Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the founder of the Vanderbilt business dynasty.. The progenitor of the Vanderbilt family was Jan Aertszoon or Aertson (1620–1705), a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht, Netherlands, who emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland as an indentured servant to the Van Kouwenhoven family in 1650.
In the 1996 book The Wealthy 100, authors Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther placed John D. Rockefeller atop the list of the richest Americans in history, followed by Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor. [8] Bill Gates was the top living person, coming in fifth.
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. [1] [2] After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, effectively transforming the geography of the ...
The Vanderbilts, one of America's wealthiest Gilded Age families, owned multiple opulent homes. The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island, was their summer escape.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — The Vanderbilt family, once synonymous with American wealth and power, has fallen into a full-blown public spat with the organization that now owns their spectacular Rhode ...
Now a National Historic Landmark, visiting the Breakers is rated as one of top three things to do in Newport and is seen as a tangible symbol of the Vanderbilt family's wealth and social superiority.
Gilded Age mansions were lavish houses built between 1870 and the early 20th century by some of the richest people in the United States. These estates were raised by the nation's industrial, financial and commercial elite, who amassed great fortunes in era of expansion of the tobacco, railroad, steel, and oil industries coinciding with a lack ...
Speaking of the Vanderbilts, The Breakers, one of Rhode Island’s most lavish mansions, was built for Cornelius Vanderbilt III in the 1890s. The home has a traditional Italian palazzo design and ...