Imagine hijacking one of America’s greatest fortunes through a series
of lies and charming smiles. Hi everyone ken here welcome to "This House". Today
we are exploring Woodlea in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Make sure to hit that
subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode of "This House".
When Maggie Vanderbilt first met Elliot Shepard, she swooned over his good looks. Arguably,
this was the only thing Elliot had going for him. He was born the son of Fitch Sheppard,
the President of the American Bank Note Company and grew up adjacent to high society,
but was never really a part of it. When he was a young adult,
he enlisted in the Union Army as a recruiter where he earned the title Colonel, though
he never saw a battle with his own eyes. After recruiting over 47,000 men for the Union Army,
New York’s Governor Morgan invited Elliot to a grand ball where he was introduced to Maggie
Vanderbilt. For her, it was love at first site, for Elliot, it was like winning the lottery.
Maggie’s father, William Henry Vanderbilt disapproved of Elliot, often centering him
out as the punchline of ill willed jokes. But nevertheless, Maggie was deeply in love and within
a year of their first meeting the 2 were married. Elliot moved into Maggie’s duplex in Manhattan,
part of her father’s Triple Palace, where he began starting small businesses. During this time,
he boasted about how well his businesses were doing and how much money he was making. But
the fact of the matter is that his businesses were barely scaping by,
but Maggie was none the wiser. William was always skeptical of Elliot and perhaps would have exposed
him for a con man had he not suddenly passed away. With Old Man Vanderbilt out of the picture,
Elliot now had control of Maggie’s inheritance, insisting he manage her piddly wealth. This lie
could not have been further from the truth as Maggie’s cash cut of the fortune alone was worth
10 times what all of Elliot’s businesses, holdings, and accounts were put together.
Now with uninhibited access to the Vanderbilt fortune, he began establishing more banks,
law firms, and other companies, making sure the public knew his name. As he rose to prominence,
he secretly spent more than half of Maggie’s 12 million dollar
inheritance which was worth the modern day equivalent of nearly 400 million dollars.
Even though Maggie saw her husband’s companies failing, he always reassured her that it wasn’t
his fault, or the newspapers were lying to ruin his reputation. He even went as
far as to purchase The Mail and Express where he would run propaganda pieces to
make himself look better, insisting that Maggie read the articles he had written about himself.
Now having Maggie convinced that he was one of the wealthiest men in the world,
he decided to treat Maggie to a vacation home, once again secretly using her own money.
He purchased the 250 acre Woodlea Estate hired the architecture firm of McKim, Mead and White
to design a palace worthy of his ego. The 70,000 square foot mansion boasted 65 bedrooms spread out
over 3 floors. The façade was wrapped in blond brick and accented by limestone quoins with
urns and chimneys piercing the low pitched roof. The home was laid out so that all
the public rooms were organized off a central hall, spilling further onto outdoor terraces.
Entering the home, you would pass through a set of
mahogany doors set in marble walls with an elaborate mosaic sweeping the floor.
Continuing forward, you would arrive in the reception hall where a marble fireplace rose
floor to ceiling below an intricately crafted ceiling. Facing the front door,
the staircases gracefully ascended, turning behind columns with wrought iron balustrade
casting whimsical shadows as light beamed through the massive Palladian window.
To the left of the stairs, a long corridor stretched towards the
rear of the house with no surface left unadorned.
From here, we can navigate to the Drawing Room,
complete with gilted wall panels and crystal chandeliers set above a herringbone floor.
Next, the dining room was finished out with mahogany wall panels rising two
thirds of the way up the wall. In place of wallpaper in the frieze,
a tapestry had been applied to the walls below the coffered ceiling.
The library was overflowing with books in its half
height book cases and portraits were hung in ornate frames from the leather walls.
The palatial estate was now fit for the King Elliot thought he was. Unfortunately for him,
he fell ill as the palace was nearing completion. Not wanting to appear weak,
he sequestered himself in his townhouse and told no one that he wasn’t feeling
well. He sent for a pair of doctors with no connections to high society,
lest he be embarrassed that word got out about him being sick. Of course, hiring doctors in
secret with no connections to high society lead to problems. They ended giving him a
lethal dose of ether and Elliot died in the Triple Palace before he could move into his own palace.
With construction so close to being finished, Maggie had the house completed, taking what
would have been Elliot’s bedroom for her own, giving her the largest bedroom in the house.
She didn’t visit it very often though, she only used it for a couple weeks during the
spring and fall, favoring her home in Manhattan and her vacation house in
Newport. In Maggie’s later life she became a philanthropist and donated millions of dollars
to several charities. Even though more than half of her fortune had been stolen from her,
she never really grasped how much money she had nor what things were worth. By this time,
rumors had spread about how easy it was to manipulate Maggie. In 1906,
Archibald White offered to buy Woodlea from her for 1,250,000, even though it was valued at 5
million dollars at the time or the modern day equivalent of 164 million dollars. Maggie gave
almost no thought to it and agreed to sell it to White for a quarter of what it was actually worth.
Archibald chose to make Woodlea his family home, thinking he had gotten away with the
bargain of a lifetime. But his wife put him in his place, she began spending more than
the family could afford and even going as far as to pay for meals, clothes, and bills
of her 20 closest friends. In a desperate attempt to make things right with his wife,
he put the house up for sale for only 165,000 dollars. William Avery Rockefeller Junior and
Frank Vanderclip snatched up the bargain palace and turned it into the Sleepy Hollow Country Club
which continues to be open to this day with much of the original mansion still intact.
Which room was your favorite? let me know down below in the comments section and while your
down there Make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode
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