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Worthington Whitehouse

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Worthington Whitehouse
BornOctober 1864
DiedFebruary 14, 1922(1922-02-14) (aged 75–76)
EducationSt. John's School
Parent(s)Edward M. Whitehouse
Amelia Stuart Newton Worthington
RelativesHenry Rossiter Worthington (grandfather)
Charles Campbell Worthington (uncle)

Worthington Whitehouse (October 1864 – February 14, 1922) was a prominent American real estate broker and member of New York Society during the Gilded Age who led many cotillions.[1]

Early life

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He was born in October 1864 in Irvington, New York. He was the son of Amelia Stuart Newton Worthington (d. 1901)[2] and Edward M. Whitehouse (d. 1870), his mother's first husband whom she married in 1863.[3][4] After his father died, his mother remarried to Thomas Whiteside Rae.[5] His full-brother was Edward Whitehouse (1866–1894)[6] and his half-brothers were Izard Newton Whiteside Rae and Thomas Rae.[7][8]

His paternal grandparents were Edward Whitehouse and Julia (née Cammann) Whitehouse, of the prominent Cammann Knickerbocker family.[3] His uncle was James Henry Whitehouse, dean of the New York Stock Exchange and his cousin was Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala and Colombia.[9] His maternal grandparents were Henry Rossiter Worthington (1817–1880), who invented the first direct-acting steam pump,[10] and Sara Jane (née Newton) Worthington (1817–1893),[8] herself the daughter of Commodore John Thomas Newton of Alexandria, Virginia.[8] His uncle was Charles Campbell Worthington (1854–1944), who took over his grandfather's Worthington Corporation. His grand-nephew through his brother Izard, was Thomas Newton Whiteside Rae (d. 2011).[11] His niece was Edwina Worthington Whitehouse,[12] who married Gregory Van Sicklen McLoughlin, a painter,[13] and committed suicide in 1923.[14]

He was educated in New York, taking a class at St. John's School, and then abroad to complete his studies. After graduation, he spent three years traveling, including in Africa.[3]

Career

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After returning to the United States, he joined Edward Sweet & Co., bankers,[15] working with them for three years.[3] His cousin Henry Worthington Bull (1874–1958), the son of his maternal aunt Sara Newton Worthington and her husband William Lauman Bull, also worked at Edward Sweet & Co.[15]

Following Edward Sweet & Co., he joined with Edward Ludlow Hall (1872–1932) in real estate ventures. He later formed a partnership known as Mills & Whitehouse. It was dissolved and he joined John N. Golding to form Golding & Whitehouse,[16] later Whitehouse & Porter with Clarence Porter, the only surviving son of Gen. Horace Porter, the U.S. Ambassador to France. After Porter's death, Whitehouse later founded his own real estate firm, Worthington Whitehouse Inc. in 1915, which rented and sold properties in New York, especially along Fifth Avenue and in Murray Hill, and in Newport, Rhode Island.[3][17][18]

In 1921, he stepped down as president of his firm, Worthington Whitehouse Company, Inc., and appointed Newton Rae, his relative who was a friend of Albert Eugene Gallatin,[19] as president in his place. In 1935, several years after his death, his firm was dissolved and its president, Newton Rae, and officers joined Douglas L. Elliman & Co.[20]

Society life

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Whitehouse was a member of the infamous "Four Hundred" of New York Society, as dictated by Mrs. Astor and Ward McAllister and published in The New York Times on February 16, 1892.[21] He was known for being the master of the cotillion,[22] along with Cathleen Neilson Vanderbilt, the wife of Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt.[23][24] In 1914, he accompanied Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, among others, to the opening of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at the Metropolitan Opera.[25]

He was a member of the Knickerbocker Club, Racquet and Tennis Club, and was a member of the Delta Phi fraternity.[3]

Whitehouse, who did not marry, died on February 14, 1922, at his home, Worthington Farms in Elmsford, New York.[9]

References

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Notes
  1. ^ Craven, Wayne (2009). Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 285. ISBN 9780393067545. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  2. ^ "WILL OF MRS. A.S. RAE.; Leaves Most of Her Property to Her Sons and Heirs of a Son". The New York Times. November 21, 1901. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Bergen, Tunis Garret (1915). Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 479. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  4. ^ Blanck, Maggie. "Worthington Hydraulic Pump Works, Red Hook, Brooklyn". maggieblanck.com. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  5. ^ Dwight, Benjamin Woodbridge (1874). The History of the Descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass. J. F. Trow & Son, Printers and Bookbinders. p. 589. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  6. ^ "Whitehouse -- Cozzens". The New York Times. 7 August 1892. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  7. ^ The Yale Banner. Yale College. 1901. p. 71. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Worthington, George (1894). The Genealogy of the Worthington Family. Joel Munsell's. p. 364. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  9. ^ a b "WORTHINGTON WHITEHOUSE". The New York Times. 15 February 1922. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  10. ^ Maurer 1999, p. 1.
  11. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths RAE, THOMAS NEWTON WHITESIDE". The New York Times. 25 April 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  12. ^ "ARTIST'S WIFE DIES IN RELIGIOUS MANIA; Mrs. McLoughlin, Student of Theosophy, Thought She Was a Burden to Her Husband". The New York Times. 4 November 1923. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  13. ^ Social Register, New York. Social Register Association. 1916. p. 426. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Once A Society Favorite" (PDF). Rome Daily Standard. November 3, 1923. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  15. ^ a b Who's Who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. 1914. p. 101. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  16. ^ "THE REAL ESTATE FIELD; Negotiations for the Sixth Avenue Car Stables Property. THE FIRM OF R.H. MACY & CO. MAY BUY Nearly a Million Dollars Asked for It -- Part of the Hotel Brunswick Site and Some Downtown Realty Sold". The New York Times. 30 April 1895. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  17. ^ "BUYER OF WHITEHOUSE ESTATE". The New York Times. 6 June 1915. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  18. ^ "PRIVATE HOUSE SALE.; Many Manhattan Residence Properties Change Ownership". The New York Times. 10 May 1922. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  19. ^ "Albert E. Gallatin Host". The New York Times. 17 December 1926. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  20. ^ "REALTY COMPANIES WILL BE COMBINED; Worthington-Whitehouse Firm to Dissolve -- Officers Join D.L. Elliman & Co". The New York Times. January 31, 1935. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  21. ^ McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  22. ^ "MRS. VANDERBILT GIVES A DANCE; Entertains for Her Niece, Miss Shepherd, Who Came Out This Year. DINNER PRECEDED IT There Were Fifty-two Guests -- The Cotillion Was Led by Worthington Whitehouse". The New York Times. 1909. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  23. ^ "MRS. VANDERBILT HAS 375 DANCING GUESTS; Worthington Whitehouse and Mrs. Reginald Vanderbilt Lead the Cotillion". The New York Times. 1911. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  24. ^ "SOCIETY IN BRILLIANT ASSEMBLIES IN SEASON'S SECOND WEEK; Dancing Contest Tuesday Night at Sherry's for St. Ambrose Mission ;- Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Mrs. Oliver Jennings, Worthington Whitehouse Among the Judges ;- A Busy Week for Debutantes ;- Plans for Russian Costume Ball at Ritz-Carlton on Dec. 18". The New York Times. 23 November 1913. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  25. ^ Gittelman, Steven H.; Gittelman, Emily (2013). Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt: The Unlikely Hero of the Lusitania. Hamilton Books. p. 218. ISBN 9780761855071. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
Sources
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