Robert Walton Goelet (March 19, 1880 – May 2, 1941) was an American
financier and
real estate developer in
New York City. He was one of the largest property owners in the city by the time of his death.[1]
Early life
Robert Walton Goelet, nicknamed Bertie to avoid confusion with his cousin
Robert Wilson Goelet (whom he strongly resembled),[2] was born on March 19, 1880, in New York. He was the only son born to Henrietta Louise (
née Warren) Goelet and
Robert Goelet (1841–1899), a prominent landlord in New York. His only sister, Beatrice Goelet, who died of
pneumonia at age 17 in 1902, was painted as a child by
John Singer Sargent.[3]
Goelet, and his cousin Robert Wilson Goelet, both graduated from
Harvard University with an A.B. degree in 1902 and an M.A. degree in 1903.[11]
Career
Upon the death of his mother in 1915, he inherited a fortune estimated to be $40 million (equivalent to $870 million in 2023),[2] which included 591 Fifth Avenue (a brownstone built in 1880 by
Edward H. Kendall at the southeast corner of
48th Street) and her estate at
Ochre Point in
Newport, Rhode Island, designed by
Stanford White and built between 1882 and 1884 and known as "Southside".[12] He was a sportsman and the leader of the city's old-money social set. He was a member of the
Jekyll Island Club on
Jekyll Island, Georgia.[13]
In 1908, he purchased the 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) Sandricourt estate, the former residence of the Marquis de Beauvoir, on the outskirts of
Paris.[15] The estate, where he spent much of his time, which he purchased for $300,000, had 139 buildings, grain fields and herds of cattle.[16] He also owned a fishing lodge on the
Restigouche River, which separates
New Brunswick from
Quebec (which he left to his children).[16]
He inherited vast real estate holdings in New York, sometimes known as the Goelet Realty Company, which included the
Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the property between
52nd and
53rd Streets on Park Avenue which the
Racquet and Tennis Club leased.[16] Among his other New York holdings were the southeast corner of
42nd Street and
Lexington Avenue, 14 Sutton Place South, 1400 Broadway, 53 Broadway, and the building on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and
37th Street (which he bought in 1909).[17] He also owned sixteen four-story townhouses on
Park Avenue built by his father in 1871.[16]
After Goelet's death in 1941, his estate leased the land on which the sixteen townhouses were built, which were torn down and replaced by
425 Park Avenue,[18] which, at the time of the construction, it was one of the tallest buildings that utilized the bolted connections.[19] The 32-story building was open in 1957 with
National Biscuit Company,[18]Kaye Scholer,
Chemical Corn Exchange Bank as major tenants.[20] It too was torn down and replaced by a new tower at 425 Park designed by architect
Norman, Lord Foster, still on land owned by the Goelet family.[21][22]
Personal life
In 1909, Goelet was reportedly engaged to
Mary Harriman, daughter of railroad executive
E. H. Harriman. The engagement was later denied in October,[23] and Mary married the sculptor and polo player
Charles Cary Rumsey in 1910.[24]
In 1920,[25] he became engaged to Anne Marie Guestier (1899–1988),[26] and later married her in
Bordeaux on January 24, 1921.[27] Anne Marie was the daughter of Daniel Guestier, a director of the
Orleans Railroad "who at one time was said to have been the wealthiest wine merchant of France and the owner of vast estates."[28] She received the
French Legion of Honor for aiding French-American wives during
World War II and for providing medical services to inhabitants in the vicinity of Sandricourt, the Goelet family estate outside Paris, after it was liberated in August 1944. Together, Anne Marie and Robert were the parents of four children:
Beatrice Goelet (1922–2015),[29] who married Hayward Ferry Manice, son of William DeForest Manice, in 1948.[30][31]
Francis Goelet (1926–1998), a noted philanthropist and patron of the arts who died unmarried.[35]
John Goelet (1931-2023), who married Henrietta Fanner, daughter of William Rogers Fanner,[28] and later lived in Paris.[35]
After several months of ill health, Goelet died on May 2, 1941, of a
heart attack, aged 61, in his
brownstone on
Fifth Avenue at
48th Street. After a funeral service at
St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue, he was buried at
Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.[2] In his will, he left the
Ritz-Carlton Hotel to Harvard University.[16] His widow was given his personal effects and property along with life use of their home on Narragansett Avenue in Newport and their estate in France.[16] His widow lived almost another 47 years until her death in 1988.[26]
Legacy
In 1958, in Goelet's honor, his widow and four children donated $500,000 toward the construction of the
Metropolitan Opera's new home at
Lincoln Center, where the grand staircase bears a plaque with his name.[14]
As of 2012, the Goelet's Newport estate at Narragansett Avenue and the corner of Ochre Point Avenue, remained in the Goelet family.[36]