JANUARY 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 77
By ANNIE WILKINSON
Any fool can make a fortune; it takes
a man of brains to hold onto it.
—Cornelius Vanderbilt
From the North Shore’s Gold Coast
to the South Shore, they lived
golden lives during the Gilded Age.
But their scandal-ridden hijinks
sullied their reputations and their
fortunes nearly vanished, leaving
only a dusty picture fading into
history.
The dynasty began with Cornelius
Vanderbilt. Born into poverty in
Staten Island in 1794, he left school
at age 11 to work with his father’s
ferry business. At age 16 his mother
loaned him $100 to start a Long
Island Sound ferry; undercutting
the competition, he made $1,000
that year, then expanded to the
Hudson River and New England.
His character was despicable: One
descendant said Cornelius was
“Illiterate, bad-tempered and foulmouthed,”
and would “spit streams
of tobacco juice and fondle the
maids.” His philandering infected
him and his wife, first cousin
Sophia Johnson, with syphilis
when he was 19. He ignored his
daughters, insulted his sons, and
committed family members to
lunatic asylums.
He sold his shipping empire, bought
New York Central and Long Island
Rail Road, built Grand Central
Station, and acquired ocean liners
worth $100 million when he died at
age 82, the richest American man
disinherited all offspring except
his eldest son, William Henry
“Billy” Vanderbilt. Billy doubled his
inheritance before dying in 1885,
leaving much of his $200 million to
his son, William Kissam Vanderbilt I.
LET THE SPENDING
BEGIN
Like banks deemed too big to fail,
the Vanderbilts’ wealth seemed
invincible. They collected fine
art, donated millions, endowed
a university, and endured legal
Willie K. Vanderbilt’s Eagle Nest mansion in Centerport
battles—a $10 million divorce,
a custody battle over a child
worth $5 million—and other
scandals. They outdid each other
by “Vanderbuilding” palaces for
worshipping late 19th-century
opulence.
Near what is now Connetquot
River State Park Preserve, William
Kissam Vanderbilt I established his
900-acre Oakdale hunting retreat/
holiday residence in 1876. The
estate boasted a 110-room mansion,
palm house, bowling alley, English
maze, and game pen with deer and
elk. The mansion burned down
repeatedly—first in 1899, during
the honeymoon of his son William
Kissam Vanderbilt Jr.—but the
couple escaped and the mansion
was rebuilt. It served as part of
Dowling College but was auctioned
last year after Dowling declared
bankruptcy. Preservationists are
lobbying against demolition and
redevelopment.
William Kissam Vanderbilt II
(Willie K.), a Harvard dropout
who pursued speed sports, travel,
and natural history, started
developing his park-like, 560-acre
“Success Lake” Deepdale estate
in 1902. Of the structures—a
17-room mansion, inner terrace,
sculptured columns, two crystal
conservatories, a stable, and
terraced views—one remains:
Deepdale Gate Lodge.
RACING AGAINST
REALITY
Willie K. created the first major
road racing competition, the
Vanderbilt Cup, in 1904. But he
lost a fortune in the 1907 stock
market crash and even tried selling
vacuum cleaners and jewelry. After
his 1909 divorce, unable to acquire
Lake Success land, he abandoned
his Georgian Colonial home.
In 1910, he started building a
“modest” bachelor getaway house in
Centerport overlooking Long Island
Sound. The 43-acre estate grew to
11 buildings – a 24-room Spanish
Revival mansion (“Eagle’s Nest”),
museums, a golf course, boathouse,
seaplane hangar, and a salt-water
pool. He hosted the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor, the Tiffanys,
and other notables, reportedly
playing $50,000-per-hole golf with
the Rockefellers. From Centerport, he
sailed his yacht around the globe with
a 50-person crew, collecting natural
history and marine specimens.
Willie K. opened his home to the
public in the 1930s; he died in 1944
and bequeathed the estate to the
county with $2 million for upkeep.
The Suffolk County Vanderbilt
Museum has been open to the public
since 1950, and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
The Vanderbilts’ legacy includes
mansions, summer palaces, farms,
museums, golf courses, country
estates, and fascinating stories to go
with them. Some remain, but many
have vanished. But that’s another
history.
REAR VIEW
Dollars to dust
Besides opulent estates, Vanderbilts left scandalous legacy
Cornelius Vanderbilt