of great wealth ing exhilaration in thft landicsp» alike. They were good looking, and and social position. It was there and surroundings. it was this very fact, perhaps, thai that some of the earliest Vander- A visitor who spent some time ¦ caused the old commodore to enter¬ bilt settled more than 200 pioneers the château this w tain some doubts as to the business; years ago, and it was the home of recently gave capacity of Willie K. and his broth« the hard-headed old Commodore scription of it: Cornelius, who died twenty-one yean when he began his career by ferry¬ "Gracefully proportioned pe# ago. ing passengers and goods in his menta and tourelles and a miniat*» The old commodore was own boat between New York and what we S>-' donjon tower, windows of cha* in this age are pleased to call an old- Staten Island. portation along the shores of New IDLE HOUR, W. K. Van- ing outline and a terrace of di» . fashioned man, with Tenacious of its trait» as 1 on the site of the wêoden mansion old-fashioned the Van- derbilt's home » 1 ideas as to York Bay and the Hudson River. at Oakdale, tinctly Italian suggestion, are " thrift and and derbilt family itself, New has of the same name which Mr. Vander- character, Dorp In 1827 he leased the ferry be¬ Long Island atom onoe, when discussing his two grand- clung to its site on the island across bilt bought from Pierre Lorillard. in a softly luminous white sons in the tween New York City and Elizabeth, fot general and his views oh bay; not particularly beautiful N. tral and the Hudson which dark masses of luxuriant boys in he said: to look nor nor J., thereby materially increasing River com¬ William K. Becomes Head particular, upon, fashionable, his income. He to build 'age set off behind and on eith* a in full began ships panies; he bought a controlling in¬ All "If boy is good for anything you distinguished, but posses¬ of the latest which he the riches and splendors that side, and which contrasts again wi» can stick him down and sion of its native virility and ancient design, placed terest in the Lake Shore, the Can¬ anywhere into competition with those of the money' could command went into a great of shaded ft** hell earn his and some characteristics.