America 1919-Chapter 785 - : Vanderbilt Family_2

Chapter 785: Vanderbilt Family_2

George Whitney saw Donnie’s determination and felt a mix of helplessness and anger.

“So, you mean to say, Donnie, that you’re definitely going to stand against Morgan this time?”

Donnie waved his hand, “Of course not, if possible, I would like to pursue a deeper collaboration with Morgan!”

George Whitney couldn’t understand Donnie’s intentions; on one hand, Donnie refused Morgan’s proposal, and on the other, he suggested deepening their cooperation, which was quite confusing!

“Alright then, Donnie, go ahead and lay out your plan!”

Donnie explained, “It’s quite simple, actually. Morgan gives up the obstruction to me in the banking sector, and I can join hands with Morgan to take over the control of the Vanderbilt Family’s New York Central Railroad Company. What do you think?”

Whoosh!

George Whitney could no longer keep his composure and stood up directly.

The once Vanderbilt Family was the wealthiest in the United States and the absolute king of railway companies.

However, with the mysterious maneuvers of the previous generation’s William Vanderbilt and the incompetence of this generation’s Vanderbilt Family, their glory had long since diminished.

When the older Vanderbilt died, he entrusted the family business to his eldest son, William Vanderbilt. William Vanderbilt wasn’t a fool in business and managed his family’s affairs well.

But this man had a lapse of judgment when it came to family inheritance!

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At the time, William Vanderbilt believed that immense wealth could not bring corresponding happiness, but rather immense pressure to himself.

Therefore, William Vanderbilt didn’t want his descendants to bear such pressure either.

So… When William Vanderbilt died, he made a strange division of his estate.

He allocated the majority of the wealth to his first son, Vanderbilt II, and his third son, Kisa.

Vanderbilt II and Kisa received 70 million and 55 million US Dollars respectively, with the rest of the estate being evenly divided among his other six children and his wife.

If the third generation of the Vanderbilt Family could have been united and developed the Vanderbilt industries together, there actually wouldn’t have been much of a problem, at most some competition between brothers.

But the entire third generation of the Vanderbilt Family were hedonists to the extreme!

After receiving the family inheritance, they began to build super-luxurious residences, and this habit continued with their descendants.

Thorstein Veblen, the founder of institutional economics in the United States, first introduced the term “conspicuous consumption” in his book “The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions,” to describe the opulent mansion lifestyle during America’s Gilded Age. And the third and fourth generations of the Vanderbilt Family were among the most frequently exposed figures in news about “conspicuous consumption.”

The Vanderbilts built more than a dozen luxurious buildings between 51st and 59th Streets in Manhattan, among which, the Building no. 1 on 57th Street had 137 rooms and was the largest mansion in American cities at the time.

Beyond that, the Vanderbilts also constructed several lavish vacation mansions including Marble House, The Breakers, Biltmore Estate, and others.

Marble House was started by Kisa, a member of the third generation, in 1888 and was given to his wife Alva as a birthday present in 1892.

This luxury mansion, housing 50 rooms, cost an astonishing 11 million US Dollars to build, with 7 million US Dollars alone spent on marble.

After its completion, its design and grandeur were unrivaled among American homes of the time, and even to this day, its front porch is often compared to the White House.

The Breakers was built by Kisa’s brother, Vanderbilt II, between 1893 and 1895. While it was distinct from Marble House, it was much larger, consisting of 70 rooms and a livable area of 65,000 square feet.

Marble House and The Breakers were already grand in scale, yet, they paled in comparison to the Biltmore Estate, which George Washington Vanderbilt II began constructing in 1888 over six years.

The model architecture of Biltmore Estate was designed by a famous French architect, with 250 rooms, the size of Marble House fivefold, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, 3 kitchens, 1 bowling alley, 1 indoor swimming pool, and covering an area of 178,926 square feet, which is 2.75 times the size of The Breakers.

To this day, the Renaissance-style Biltmore Estate remains the largest private residence in the United States ever built, and it is the most famous of all the buildings left from the Gilded Age.

The extravagant lifestyle of the Vanderbilt Family was not just manifested in the construction of mansions; it also showed in the extremely luxurious parties they hosted from time to time.

A New York newspaper once wrote, “Last night, Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt held a costume ball in their luxurious villa, undoubtedly the most splendid and picturesque entertainment event in the history of New York.” Alva, Kisa’s wife, once said that each ball cost definitely more than 250,000 US Dollars, with just the roses prepared for the parties valued at more than 11,000 US Dollars.

Most descendants of the Vanderbilt Family lived in a comfortable and luxurious environment and had no concept of how to accumulate wealth; many were born with more money than they could ever spend.

The descendants still maintained their family’s tradition of extravagant lifestyle.

Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, for example, from the fourth generation, was a typical case; he was lazy, an alcoholic, and spent the millions he inherited on women, alcohol, sumptuous food, cars, and other luxury items; he was also a true gambler.