Hyde Park, the Heart of the Hudson Valley in the State of New York

30 July 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Culinary Institute of America - Roth Hall and Colavita Center for Italian Food and Wine © Pascal Auricht

Culinary Institute of America – Roth Hall and Colavita Center for Italian Food and Wine © Pascal Auricht

Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. The Hudson River defines the west town line, which is the border with Ulster County. Hyde Park is bordered by the town of Poughkeepsie to the south, Rhinebeck to the north, and Clinton and Pleasant Valley to the east. Gilded Age properties can be found throughout the central Hudson Valley (Mid-Hudson). Here some of the rich and super-rich from the economic heyday of the USA have (summer) residences built to bring sufficient distance between themselves and the mob from New York City. In parts, it still works today. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. His house there, now the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, as are the homes of Eleanor Roosevelt, Isaac Roosevelt, and Frederick William Vanderbilt, along with Haviland Middle School (formerly Franklin D. Roosevelt High School). Hyde Park is home to the main campus of the Culinary Institute of America, a four-year college for culinary and baking and pastry arts, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the first presidential library in the United States.   read more…

Portrait: Financier and banker J. P. Morgan

28 March 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  13 minutes

J. P. Morgan © Images of American Political History - Pach Bros.

J. P. Morgan © Images of American Political History – Pach Bros.

John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in the United States of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. He also played important roles in the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, International Harvester and AT&T. At the height of Morgan’s career during the early twentieth century, he and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations and had significant influence over the nation’s high finance and United States Congress members. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907. He was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business. Adrian Wooldridge characterized Morgan as America’s “greatest banker”. Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont Morgan Jr. His fortune was estimated at “only” $80 million, prompting John D. Rockefeller to say: “and to think, he wasn’t even a rich man”.   read more…

Portrait: Andrew Carnegie, steel magnate and philanthropist

21 February 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  20 minutes

Andrew Carnegie © Library of Congress - Theodore C. Marceau

Andrew Carnegie © Library of Congress – Theodore C. Marceau

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, business magnate, and philanthropist during the Gilded Age. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and is often identified as one of the richest people (and richest Americans) ever. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States, and in the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away about $350 million to charities, foundations, and universities—almost 90 percent of his fortune. His 1889 article proclaiming The Gospel of Wealth called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.   read more…

Portrait: Shipowner, railway operator and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt

24 January 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  28 minutes

Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad tycoon, by J. C. Buttre

Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad tycoon, by J. C. Buttre

Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), also known informally as “Commodore Vanderbilt”, was an American business magnate and philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. Born poor and having only a mediocre education, Vanderbilt used perseverance, intelligence, and luck to work his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invest in the rapidly growing railroad industry. He is known for owning the New York Central Railroad. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertson or Aertszoon (“Aert’s son”), was a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht, Netherlands, who emigrated to New York as an indentured servant in 1650. The Dutch van der (“of the”) was eventually added to Aertson’s village name to create “van der Bilt” (“of the Bilt”). This was eventually condensed to Vanderbilt. As one of the richest Americans in history and wealthiest figures overall, Vanderbilt was the patriarch of a wealthy, influential family. He provided the initial gift to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. According to historian H. Roger Grant:

Contemporaries, too, often hated or feared Vanderbilt or at least considered him an unmannered brute. While Vanderbilt could be a rascal, combative and cunning, he was much more a builder than a wrecker. … being honorable, shrewd, and hard-working.

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Portrait: Henry Morrison Flagler, founder of many towns and cities in Florida

22 November 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Miami / South Florida, Portrait Reading Time:  19 minutes

Portrait of Henry Morrison Flagler © The Cyclopaedia of American biography, 1918

Portrait of Henry Morrison Flagler © The Cyclopaedia of American biography, 1918

Henry Morrison Flagler was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder of what became the Florida East Coast Railway. He is known as the father of St. Augustine, Miami, West Palm beach and Palm Beach. When looking back at Flagler’s life, after Flagler’s death, George W. Perkins, of J.P. Morgan & Co., reflected, “But that any man could have the genius to see of what this wilderness of waterless sand and underbrush was capable and then have the nerve to build a railroad here, is more marvelous than similar development anywhere else in the world.” Miami’s main east-west street is named Flagler Street and is the main shopping street in Downtown Miami. There is also a monument to him on Flagler Monument Island in Biscayne Bay in Miami; Flagler College and Flagler Hospital are named after him in St. Augustine. Flagler County and Flagler Beach in Florida and Flagler in Colorado are also named for him. Whitehall in Palm Beach is open to the public as the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum; his private railcar No. 91 is preserved inside a Beaux Arts pavilion built to look like a 19th-century railway palace. On February 24, 2006, a statue of Flagler was unveiled in Key West near the spot where the Oversea Railroad once terminated. Also, on July 28, 2006, a statue of Flagler was unveiled on the southeast steps of Miami’s Dade County Courthouse, located on Miami’s Flagler Street.   read more…

Portrait: The Rockefeller family

27 May 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  11 minutes

John D. Rockefeller in 1885

John D. Rockefeller in 1885

The Rockefeller family is an American industrial, political, and banking family that made one of the world’s largest fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with John D. Rockefeller and his brother William Rockefeller primarily through Standard Oil. Their economic rise coincides with the so-called Gilded Age. The family is also known for its long association with and control of Chase Manhattan Bank. They are considered to be one of the most powerful families, if not the most powerful family, in the history of the United States. The first documented ancestor of the Rockefeller’s is Goddard Rockenfeller from Neuwied, Germany. His grandson Johann Peter and grandgrandson Johann Thiel migrated with their families from New Jersey and New York City, where they called themselves Rockefeller.   read more…

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