Clarence H. Geist

{{Infobox person

| name = Clarence Henry Geist

| image = Clarence Henry Geist.png

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1866|1|10}}

| birth_place = LaPorte County, Indiana, U.S.

| birth_name =

| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1938|6|12|1866|1|10}}

| death_place = Villanova, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| nationality =

| education =

| occupation = Utilities executive, financier

| known_for = Purchasing Mizner Development Corporation's assets in Boca Raton, Florida

| children =

| spouse = Florence Hewitt Geist

| parents =

| family =

}}

Clarence Henry Geist (1866 – June 12, 1938) was an American financier who played an important role in the early history of Boca Raton, Florida.

Biography

Clarence Geist was born and raised on a farm in LaPorte County, Indiana. When he was 18 he left Indiana and spent five years in the far West working in cattle ranching, but returned East when he realized he "could not make money where there wasn't any". He settled in Blue Island, Illinois{{cite book |last= |first= |author-link= |date=1900 |title=The Annual Lakeside Directory of the City of Chicago – 1900 – EMBRACING A COMPLETE GENERAL AND BUSINESS DIRECTORY, MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, AND STREET GUIDE |url= |location=Chicago |publisher=The Chicago Directory Company |page=712 |isbn=}} and worked for a year on the Rock Island Railroad as a conductor, and subsequent to that entered the real estate business {{cite news

|title=C. H. Geist and Edward Hopkinson, Jr., Elected members of U.G.I. [United Gas Improvement] Board

|quote=First published in U.G.I. Circle (internal organ), August, 1930

|url=http://www.bocahistory.org/_files/span_river/SRP%201987-1988.pdf

|newspaper=Spanish River Papers

|volume=16

|year=1987–1988

|access-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-date=April 12, 2019

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412190318/https://www.bocahistory.org/_files/span_river/SRP%201987-1988.pdf

|url-status=live

}} and served as president of the Cottage Building and Loan in Blue Island.{{cite journal |author= |date=1902-01-27 |title=(Untitled)|url= |journal= Westville Indicator News|volume=V |issue=48 |pages= 2|doi= |access-date=}} Geist then set himself up as a natural gas distributor, where he supplied gas to Blue Island, Morgan Park, then a suburb of Chicago, and Illinois suburbs south of Blue Island that included Harvey and Chicago Heights.{{cite journal |author= |date=1902-01-27 |title=Items of Interest from Various Localities|url= https://archive.org/details/sim_pipeline-gas-journal_1902-01-27_76_4/page/124/mode/2up?q=geist |journal= The American Gas Light Journal|volume=LXXVI |issue=4 |pages= 124|doi= |access-date=July 23, 2021}}

His wife was Florence Hewitt Geist.{{cite web

|title=Clarence Geist: Palm Beach & Boca Raton

|first=Augustus

|last=Mayhew

|url=http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1902857/print

|publisher=New York Social Diary

|access-date=January 4, 2018

|date=July 13, 2010

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105011817/http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1902857/print

|archive-date=January 5, 2018

|url-status=dead

}} Although he walked with a cane he was an avid golfer, participating in tournaments. From 1912 to 1938 he was the principal owner of the Indianapolis Water Company.{{cite web

|title=Germantown: The Lost City Under Geist Reservoir

|first=Tom

|last=Britt

|year=2015

|access-date=January 2, 2017

|newspaper=Town Poste Network

|url=http://www.townepost.com/indiana/geist/germantown-the-lost-city-under-geist-reservoir/

|archive-date=November 17, 2016

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117095448/http://www.townepost.com/indiana/geist/germantown-the-lost-city-under-geist-reservoir/

|url-status=live

}} Geist Reservoir (1943) is named for him. He also founded in 1910 the company today known as South Jersey Industries, when the Atlantic City Gas and Water Company merged with Atlantic City Gas Company. He eventually owned over 100 utilities.

Geist was a friend of Charles G. Dawes, who in 1925 became Calvin Coolidge's Vice-President. Geist left Indiana first to work for the Dawes family in Chicago.

In 1924 he had built in Palm Beach La Claridad, a mansion designed by Palm Beach architect Marion Sims Wyeth, who also designed Mar-a-Lago. He was a member of the Everglades Club, and the mansion was built on the club grounds (which covered several blocks).

When Addison Mizner's Mizner Development Corporation went bankrupt in 1926 after trying to build the new resort of Boca Raton, Geist bought its assets in 1927 via an anonymous bid of $76,350. Included were the Cloister Inn, fifty houses, and 15,000 acres of land.{{cite web

|title=Clarence Henry Geist

|last1=Historical Society of Palm Beach County

|year=2009

|url=http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/clarence-henry-geist

|access-date=January 2, 2018

|archive-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105011636/http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/clarence-henry-geist

|url-status=live

}}{{citation

|title=Panic in Paradise. Florida's Banking Crash of 1926

|first=Raymond B.

|last=Vickers

|publisher=University of Alabama Press

|year=1994

|isbn=0817307230}}{{rp|173}} He commissioned the New York architectural firm Schultze and Weaver to create an addition to the 100-room Cloister Inn, resulting in the 450-room Boca Raton Club, which accepted its first guests in December, 1929, ahead of its 1930 formal opening.{{cite book

|title=Boomtime Boca. Boca Raton in the 1920s

|first1=Susan

|last1=Gillis

|last2=Boca Raton Historical Society

|year=2007

|publisher=Arcadia

|isbn=9780738544434}}{{rp|117}}

Geist made a low-interest loan to Boca Raton to finance its first municipal water plant (which he convinced Boca Raton it needed) and provide water for the guests at his new hotel.{{cite news

|title=Minutes from the City Commission meeting, June 16, 1928

|date=1987–1988

|url=http://www.bocahistory.org/_files/span_river/SRP%201987-1988.pdf

|newspaper=Spanish River Papers

|volume=16

|page=(unpaged)

|access-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-date=April 12, 2019

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412190318/https://www.bocahistory.org/_files/span_river/SRP%201987-1988.pdf

|url-status=live

}} He built it in Mizner's style, for visual harmony. At the time, the handsome, Mediterranean-style plant was the most modern in the state.{{rp|108}} (It was replaced by a much larger plant in 1956, parts having become unavailable for the original equipment. The building was demolished and the site currently houses Boca's City Hall.) He also paid for an elegant, Mediterranean-style depot on the Florida East Coast Railway (in 2017 operated by the Boca Raton Historical Society as a museum). Geist allegedly bought stock in the railroad in order to influence its choice of Boca Raton depot.{{rp|114}}

File:Clarence H. Geist mausoleum in West Laurel Hill Cemetery.jpg]]

He died at his home in Villanova, Pennsylvania on June 12, 1938{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56660826/clarence-h-geist-dies-at-age-of-72/ |title=Clarence H. Geist Dies at Age of 72 |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |page=1 |date=1938-06-13 |access-date=2020-08-03 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=October 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017221609/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56660826/clarence-h-geist-dies-at-age-of-72/ |url-status=live }} and was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.{{cite book |last1=Rosenfeld |first1=Lucy D. |last2=Harrison |first2=Marina |title=Architecture Walks - The Best Outings Near New York City |date=2010 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=Piscataway, New Jersey |isbn=978-0-8135-4734-3 |page=241 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqamPZ-KajgC |access-date=11 October 2022}} At the time of his death it was reported at one time that Geist was reputed to be worth $100,000,000 ($1.93 billion in 2021) {{cite journal |last1= |first1= |last2= |first2= |date= |title=C.H. Geist, Founder of Northern Illinois Gas and Electric Company, Dies |url= |journal= The Hammond Times|volume=XXXII |issue=305 |pages=1 |doi= |access-date=}}

Legacy

The bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway on Mizner's Camino Real is officially the Clarence H. Geist Memorial Bridge (1939), replacing a temporary swing bridge built by Geist.{{cite news

|title=Boca's Camino Real bridge, one of 14 'deficient' in South Florida, up for repair

|first=Aric

|last=Chokey

|date=July 20, 2017

|url=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-reg-bridge-upgrades-20170718-story.html

|access-date=January 4, 2018

|newspaper=Sun-Sentinel

|archive-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105180400/http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-reg-bridge-upgrades-20170718-story.html

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=Historic status saves Camino Real Bridge in Boca Raton

|newspaper=Sun-Sentinel

|date=December 3, 2011

|first=Angel

|last=Streeter

|access-date=January 4, 2018

|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-12-03/news/fl-camino-real-bridge-20111202_1_camino-real-bridge-permanent-bridge-southern-boulevard-bridge

|archive-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105180351/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-12-03/news/fl-camino-real-bridge-20111202_1_camino-real-bridge-permanent-bridge-southern-boulevard-bridge

|url-status=dead

}}

A Clarence H. Geist Memorial Organ (1940) is located at the Overbrook Memorial Church in Overbrook, New Jersey.{{cite web

|url=http://www.overbrookpresb.org/organ.php

|access-date=January 4, 2018

|title=The Clarence H. Geist Memorial Organ

|archive-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105011849/http://www.overbrookpresb.org/organ.php

|url-status=live

}} Geist was the founder and owner of the New Jersey Seaview Country Club (1914).{{cite web

|title=Mrs. Clarence Geist Entertains

|quote=Reprinted from Palm Beach Post, 4 April 1925

|newspaper=Spanish River Papers

|url=http://www.bocahistory.org/_files/span_river/SRP%201987-1988.pdf

|volume=16

|year=1987–1988

|access-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-date=April 12, 2019

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412190318/https://www.bocahistory.org/_files/span_river/SRP%201987-1988.pdf

|url-status=live

}}{{cite web

|title=Time Capsule Buried at Historic Site in New Jersey

|access-date=January 2, 2018

|url=https://www.heritagetimecapsules.com/blogs/news/15775113-time-capsule-buried-at-historic-site-in-new-jersey

|date=November 13, 2014

|author=Heritage Time Capsules

|archive-date=January 5, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105011934/https://www.heritagetimecapsules.com/blogs/news/15775113-time-capsule-buried-at-historic-site-in-new-jersey

|url-status=live

}} He was on the Board of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company at the time of his death.{{cite web

|title=One Hundred and Eighteenth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to the Stockholders Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 1938

|year=1939

|page=8

|last=White

|first=Robert V.

|url=http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/lippincott/corprpts/lehigh/lehigh1938.pdf

|access-date=January 4, 2018

|archive-date=August 11, 2007

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811162537/http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/lippincott/corprpts/lehigh/lehigh1938.pdf

|url-status=live

}} He owned a Philadelphia Main Line mansion.{{cite web

|title=Godfrey Residence

|url=https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/252