The Lost Cornelius Vanderbilt I House - 10 Washington Place

 

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Magazine, January 1877 (cropped, copyright expired)

In January 1877, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Magazine recalled, "Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on Staten Island on May 27th, 1794.  His father owned a farm on the island and also a rude ferry-boat on which the future commodore and railroad king plied an oar."  When young Vanderbilt was 18 years old, he owned his own boat and the foundation of his massive fortune was laid.

At 19, Vanderbilt married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson.  They would have 13 children.  Although his formal education ended when he was 11 years old, Vanderbilt grew his empire by ruthless ambition and innate business acumen.  By the end of the 1830s, he dominated the Long Island Sound steamship business, owned substantial Manhattan and Staten Island real estate, owned the Staten Island Ferry, and through cutthroat dealings had begun acquiring his first railroads.

In 1839, Sophia pressured her husband to move the family from Manhattan to his birthplace in New Dorp, Staten Island.  (His father, Cornelius van Derbilt, died in 1832 and his mother, Phebe Hand Vanderbilt, was living there alone.)  Always one to follow his own wants, however, in 1845 Cornelius purchased the 44-foot-wide plot at 10 West Washington Place (the "West" would be dropped from the address later) from Matthew Morgan for $9,500.  Morgan had already erected his mansion on the abutting property at 12 Washington Place.

Vanderbilt's property ran through the block to West Fourth Street.  Working with builder Benjamin F. Camp for the designs, he planned a double-wide mansion with a commodious carriage house in the rear lot opening onto Fourth Street.  Ground was broken in May 1845 and construction was completed in November 1846.  The New York Times placed the cost at $55,000, including construction and real estate.  The figure would equal $2.68 million in 2025.

Sophia Vanderbilt was inconsolable about the thought of moving back to Manhattan and leaving the fresh air of the farmland.  Cornelius, however, could make his wife bend to his demands.  Edward J. Renehan, Jr., in his Commodore, The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, explains,

…when she protested too loudly about being taken from Staten Island to occupy the new Washington Place residence nine months out of the year, Vanderbilt threatened to have her committed to an asylum in Flushing.  When a trip to Canada with a daughter and son-in-law did nothing to calm Sophia’s nerves or tone down her protest, Vanderbilt made good on the threat.  Sophia remained incarcerated for three months until, after the apparent intercession of Phebe Hand  [Vanderbilt] and Sophia’s surrender in the form of an announced willingness to live in Greenwich Village, she was finally released.

The Greek Revival-style Vanderbilt mansion was faced in red brick and trimmed in brownstone.  Four stories tall and four bays wide, it held its own with the aristocratic mansions a block-and-a-half away on Washington Square.  The entrance was flanked by free-standing columns that upheld a classical triangular pediment.  The parlor windows opened onto two balustraded balconies.  The New York Times deemed, "It is reckoned to be one of the strongest and best constructed buildings in the City."

Between the carriage house and the mansion, reported The New York Times, was "a small paved court-yard."  The article described the expanse of rear building, saying, "The stable is large and well ventilated, and in a large open space in the centre, under the same roof, there is an oval dirt track on which the horses may be exercised when the weather is too inclement for them to be taken out."

Upon entering the residence, there were two "large and commodious" parlors on the right.  To the left was the reception room and beyond that was the dining room. 

Nathaniel Jocelyn painted Vanderbilt's portrait in 1846, the year the family moved into 10 Washington Place.  from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian

Interestingly, the décor reflected Vanderbilt's egocentric personality.  The New York Times described the artworks:

The most valuable of these is a bust of the Commodore, in white marble, by Powers.  In a niche in the lower great hall is a statuette in Parian marble, a copy of the statue, in heroic size, cast in bronze, by Capt. Albert De Groot, for the Vanderbilt memorial in front of St. John's Park Depot.  In the dining-room is a picture of the Commodore in a road wagon, wearing a white hat and driving a favorite span of horses.

To the front of the second floor were two identical spaces, each 20 by 20 feet--Vanderbilt's frescoed ceiling library and a sitting room.  The latter was "plainly, but elegantly furnished," and hung with portraits of Vanderbilt, Sophia, and Phebe.  In the rear of the second floor were Sophia's dressing room and boudoir, and Cornelius's bedroom and private office.  The third floor held the children's bedrooms and on the fourth floors were servants' rooms.  In the basement, along with the kitchen and service rooms, was a billiard room.

Cornelius surveys a servant with three of the girls in a parlor.  Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 20, 1877 (copyright expired)

Despite decades of tensions between Cornelius and Sophia, they were described as a warm, loving couple during their 50th anniversary celebration held in the house on December 19, 1863.  The Sun reported, "Since their first marriage day, the career of this happy couple has been one of an almost unchequered success.  With nothing but youth, good looks, mutual affection and unconquerable energy as their portion then, now they are blessed with a wealth and influence, second to none other private citizen in the country."

After speeches and tributes, "The band of music now struck up a march, and the party moved to the supper room."  Following dinner and more celebrations, the night was closed "by a splendid serenade from the Seventh Regiment Band."

Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt.  (original source unknown)

George W. Vanderbilt had been given leave from the Army to attend the event.  Although he was the youngest of the boys (after William Henry and Cornelius Jeremiah), George was his father's favorite.  Born on April 10, 1839, he graduated from West Point in 1860.  After the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Vanderbilt saw combat and was promoted by President Abraham Lincoln to 1st lieutenant of the 10th Regiment U.S. Infantry on June 14, 1861.  Three months before his parents' golden anniversary, he was promoted to captain.

George Washington Vanderbilt.  His eldest brother, William Henry, would name one of his son after him. (original source unknown).

Through Cornelius Vanderbilt's influence, George was allowed to travel to Nice, France to recuperate from battle wounds and illness.  He was there on December 31, 1863 when he died at the age of 24.  Vanderbilt's body was shipped to 10 Washington Place, arriving a month later.  His military funeral was held in the parlors on February 5, 1864.

Four years later there would be another funeral in the parlor.  On August 20, 1868, the New York Herald reported, "the residence of Commodore Vanderbilt, No. 10 Washington place, was yesterday morning thronged with relatives and friends of the family, who had assembled for the melancholy purpose of paying the last tribute of respect to the remains of the late and much lamented Mrs. Vanderbilt."  Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt had died on August 17 at the age of 73.

By 1865, Mary Eliza Crawford and her daughter, Frank Armstrong Crawford, relatives of Cornelius Vanderbilt, had relocated to New York City from Mobile, Alabama.  (Frank was named prior to her birth in honor of her father's business associate, and so she went through life with a man's name.)  Now, months after Sophia's death, Vanderbilt pursued his cousin relentlessly.  Although Frank (who was 45 years younger than Vanderbilt) initially rebuffed his proposals while he was in mourning, she finally relented.

Frank Crawford Vanderbilt, from the collection of the Vanderbilt University

On August 25, 1869, just eight days after Cornelius Vanderbilt's mourning period elapsed, the New York Daily Herald began an article saying, "The gossip that has been current in the newspaper for several months, that the venerable Cornelius Vanderbilt, the world-wide known millionaire and railroad king, was seriously contemplating matrimony, has been verified.  He was married at eight o'clock on Saturday morning last, at London, Canada, to Miss Frank Crawford."

While Vanderbilt was tepid regarding religion, Frank was an ardent Presbyterian.  She and her mother had been acquainted with Rev. Charles Force Deems in Mobile.  Now also living in New York City, Deems had organized the Church of the Strangers, which was worshiping in a chapel at New York University.  

Just months after her wedding, Frank Vanderbilt invited Rev. Deems to 10 Washington Place.  In his 1897 Autobiography of Charles Force Deems, the minister wrote, "The commodore had never been a member of any church, had been a very worldly and even profane man; but he had from his earliest childhood the most unshaken faith in the Bible."  In the parlor, Cornelius Vanderbilt offered Deems $50,000 to buy the Mercer-Street Presbyterian church, just a block from the Vanderbilt mansion.  

Interestingly, Vanderbilt's wife's devoutness had not changed his lack of passion.  When Deems said, "Commodore, if you give me that church for the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll most thankfully accept it," Vanderbilt's business-like reply was, "No, doctor, I would not give it to you that way, because that would be professing to you a religious sentiment I do not feel.  I want to give you a church, that's all there is.  It is one friend doing something for another friend.  Now, if you take it that way I'll give it to you."

Cornelius was confined to the house beginning May 1876.  Speculation about his dire condition resulted in his obituary published in several newspapers on October 17.  Only assertions from his physicians and the patient himself successfully debunked the story.

Less than four months later, however, the end came.  Cornelius Vanderbilt died in his bed at 10 Washington Place on January 4, 1877.  The mogul left an estate of $193 billion in 2025 terms.

The scene on Washington Place on the day of Vanderbilt's funeral.  Frank Leslie's Illustrated Magazine, January 1877 (copyright expired)

As part of her inheritance, Frank took title to 10 Washington Place and $500,000 in bonds.  A bizarre incident occurred four years later, on April 23, 1881.  That day a man, described by the New York Dispatch as, "advanced in life, and with long, grizzly, unkempt hair that had not felt the shedding of a comb in a decade; a long, crispy iron beard, made stiff with lager--a street-gauger--a rope around his waist to keep his breeches up, and his shoes (sandals) strapped to his feet," climbed the stoop of the mansion and rang the bell.  He told the butler, Thomas Odell, he wished, "The Queen of the Earth, Commodore Vanderbilt's widow."

Odell replied, "Get out."

After a period, he returned.  The newspaper said he, "made a demand for 'the Queen of the Earth, Commodore Vanderbilt's fascinating young widow,' as his wife."  This time he was arrested.  The interloper explained to the judge that an angel had whispered, "O, King of the Earth, go claim the Commodore's widow as your wife, and make her Queen of the Earth, and the millennium will come."  He was sent to the Tombs where he was examined regarding his sanity.

Frank attended the funeral of Phoebe Vanderbilt, Cornelius's sister, on April 25, 1885.  She "caught a cold from standing on the damp ground at the cemetery," reported The New York Times.  

On May 3, 1885, The Sun reported that “Mrs. Frances [sic] Vanderbilt of 10 Washington place, widow of the Commodore, who is sick with pneumonia, is getting worse.”   Two days later, The New York Times announced that she had died at 9:00 the previous morning.  Her funeral was held at the Church of the Strangers, the building that her husband had made a gift to Rev. Deems.

The Evening World, February 8, 1890 (copyright expired)

The Vanderbilts sold the mansion in 1890.  On February 8, The Evening World reminisced, "Once there stood a row of wide four-story and basement brick houses, with brown-stone stoops and window-trimmings, on the south side of Washington place."  Now, said the article, "the most notable one was sold the other day to a merchant for over $200,000.  He intends to tear down the house about the first of May, and build a mammoth emporium in its stead."