He actually picked the right child, because this particular son doubled the wealth. It also required this same split for future generations. Had the Commodore copied this approach, the family may have been forced to maintain their wealth through additional generations. The second reason the family lost the fortune seems to have stemmed from one person, Alva Vanderbilt. Alva Vanderbilt married the grandson of the Commodore. Soon after the wedding, Alva went to work spending the fortune.
The Vanderbilts were not invited to any of the balls and functions of the wealthy families of New York. So she decided to build the largest mansion in New York hoping to win their approval. She wanted a weapon: a house she could use as a battling ram to crash through the gates of society.
The home ended up taking 3 years and was completed in Alva decided to host her own party at her new mansion inviting over 1, of the richest families in New York. She won the approval of the elite social set. This social acceptance and mansion were the start of the fall, as other family members now wanted to achieve the same status. The first of these Fifth Ave mansions was completed in , the first was demolished in , and by every one had been broken to rubble.
From this point forward, it was a downward spiral of various family members competing to build the largest and nicest homes that were hardly ever occupied. Alva and Willie ended up getting a divorce. The happy news comes less than a year after he lost his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. In June of , heiress and fashion icon Gloria Vanderbilt passed away.
Her son, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper confirmed the news, sharing that she died at home surrounded by loved ones following a short battle with stomach cancer.
She was years-old. The great-great-granddaughter of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, Gloria was a chameleon, who successfully reinvented herself multiple times. Within thirty years of Commodore's death, no member of the Vanderbilt family was among the wealthiest people in the United States. By , none of the attendees at the Vanderbilt family reunion were millionaires. The Vanderbilts underwrote cultural enterprises such as art galleries and museums, but it was really during the Gilded Age that the Commodore's grandchildren established the family as a great philanthropic entity.
She helped young girls gain access to education and established a chapter of the Red Cross. The Vanderbilts did everything "from treating school children to an ice cream festival to buying a second hand motion picture machine so the residents of Hyde Park could view movies in the Town Hall. George Washington Vanderbilt II was also a known philanthropist, who paid to design and support libraries as well as arts activities and educational institutions in New York City.
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was a trained artist that used her family wealth, and that of her oil-wealthy husband Henry Payne Whitney, to support female artists. This philanthropic generation was the beginning of the end of the Vanderbilt family fortune. CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper, son of Gloria Vanderbilt and Wyatt Cooper, has known for some time that he won't be getting any of the family money, and he's okay with it.
He told Howard Stern , "My mom's made clear to me that there's no trust fund Cooper, who makes millions of dollars a year working for CNN, said he always had a job growing up and, despite his mother's wealth, identifies with his father who grew up poor in Mississippi.
Commodore Vanderbilt married his first cousin Sophia Johnson in The couple had 13 children together, 11 of which survived to adulthood. The Vanderbilts had three sons, although one boy, George, died in At the time of his death, the two living boys, William and Cornelius, did little to inspire their father. He often called William a " blatherskite ," or a fool, and had Cornelius committed to an asylum on two occasions. The Commodore opted to leave William the bulk of his money, but not before telling him "any fool can make a fortune; it takes a man of brains to hold onto it.
William Henry Vanderbilt suffered a mental breakdown at a young age after working with one of his father's business rivals. After that, he spent most of his time at the family farm in Staten Island where he was successful in boosting its profits. Slowly, William was given more opportunities to work within the Commodore's railroad empire and took it over after his father died. Cornelius Vanderbilt II's youngest son, Reginald, inherited a small sum from his father, but the bulk of the family money went to his older brother, Alfred.
The eldest son, Cornelius III, or Neily , spent large amounts of money before falling out with his family and once commented that "every Vanderbilt son Reginald was a playboy who gambled and drank often. Reginald had little ambition and didn't make any money for his family, preferring to spend it instead. In , Reginald married year-old Gloria Morgan. She gave birth to their daughter, also named Gloria, in Reginald died the following year broke and in debt, leaving his wife and child with only the interest from his daughter's future trust fund.
The Vanderbilts, native to the Netherlands, got their start in the United States sometime during the late 17th century.
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