William Kissam Vanderbilt I (December 12, 1849 – July 22, 1920) was an American heir, businessman, philanthropist, and horse breeder. 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, New York, on Staten Island. His parents were Maria Louisa Kissam and William Henry Vanderbilt, 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, Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt, Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, Florence Adele Vanderbilt, Frederick William Vanderbilt, Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt, and George Washington Vanderbilt II.
Vanderbilt and Mrs Vanderbilt signed the Wallace Collection's visitors book, page 72, at Manchester Square, London, June 27, 1883
Career
Vanderbilt inherited $55 million (equal to about $2 billion today) from his father in 1885. 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 1881, 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:
Critérium de Maisons-Laffitte: Prestige (1905), Northeast (1907), Montrose II (1911)
Critérium de Saint-Cloud: Illinois II (1901), Marigold (1902)
Grand Critérium: Prestige (1905), Montrose II (1911)
Grand Prix de Deauville: Turenne (1904), Maintenon (1906)
Grand Prix de Paris: Northeast (1908), Brumelli (1917)
Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud: Maintenon (1906), Sea Sick (1908), Oversight (1910)
Poule d'Essai des Poulains: McKinley (1919)
Prix de Guiche: Negofol (1909), McKinley (1919)
Prix de la Forêt: Prestige (1905), Montrose II (1911, dead-heat), Pétulance (1911, dead-heat)
Personal life
On April 20, 1875, Vanderbilt married his first wife, Alva Erskine Smith, daughter of Murray Forbes Smith and Phoebe Ann Desha. Together, they had three children:
Consuelo Vanderbilt (born March 2, 1877)
William Kissam Vanderbilt II (born on October 26, 1878)
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (born on July 6, 1884)
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 $390 million today). The grounds for divorce were adultery, allegedly including with the Duchess of Manchester. Alva remarried to one of their old family friends, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, on January 11, 1896.
In 1903, Vanderbilt married Anne Harriman, daughter of banker Oliver Harriman. They had no children together. She was a widow to sportsman Samuel Stevens Sands Jr. and to Lewis Morris Rutherfurd Jr.
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).
In 1907, Vanderbilt and his second wife built Château Vanderbilt, a Louis XIII-style manor house along with three thoroughbred race tracks in Carrières-sous-Poissy, an hour outside Paris and on the route to Deauville, famous for its horse racing.
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.
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 on July 22, 1920. His remains were brought home and interred in the Vanderbilt family mausoleum 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.
Vanderbilt was a founding member of the Jekyll Island Club also known as the Millionaires Club, on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
Estate
Following his death, Vanderbilt's gross estate was valued at $54,530,966.59; after deductions for debts, administrative costs, attorney’s fees, the net value of the estate was appraised at $50,222,842.23, from which $1,934,571.73 in New York State estate tax and $11,459,290.16 in federal estate tax was payable.
During his lifetime, Vanderbilt had made over $20,000,000 in financial provisions for several members of his family, including:
$2,250,000 in New York Central Railroad Bonds placed in trust for the benefit of his second wife on 1 May 1917, which was increased to $8,250,000 in 1918;
15,000 shares each (valued at approximately $1.1 million each) in shares in the New York Central Railway which he transferred to his sons William K. Vanderbilt Jr and Harold S. Vanderbilt in 1918-19;
A $5,000,000 marriage settlement for his daughter Consuelo in 1895, consisting of
A $2,500,000 Trust for the benefit of the 9th Duke of Marlborough and his descendants; and,
A $100,000 annual allowance for the benefit of Consuelo during her father's lifetime, with a covenant to pay $2,500,000 from his estate following his death.
An additional $5,000,000 Trust fund settled on Consuelo and her descendants in 1912; and
A further $450,000 transferred to his sons in 1919 to hold upon Trust for Consuelo and her descendants.
Vanderbilt's will bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his two sons; William Kissam Vanderbilt II received $21,252,757.38, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt received $21,739,867.38.
A summary of the contents of the Will, published by the law firm Anderson & Anderson and widely reported in the press, outlined the following principal bequests: