William Kissam Vanderbilt II

He was born on October 26, 1878, in New York City,{{cite book|last1=Gittelman|first1=Steven H.|title=Willie K. Vanderbilt II: A Biography|date=2010|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786458233|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGRkHyO2JDQC&pg=PR3|page=12|access-date=March 4, 2022|language=en}} the second child and first son of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith. His maternal grandfather was Murray Forbes Smith. Known as Willie K., he was a brother to Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and Consuelo Vanderbilt. Born to a life of luxury, he was raised in Vanderbilt mansions, traveled to Europe frequently, and sailed the globe on yachts owned by his father.

Willie was educated by tutors and at St. Mark's School. He attended Harvard University but dropped out after two years.

While a great part of his life was filled with travel and leisure activities, Willie's father put him to work at the family's New York Central Railroad offices at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. As such, in 1905 he joined other Vanderbilts on Fifth Avenue, hiring the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White to design a mansion at 666 Fifth Avenue.{{cite web |author1=Howard Kroplick |title=Willie K. and Virginia Vanderbilt’s Mansion at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan |url=https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/willie_k._and_virginia_vanderbilts_mansion_at_666_fifth_avenue_in_manhattan |website=Vanderbilt Cup Races |access-date=12 December 2024 |date=29 December 2015}}

Already extremely wealthy from a trust fund and from his income as president of the New York Central Railroad Company, on his father's death in 1920 Willie inherited a multimillion-dollar fortune.

Although he developed an interest in horse racing and yachting, he was particularly fascinated with automobiles. At age 10, during a stay in the south of France he had ridden in a steam-powered tricycle from Beaulieu-sur-Mer the 7 kilometers to Monte Carlo. As a twenty-year-old, in 1898 he ordered a French De Dion-Bouton motor tricycle and had it shipped to New York. Soon, he acquired other motorized vehicles and before long began to infuriate citizens and officials alike as he sped through the towns and villages of Long Island, New York, en route to Idle Hour, his parents' summer estate at Oakdale.

File:Tuna HMCS.jpg (1902)]]

A skilled sailor, he took part in yacht racing, winning the Sir Thomas Lipton Cup in 1900 with his new {{convert|70|ft|m|adj=on}} sailing yacht he had named Virginia in honor of his new bride. In 1902, Vanderbilt began construction on his own country place at Lake Success on Long Island that he named "Deepdale." In 1903 he bought Tarantula, the first turbine-powered steam yacht in the World.{{cite news |title=Howard Gould's steam yacht the winner. |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Times |page=7 |date=29 September 1904 |via=Times Machine |url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1904/09/29/118948696.html?pageNumber=7}}

However, sailing took second place to his enthusiasm for fast cars. In 1904, Willie set a new land speed record of {{convert|92.30|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}} in a Mercedes-Benz at the Daytona Beach Road Course at Ormond Beach, Florida. That same year, he launched the Vanderbilt Cup, the first major trophy in American auto racing. An international event, designed to spur American manufacturers into racing, the race's large cash prize drew the top drivers and their vehicles from across the Atlantic Ocean who had competed in Europe's Gordon Bennett Cup. Held at a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, the race drew large crowds hoping to see an American car defeat the mighty European vehicles. However, a French Panhard vehicle won the race and fans would have to wait until 1908 when 23-year-old George Robertson of Garden City, New York, became the first American to win the Vanderbilt Cup.

File:William K Vanderbilt with automobile 1904 N041926.jpg

The Vanderbilt Cup auto races repeatedly had crowd control problems and at the 1906 race a spectator was killed. Seeing the potential to solve the safety issue as well as improve attendance to his race, and with encouragement from AAA official A. R. Pardington, Vanderbilt formed a corporation to build the Long Island Motor Parkway, one of the country's first modern paved parkways that could not only be used for the race but would open up Long Island for easy access and economic development.{{Cite book |last=Burns |first=John M. |title=Thunder at Sunrise: A History of the Vanderbilt Cup, the Grand Prize and the Indianapolis 500, 1904-1916 |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7864-7712-8 |location=Jefferson, NC |pages=255}} Construction began in 1907 of the multimillion-dollar toll highway that was to run from the Kissena Corridor in Queens County over numerous bridges and overpasses to Lake Ronkonkoma, a distance of {{convert|48|mi|km}}. However, the toll road was never able to generate sustainable profits and in 1938 it was formally ceded to the county governments in lieu of the $80,000 due in back taxes.

His new high-speed road complemented a train service that allowed a rapid exit from Manhattan. Becoming the first suburban automobile commuter, in 1910 Willie began work on the much more elaborate and costly "Eagle's Nest" estate at Centerport, Long Island. An avid collector of natural history and marine specimens as well as other anthropological objects, he traveled extensively aboard his yacht as well as overland to numerous destinations around the globe. He acquired a vast array of artifacts for his collection during his well-documented travels and after service with the United States Navy during World War I, he published a book titled "A Trip Through Sicily, Tunisia, Algeria, and Southern France." A few years later, he engaged William Belanske, an artist from the American Museum of Natural History to take part with him in a scientific voyage to the Galapagos Islands. By 1922, Vanderbilt had commissioned the construction of a single-story building on his Long Island estate to serve as a public museum, and less than a decade later a second story was added on to accommodate the growing collection.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanderbiltmuseum.org/about-us/history/|title = History of the Vanderbilt Museum | Historic Mansion Long Island}} William Belanske, who had accompanied Vanderbilt on his Galapagos voyage, was employed as the full-time curator of this museum.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanderbiltmuseum.org/exhibit-opens-artist-curator-william-belanske/|title = Exhibit Opens: Artist-Curator William Belanske|date = October 24, 2015}}

File:MV Tarantula.jpg

In 1913, Vanderbilt traded in his steam turbine yacht Tarantula for a new motor yacht, also named {{USS|Tarantula|SP-124|2}}.{{cite news |title=New Vanderbilt yacht. |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |date=11 November 1912 |via=Times Machine |url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/11/11/100380514.html?pageNumber=1}}{{cite news |title=Vanderbilt boat building. |newspaper=New-York Tribune |page=9 |date=2 December 1912 |via=Chronicling America |url= https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1912-12-02/ed-1/seq-9/}}{{cite book |year=1914 |title=Register of Yachts |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |via=Internet Archive |at=TAR |url= https://archive.org/details/lloyds-register-of-yachts-1914/page/557/mode/1up}} On May 9, 1917, the United States Navy commissioned the second Tarantula at Brooklyn Navy Yard as a patrol boat, with the hull number SP-124, and appointed Lieutenant Vanderbilt as its commander. The Navy chartered the yacht from him for the duration of the war. He was assigned to patrol duty in the waters of the 3rd Naval District, and escorted convoys in waters off New York and New Jersey. On October 1, 1917, he was released from active duty and given a temporary leave of absence to resume his duties of vice-president of the New York Central Railroad. A few months later, he was elected president of the New York Central Railroad and acted in this capacity for the remainder of the war.Harvard's Military Record in the World War. pg. 983.

After the war, Vanderbilt was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve on May 17, 1921.Register of Commissioned Officers of the U.S. Naval Reserve. July 1, 1939. pg. 3. He remained in the Naval Reserve until he was transferred to the Honorary Retired List on January 1, 1941, for physical disability.Register of Commissioned Officers of the U.S. Naval Reserve. July 1, 1941. pg. 488.

In 1925, he traded the luxury yacht Eagle for ownership of Fisher Island, Florida, a place he used as a winter residence.Fisher, Lionel L. Fisher Island. Fisher Island, FL: Island Developers, 1994. p. 18. He built a mansion complete with docking facilities for his yacht, a seaplane hangar, tennis courts, swimming pool, and an eleven-hole golf course. This home was called Alva Base and the architect was Maurice Fatio.Mockler, Kim. Maurice Fatio: Palm Beach Architect. New York: Acanthus Press, 2010. {{ISBN|0-926494-09-0}}. p. 196. In addition to this property, and his Long Island estate, Eagle's Nest, which was designed by Warren & Wetmore,{{cite web |title=At Long Island's Historic Vanderbilt Mansion, Eagle's Nest |url=https://untappedcities.com/2012/07/27/long-islands-historic-vanderbilt-mansion/ |website=Untapped New York}} Vanderbilt also owned a farm in Tennessee and Kedgwick Lodge, a hunting lodge designed for his father by architect Stanford White, on the Restigouche River in New Brunswick, Canada.

In 1899, Vanderbilt married Virginia Graham Fair (1875–1935), a wealthy heiress whose father, James Graham Fair, had made a fortune in mining the famous Comstock Lode. They spent their honeymoon at the Idle Hour estate but disaster struck when fire broke out and the mansion burned to the ground. Before their separation and divorce, Vanderbilt and his wife had a son and two daughters, the younger of whom was named for his sister:

• Muriel Vanderbilt (1900–1972), who married three times, the first in 1925 to Frederic Cameron Church, Jr. She later married Henry Delafield Phelps and John Payson Adams.
• Consuelo Vanderbilt (1903–2011){{cite news|title=Paid Notice: Deaths EARL, CONSUELO VANDERBILT|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E2DF1E3AF936A15751C0A9679D8B63|access-date=18 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=25 February 2011}} who first married Earl E. T. Smith (1903-1991), the U.S. Ambassador to Cuba,{{cite news|title=Members of Leading Families Attend Service for Mrs. Balsan|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/10/members-of-leading-families-attend-service-for-mrs-balsan.html?mcubz=0|access-date=18 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=10 December 1964}} in 1926. They divorced in 1935 and she married to Henry Gassaway Davis III (1902-1984), who was and the grandson of Henry G. Davis and recently divorced from her cousin, Grace Vanderbilt.{{cite news|title=TROTH ANNOUNCED OF MRS. G.V. SMITH; Daughter of Win. K. Vanderbilt Affianced to H. G. Davis 3d, Ex-Husband of Cousin. GRANDSON OF A SENATOR Ceremony to Take Place Friday at Florida Estate of Father of Prospective Bride.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/11/26/85439013.html?pageNumber=32|access-date=18 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=November 26, 1936|language=en}} They divorced in 1940 and she married William John Warburton III (1895-1979) in 1941. They divorced in 1946 and in 1951, she married Noble Clarkson Earl Jr. (1900–1969).{{cite news|last1=Shapiro|first1=T. Rees|title=Consuelo Vanderbilt Earl, heiress, dog breeder and link to golden age, dies at 107|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/consuelo_vanderbilt_earl_heiress_dog_breeder_and_link_to_golden_age_dies_at_107/2011/02/25/ABChhEJ_story.html|access-date=18 September 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=25 February 2011}}
• William Kissam Vanderbilt III (1907–1933), who inherited his father's love of fast cars and exotic travel, was killed in an automobile accident in South Carolina while driving home to New York City from his father's Florida estate.

The Vanderbilts separated after ten years of marriage but did not formally divorce until 1927 when he wanted to remarry. Divorce proceedings were handled by his New York lawyers while he and Rosamund Lancaster Warburton (1897–1947), a former wife of Barclay Harding Warburton II and an heir to the John Wanamaker department store fortune, waited discreetly away from the media at a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy, France. When the divorce was final, the couple were married at the Hotel de Ville (city hall) in Paris on September 5, 1927. Vanderbilt became a legal stepfather to Barclay Harding Warburton III once they wed.

Vanderbilt died on January 8, 1944, of a heart ailment.{{cite news|title=W. K. VANDERBILT DIES IN HOME HERE; Founder of the Vanderbilt Cup. Races -- Former President of New York Central|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/01/08/archives/w-k-anderbilt-dies-in-home-herei-founder-of-the-vanderbilt-cup.html|access-date=August 30, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=January 8, 1944}} He was interred in the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum on Staten Island, New York.{{cite news |title=William Kissam Vanderbilt |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/csmonitor_historic/access/174800962.html?dids=174800962:174800962&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jan+08%2C+1944&author=&pub=Christian+Science+Monitor&desc=William+K.+Vanderbilt&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106194856/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/csmonitor_historic/access/174800962.html?dids=174800962:174800962&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jan+08,+1944&author=&pub=Christian+Science+Monitor&desc=William+K.+Vanderbilt&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 6, 2012|newspaper=Associated Press |date= January 8, 1944 |access-date=May 23, 2011 }}{{cite news |title=W. K. Vanderbilt Dies In N. Y. Of Heart Disease |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/462101962.html?dids=462101962:462101962&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+08%2C+1944&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=W.+K.+VANDERBILT+DIES+IN+N.+Y.+OF+HEART+DISEASE&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106203127/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/462101962.html?dids=462101962:462101962&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+08,+1944&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=W.+K.+VANDERBILT+DIES+IN+N.+Y.+OF+HEART+DISEASE&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=January 8, 1944 |access-date=May 27, 2011 }}

Following his father's death in 1920, Vanderbilt's share of his father's estate was valued at approximately $21,253,000 after the deduction of taxes and debts.Times Union. (7 March 1923), Page 16. Estate Tax – William Kissam Vanderbilt. Newspapers.com. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-union-estate-tax-william-kissam/145585294/

In 1935 he was named as a co-executor of the Will of his first wife, Virginia Fair Vanderbilt; despite their divorce in 1927, the Will had been executed on 5 June 1930. Vanderbilt did not inherit any of her $7,000,000 fortune, though the Will established several Trust Funds which provided for annuities of $150,000 to their daughter Consuelo Vanderbilt Smith, $75,000 to Muriel Vanderbilt Phelps and $50,000 to their son William K. Vanderbilt III (though he had predeceased his mother).{{cite news |title=Love of Vanderbilt Hinted in Ex's Will |newspaper=Daily News |date=18 July 1935 |page=498 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-love-of-vanderbilt-hinted-in/175240681/ |access-date=25 June 2025 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Following his own death in 1944, contemporary newpaper articles reporting on the Estate Administration filings of his estate reported that the preliminary valuation of his gross estate was approximately $36,323,000.{{cite news |title=Vanderbilt Estate Valued |newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald |date=10 August 1944 |page=16 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-vanderbilt-estate/175241208/ |access-date=25 June 2025 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Later reports gave a net figure of $35,815,614, from which approximately $18,845,000 in Federal Estate Taxes and $5,600,000 in New York Estate taxes were deducted, as well as $1.6 million in charitable requests, $1,286,000 in administration and funeral expenses, and $220,000 in debts.Newsday (Suffolk Edition). (30 September 1947, Page 45). Estate of Mrs Rosamond Lancaster Vanderbilt. Newspapers.com. Retrieved 11 January 2025, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-estate-of-mrs/162764944/, accessed 11 January 2025. By 1945 his widow had applied for a reduction in the valuation of his estate, claming that only $5,000,000 remained from her late husband's fortune after the payment of State and Federal Income Taxes. The Will bequeathed his Long Island Estate Eagle's Nest and a $2,000,000 Trust Fund to Suffolk County, New York for the establishment of museum.

He also provided a life interest in his residuary estate to his second wife, after which it would be divided into 18 shares, which were to be allocated amongst his surviving descendants:{{cite news |title=W. K. Vanderbilt Fund Shrinks to $7,000,000 |newspaper=Newport Mercury and Weekly News |date=12 September 1947 |page=5 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newport-mercury-and-weekly-news-w-k-va/175241373/ |access-date=25 June 2025 |via=Newspapers.com}}

• A life interest in 9 Shares (or 50%) to his daughter Muriel Vanderbilt Phelps; following her death, 5 of these shares to be transferred to the Eagle's Nest Park Maintenance Fund, and the remaining 4 shares to vest into the ownership of any children she might have, or failing this, to the children of her sister Consuelo;{{cite news |title=Vanderbilt, W.K. Will |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-vanderbilt-w/8204455/ |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |date=21 January 1944 |page=28 |access-date=25 June 2025 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• 2 shares each to his granddaughters Iris Smith and Virginia Smith (daughters of Consuelo Vanderbilt Smith);
• 3 shares to his step-daughter Rosemary Warburton Gaynor; and,
• 2 shares to his step-son Barclay K. Warburton III

In 1931, Vanderbilt had the Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel, Germany, build for him the 264-foot diesel yacht Alva. The Alva was donated by Vanderbilt to the U.S. Navy on November 4, 1941. The Alva was converted to a gunboat and commissioned as the USS Plymouth (PG-57) on December 29, 1941. The Plymouth was primarily employed as a convoy escort on the East Coast and in the Caribbean and was sunk by a torpedo from a German U-boat on August 5, 1943, at 21.39 with the loss of 95.

By the 1940s, Vanderbilt had organized his will so that, upon his death, the Eagle's Nest property along with a $2 million upkeep fund would be given to Suffolk County, New York, to serve as a public museum. Since 1950, the site has operated as the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanderbiltmuseum.org/about-us/history/|title = History of the Vanderbilt Museum | Historic Mansion Long Island}}

In 2025, Vanderbilt was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.{{Cite web |title=William Kissam Vanderbilt II |url=https://www.mshf.com/William-Kissam-Vanderbilt-II-10-1921263.html |access-date=2025-05-31 |website=www.mshf.com}}

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• [http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/vanderbilts/ William K. Vanderbilt Jr.] (VanderbiltCupRaces.com)

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Category:1878 births

Category:1944 deaths

Category:20th-century American railroad executives

Category:American male sailors (sport)

William Kissam II

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Land speed record people

Category:American people of Dutch descent

Category:St. Mark's School (Massachusetts) alumni

Category:Racing drivers from New York City

Category:People from Centerport, New York

Category:People from Lake Success, New York

Category:Trust Company of America people

Category:Former yacht owners of New York City

Category:Burials at the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum