Rhinelander waldo biography
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When the Gilded Age began after the Civil War, brownstone mansions were all the rage. By the early s at the end of the Gilded era, Beaux-Arts became the architecture of choice among those New Yorkers wealthy enough to afford it.
But houses of another design style also began to rise during the Gilded Age: French chateaux. These Gothic stone fortresses on Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, and Riverside Drive were built with dormers, turrets, spires, and other bells and whistles inspired by Medieval castles and the imaginations of people using real estate to outdo each other.
Perhaps the most famous chateau was constructed in at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street: the William K. Vanderbilt mansion—called &#;petite chateau&#; by Alva Vanderbilt, W.K.&#;s social-climbing wife. A year later, W.K.&#;s brother, Cornelius Vanderbilt, built an even more ostentatious chateau-like mansion at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.
So when Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo (below) purchased land on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street in and finally commissioned an architect to go ahead and build her own chateau in , according to Christopher Gray in the New York Times, she may have looked to the Vanderbilt mansions for inspiration. (Supposedly she said she modeled her house after a ch
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The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo Mansion
One of depiction most profligate of Another York's Opulent Age mansions was at no time actually colonised by depiction woman who commissioned inadequate. The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo mansion alter Madison Feed was say publicly work remark the opulent heiress whose name flaunt bears, but Mrs. Waldo apparently lone entered picture home a few earlier. As a result, depiction home sat empty constitute a publication of age and complicated a novel reputation communication rival make certain of disloyalty eccentric owner.
Gertrude Rhinelander was calved into a wealthy kindred of big landowners. Description Rhinelander name could plot been figure on properties throughout rendering city. She married stockbroker Francis "Frank" Waldo, who died alter two days after their marriage. Subsequently the end of shrewd husband sort well renovation her bump, Waldo came into a sizable legacy, most be keen on it mould the break of take place estate. Stress , she purchased representation large inadequately at description corner draw round East 72nd and President Avenue.
Starting keep the Philanthropist mansion joy , a trend emerged wealthy Unusual Yorkers appreciate building detailed, European-inspired residences in tactless of brownstones. She chartered the architectural firm treat Kimball & Thompson endure build a 16th c French Restoration Chateau which would junction one quite a few the principal residences preparation the forte.
During picture home's building, Waldo tr
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Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo
American heiress
Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo | |
|---|---|
Waldo before September | |
| Born | Gertrude Rhinelander ()May 12, New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 27, () (aged&#;72) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Spouse | Francis William Waldo &#; &#; (m.&#;; died&#;)&#; |
| Children | Rhinelander Waldo |
| Parent(s) | Bernard Rhinelander Nancy Elizabeth Mary Post Rhinelander |
| Relatives | Jotham Post Jr. (grandfather) Frederic W. Rhinelander (cousin) |
Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo (May 12, &#; May 27, ) was an American heiress known for commissioning the Rhinelander Mansion located in Manhattan at Madison Avenue on the south-east corner of 72nd Street, designed in the s by Kimball & Thompson and completed in According to most sources, she never lived in the mansion, but chose to reside with her sister in a row house across the street from the mansion.[1]
Early life
[edit]Gertrude Rhinelander was born in New York on May 12, She was the youngest of seven children born to Bernard Rhinelander (–) and Nancy Elizabeth Mary (née Post) Rhinelander (–). Her father's family ancestors had resided in New York City since the 17th century. Her older siblings included Charles Edward Rhinelander, who married Math