When the Astors Owned New York
The founder of the American dynasty, John Jacob Astor,[1] came from
Walldorf in the Rhine Valley near what is now the Rhein-Nekar district of
Germany. Born into a middle-class family (his father was a butcher), he was the
third son. Oldest brother George left for London when he was old enough and
created a business selling musical instruments. Henry was more adventuresome;
he went to New York where he followed the family trade as a butcher. John Jacob
stayed home until life became intolerable and then he, too, left for the west. The family fortunes fluctuated and only his mother’s fortitude and frugality
prevented family disaster. When she died and his feckless father remarried, he
left, making his way to the Rhine and then slowly to London where he joined his
brother George, learning his brother’s trade and, more important, English.
John Jacob was on his way to be the richest
man in the United States; no one knew it, of course, in November,1783 when he bought passage to the new country. Although he booked passage in crew’s
quarters, he wasn’t poor, just frugal. Besides musical instruments he would
sell, he carried cash, $25, a considerable amount. By the time the ship entered
US waters in January, 1784, Astor had learned much about the fur trade and its
possibilities. Vagaries such as the ship being frozen in ice became
opportunities. He went to New York City , established a business, and married Sarah
Todd who brought a $300 dowry and a knowledge of the fur trade. The couple
earned money from his musical instrument and fur business, investing their
sweat equity so John Jacob could make connections in the US and Canada.
His acumen paid off. Exploiting his new
knowledge, developing political connections, filling the gaps when Canadians
excluded from the US by Jay’s Treaty in 1796, and then working with the
Canadians, he established himself as the leading fur trader in the US. He was
rich but he didn’t stop. He expanded across the continent, founding Astoria
after making a deal with President Thomas Jefferson.
Then he expanded to Asia,
by this time trading in opium as well as furs. He persuaded Congress and the
President to pass laws which would help his private business.
His real money would be made in New York City
real estate and he had vision enough to realize by the 1830s
that the city
would expand and expand in importance and territory until it dominated the
world. He bought the remainder of Vice President Aaron Burr’s lease of land in
the city and then subleased it as lots to maximize
his profits. The money rolled in so well that he got out of the fur business
and focused on NY real estate. He bought and bought beyond the then city limits
and then leased and leased. He was a ruthless landlord. His god was money and
he was a very devout acolyte.
As the city grew, so did
his wealth. Society created his wealth through what some economic philosophers
called unearned increment. Astor gave
little back.
He paid for the Astor
Library which was the basis of the New York Library. He gave support to James
Audubon and Edgar Allen Poe. He favored the politician Henry Clay. There were
other charitable acts, including in his hometown, Walldorf. When he died in
1848, he was worth $20 million. He could have paid off the US national debt in 1840
with ease. He left the bulk of his estate to his younger son, William Backhouse
Astor, who had joined the family business after returning from college in
Germany.
Under William Backhouse,
the Astor fortune grew. Like his father, he was close with a dollar and managed
his assets to maximize profits. Real estate values increased as New York became
more important. The Civil War helped. He sued to have the income tax which was
passed during the War to be unconstitutional, thus fending off the US
government’s attack on his wealth. His uncle Henry, a wealthy butcher, left him
half a million dollars. He, in turn, left almost all of his $50 million fortune
to his sons, William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and John Jacob Astor III.
They enjoyed the fruits of
their grandfather’s hard work and their father’s devotion to money but the two
were very different. William allowed John to manage his business affairs; he
was unlike their father. He married Caroline Webster Schermerhorn from a
prominent Dutch-American New York family. She would become “the Mrs. Astor,”
the arbiter of New York and Newport society. William supported the abolition of
slavery and paid to equip a US Army regiment during the Civil War but much of
his efforts were spent on his palatial yacht, horse breeding and raising, and
trying to develop an upper class resort on the St. Johns River south of
Jacksonville, Florida.[2]
In other words, he was idle rich. His brother, John Jacob III, was not so
idle. He went to Columbia College, Göttingen, and Harvard Law. During the Civil
War, he was a volunteer aide to General George McClellan. He was brevetted as a
brigadier general. His main business was New York real estate but he invested
in the Illinois Central and the New York Central Railroads, selling his shares
of the latter to Cornelius Vanderbilt. He invested in Western Union as well.
His
old holdings plus his management of his brother’s holding gave him enormous
power and influence. The Astor brothers did not like each other but their sons
openly feuded.
Justin Kaplan, When the
Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels In A Gilded Age,[3] focuses on the fun
part of the Astor saga—family feuds and grand hotels. The cousins, William
Waldorf Astor and John Jacob Astor IV, did not like each other and tried to outdo
the other, principally by building hotels. John Jacob Astor had built Astor
House in 1836, the finest New York hotel of its day. William Waldorf Astoria
built the New Netherland Hotel (1892) at 5th Avenue and 59th
Street, the Waldorf Hotel (1893) at 5th
Avenue and 33rd Street
on the site of his parents’ home and adjacent to Aunt Caroline’s and Cousin
Jack’s home, creating such a mess during construction that they moved. Jack
then built the larger, more luxuriant Astoria Hotel (1897) next to the Waldorf;
so there! Cooler heads prevailed, however, and the cousins agreed to operate
these properties as one hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria. Money trumped anger and hurt
feelings. It was so profitable that William then built the Hotel Astor (1904) on
Times Square. “Meet me at the Astor” became a byword for the elite. Jack, not
to be outdone, built the St. Regis the same year on 5th Avenue and
55th Street and, in 1906, the Hotel Knickerbocker at Broadway and 42nd
Street.
Kaplan is particularly good
at providing wonderful and often amusing details about these hotels. We learn
about both architecture and décor. He helps us understand “style” and how the
Astor hotels set the benchmarks for luxury hotels.
Jack, as the IV was known, lived
in his mother’s shadow but became his own man late in life. They lived next
door, separated by a partition, so she could have easy control. Caroline, the
Mrs. Astor, also dominated society in New York and Newport. It was she who
coined the term “the Four Hundred,” the people who really counted. So Jack
became a playboy. He and his wife lived separate lives, often on different
continents. Respect came only in 1898 when he participated in the Cuban
campaign of the Spanish American War. He was then seen as a national hero and
carried the title Colonel for the rest of his life. After his mother Caroline
died in 1908, Jack arranged for his wife Ava to divorce him. It was done in
secret because they did not want the public to know how wealthy they were. Once
free of his mother and his wife, Colonel Astor enjoyed himself. At age 46, fell
in love with the 17-year-old Madeleine Force. In September, 1911, they married.
With his pregnant wife, Jack sailed in the inaugural voyage of the Titanic. He
proved his mettle once more. He got Madeleine into a lifeboat and, instead of
using his wealth and power to save himself, yielded to others. His floating
body was eventually found.[4]
William Waldorf was very different; he was convinced that he and his
branch of the family were the most important Astors and sought to prove it. He
paid attention to the family fortune not just by building grand hotels. He
commissioned a phony genealogy which tried to prove that the Astors had always
been somebody. He chafed at comments that he descended from a German butcher.
He was elected to the state assembly but twice failed in his bid for a
Congressional seat. The electorate didn’t like him. President Chester Arthur
assuaged his feelings and the public humiliation by appointing him as Ambassador
to Italy
in 1882-1885. He fell in love with things Italian and began collecting. William
Waldorf moved his family to England in 1891 after a tiff with Aunt Caroline, as
the story goes, but it was more than that. He thought he was better than
Americans thought, so he went where he thought he would be honored.
He became as much a British
gentlemen as he could and finally received the recognition from the Crown that
he so desperately sought. He renounced his US citizenship and became one of his
majesty’s subjects in 1899. He bought and remodeled and built estates and
residence. Italian pieces he owned were installed. No expense was spared. He wrote two unsuccessful novels and bought two influential
periodicals with which he supported conservative politicians. He gave to
charities. He helped finance British participation in the First World War.
Finally, in 1916, the Crown made him Baron Astor of Hever Castle. In 1917, he
was raised to a viscount.
Jack won for his death was
noble. William Waldorf died on his toilet after eating a huge, solitary meal.
Kaplan has more juicy
tidbits and carries the story beyond the cousins and their hotels. His book is
short but enjoyable to read. The Astors provoke
envy but not admiration. They
provided entertainment to people because they were so rich, self-indulgent, and
disdainful of their fellow humans.
Kaplan explains why.
