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22-558: The Vanderbilts were once the wealthiest family in the United States. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the richest American until his death in 1877. After that, his son William Henry Vanderbilt acquired his father's fortune, and was the richest American until his death in 1885. The Vanderbilts' prominence lasted until the mid-20th century, when the family's 10 great Fifth Avenue mansions were torn down, and most other Vanderbilt houses were sold or turned into museums in what has been referred to as

44-519: A single boat, he grew his fleet until he was competing with Robert Fulton for dominance of the New York waterways, his energy and eagerness earning him the nickname "Commodore", a United States Navy title for a captain of a small task force. Fulton's company had established a monopoly on trade in and out of New York Harbor . Vanderbilt, based in New Jersey at the time, flouted the law, steaming in and out of

66-585: A total of seven members of the Rockefeller family , five members of the Ford family , four members of the Du Pont family (and a non-family DuPont executive), and four General Motors executives. 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 . Bill Gates

88-453: Is difficult, as the value of money and assets is heavily dependent on the time period. There are various methods of comparing individuals' wealth across time, including using simple inflation-adjusted totals or calculating an individual's wealth as a share of contemporary gross domestic product (GDP). For this reason, there is not one decisive ranking of the richest Americans in history. Many sources cite John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) as

110-501: Is the largest house in the United States . While some of Cornelius Vanderbilt's descendants gained fame in business, others achieved prominence in other ways: In 1855, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt donated 45 acres (18 ha) of property to the Moravian Church and Cemetery at New Dorp on Staten Island , New York. Later, his son William Henry Vanderbilt donated a further 4 acres (1.6 ha). The Vanderbilt Family Mausoleum

132-490: The Moravian Church to his death. The Vanderbilt family lived on Staten Island until the mid-1800s, when the Commodore built a house on Washington Place (in what is now Greenwich Village ). Although he always occupied a relatively modest home, members of his family would use their wealth to build magnificent mansions . Shortly before his death in 1877, Vanderbilt donated US$ 1 million (equivalent to $ 29 million in 2023) for

154-750: The Vanderbilt family employed some of the best Beaux-Arts architects and decorators in the United States to build a notable string of townhouses in New York City and palaces on the East Coast of the United States. Many of the Vanderbilt houses are now National Historic Landmarks . Some photographs of Vanderbilt residences in New York are included in the Photographic series of American Architecture by Albert Levy (1870s). The list of architects employed by

176-566: The "Fall of the House of Vanderbilt". Branches of the family are found on the United States East Coast . Contemporary descendants include American art historian John Wilmerding , journalist Anderson Cooper (son of Gloria Vanderbilt ), actor Timothy Olyphant , musician John P. Hammond , screenwriter James Vanderbilt , and the Duke of Marlborough James Spencer-Churchill . The progenitor of

198-647: The English took control of New Amsterdam (now Manhattan ). The family is associated with the Dutch patrician Van der Bilt. His great-great-great-grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt , began the rise of the Vanderbilt dynasty. He was the fourth of nine children born into a Staten Island family of modest means. Through his paternal great-great grandmother, Abigail Southard, he descends from Republic of Salé President Jan Janszoon and his son Anthony Janszoon van Salee . They were among

220-496: The Money in the World (2008) mention the 15 richest Americans in history. Business Insider agreed on Rockefeller in first, but placed Andrew Carnegie second, followed by Vanderbilt, and Gates. The following is a list compiled by CNN Money in 2014. This list names the richest American by half decade starting in 1770. Vanderbilt houses From the late 1870s to the 1920s,

242-523: 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. The name of Jan's village, in the genitive case , was added to the Dutch " van " ("from") to create " Van der Bilt ", which evolved into "Vanderbilt" when

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264-569: The Vanderbilt fortune. He built the first of what would become many grand Vanderbilt mansions on Fifth Avenue , at 640 Fifth Avenue. William Henry appointed his first son, Cornelius Vanderbilt II , as the next "Head of House". Cornelius II built the largest private home in New York, at 1 West 57th Street , containing approximately 154 rooms, designed by George B. Post . He also built The Breakers in Newport , Rhode Island. Cornelius II's brother, William Kissam Vanderbilt , also featured prominently in

286-471: The earliest arrivals to 17th-century New Amsterdam . In a number of documents dating back to that period, Anthony is described as tawny, as his mother was of Berber origin from Cartagena in the Kingdom of Murcia . Cornelius Vanderbilt left school at age 11 and went on to build a shipping and railroad empire that, during the 19th century, would make him one of the wealthiest men in the world. Starting with

308-521: The establishment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville . The Commodore left the majority of his enormous fortune to his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt . William Henry, who outlived his father by just eight years, increased the profitability of his father's holdings, increased the reach of the New York Central Railroad , and doubled the Vanderbilt wealth. He was the only heir to increase

330-795: The family's affairs. He also built a home on Fifth Avenue and would become one of the great architectural patrons of the Gilded Age , hiring the architects for (the third, and surviving) Grand Central Terminal . He also built Marble House at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. George Washington Vanderbilt II , the 3rd and youngest son of William Henry Vanderbilt and youngest brother of Cornelius II, hired architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to construct Biltmore Estate on 125,000 acres (51,000 ha) near Asheville , North Carolina. The 250 room mansion, with 175,856 sq ft (16,337.6 m) of floor space,

352-526: The harbor under a flag that read, "New Jersey Must Be Free!" He also hired the attorney Daniel Webster to argue his case before the United States Supreme Court ; Vanderbilt won, thereby establishing an early precedent for the United States' first laws of interstate commerce . While many Vanderbilt family members had joined the Episcopal Church , Cornelius Vanderbilt remained a member of

374-480: The lower ranks is an even more contentious debate. Vanderbilt left a fortune worth $ 100 million upon his death in 1877, equivalent to $ 2.4 billion today. As the United States became the world's leading economic power by the late 19th century, the wealthiest people in America were often also the wealthiest people in the world. In 1957, Fortune magazine developed a list of the seventy-six wealthiest Americans , which

396-459: The richest person in the history of the United States, however this result comes not from adjusting his wealth for inflation, but by comparing his wealth to the size of the American economy at that time. Since the economy was relatively small during his time period, his wealth represented a larger portion of the total economy. For example, economic blogger Scott Sumner noted in 2018 that Rockefeller

418-444: Was designed in 1885 by architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted . The following is a list of figures closely aligned with or subordinate to the Vanderbilt family. The following is a list of companies in which the Vanderbilt family have held a controlling or otherwise significant interest. List of richest Americans in history Comparing wealth of individuals across large spans of time

440-488: Was published in many American newspapers. Jean Paul Getty , when asked his reaction to being named wealthiest American and whether he was worth a billion dollars, said, "You know, if you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars" and then added, "But remember, a billion dollars isn't worth what it used to be." The second category, the second to eighth richest individuals, included Andrew Mellon 's son, daughter, niece, and nephew. Wealthiest Americans included

462-467: Was the top living person, coming in fifth. American Heritage magazine published the following list of 40 richest Americans ever in 1998, subtitling it "Surprise: Only three of them are alive today". The list was compiled by taking each person's wealth at death, adding the amount given away during his lifetime, and expressing the total as a fraction of the nation's GDP at the time. Bernstein and Swan in All

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484-504: Was worth $ 1.4 billion when he died in 1937, equivalent to about $ 24 billion in dollars in 2018 when adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, Bill Gates in 1999 was worth nearly $ 150 billion in dollars adjusted to 2018. The second-richest person in terms of wealth compared to contemporary GDP is a subject of dispute. While most sources attribute this status to Andrew Carnegie , others argue that it could be Bill Gates , Cornelius Vanderbilt I , John Jacob Astor IV , or Henry Ford . Determining

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