The Gilded Age

When once I asked the agent of a notorious Fourth Ward alley how many people might be living in it I was told: One hundred and forty families, one hundred Irish, thirty-eight Italian, and two that spoke the German tongue. Barring the agent herself, there was not a native-born individual in the court. The answer was characteristic of the cosmopolitan character of lower New York, very nearly so of the whole of it, wherever it runs to alleys and courts. One may find for the asking an Italian, a German, a French, African, Spanish, Bohemian, Russian, Scandinavian, Jewish, and Chinese colony. Even the Arab, who peddles "holy earth" from the Battery as a direct importation from Jerusalem, has his exclusive preserves at the lower end of Washington Street. The one thing you shall vainly ask for in the chief city of America is a distinctively American community. There is none; certainly not among the tenements.

Jacob Riis

How the Other Half LivesStudies Among the Tenements of New York

By Jacob Riis (1880)

Men's Lodging Room in the West 47th Street Station c. 1892

A downtown "Morgue" (unlicensed saloon) 1890

Mulberry Street Police Station

Waiting for the Lodging to Open c. 1892

A Black-and-Tan Dive in "Africa” c. 1890

Hull House

Wealth Today

• Warren Buffett– 62B (billion)

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?

• J.P. Morgan– Banking fortune– J.P. Morgan Bank– U.S. Steel– Worth equivalent of

$42B today

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?

• John Jacob Astor– Fur trading & Real

Estate fortune– Worth equivalent of

$121B today

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?

• Cornelius Vanderbilt– Created a railroad &

Shipping fortune– Created Grand Central

Station– Worth equivalent of

$185B today

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?

• Andrew Carnegie– Steel fortune– Carnegie Steel Corp– Monopoly created

through Vertical Integration

– Worth equivalent of $310B today

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?

• John D. Rockefeller– Oil fortune– Standard Oil Co– Monopoly created

through horizontal Integration

– Worth equivalent of $340B today

William R. Hearst – The Neptune Pool, Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA (1947)

William R. Hearst – Indoor Pool, Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA (1947)

Nouveau Riche

Conspicuous Consumption

James Deering - Vizcaya, Miami, FL (1916)

William K. Vanderbilt - Marble House, Newport, RI (1892)

William K. Vanderbilt - Marble House, Newport, RI (1892)

William K. Vanderbilt - Marble House, Newport, RI (1892)

Cornelius Vanderbilt II - The Breakers, Newport, RI (1895)

Cornelius Vanderbilt II - The Breakers, Newport, RI (1895)

Frederick W. Vanderbilt - Rough Point, Newport, RI (1892)

Frederick William Vanderbilt - Hyde Park, NY (1899)

George Washington Vanderbilt II - Biltmore, Asheville, NC (1914)

Florence Vanderbilt - Florham, Covent Station, NJ (1897)(Today -Fairleigh Dickinson University)

Emily Vanderbilt Elm Court, Lenox, MA (1887)

(90 acres inc. 55,000ft²,106-room home)

Frederick K. Vanderbilt II – Idle Hour, Oakdale, NY (1901)

William K. Vanderbilt II - Eagle’s Nest, Centerport, NY (1937)

W. K. Vanderbilt's Fifth Ave HomeFirst of the twin mansions was the home of William H. Vanderbilt;

the second of the twin mansions was the home Wm. H. built for his daughters; the third home is the marble chateau built for William K.

and Alva Vanderbilt in 1883

Fifth Ave

Fifth Ave

Interior of a Fifth Ave. mansion

Consuelo Vanderbilt, laterDuchess of Marlborough

“Dollar Princesses”