The mausoleum of Stephen Whitney (1776-1860) in Green-Wood Cemetery. Today is his birthday. I didn’t know his birthday was coming up when I drew this a week ago. I just happened to come across the fact the other day.
Whitney was a merchant, cotton speculator, and real estate investor. He helped to build the Merchants’ Exchange Building, the first home of the New York Stock Exchange. He was also an investor in the Red Star Line and had a sailing ship named after him. That Stephen Whitney wrecked off the coast of Ireland in 1847, costing 92 of the 110 passengers and crew their lives.
He was the second wealthiest citizen of New York City in the early 19th century, second only to John Jacob Astor. But he was not given to any sort of philanthropy or public service, so his name is not remembered the way others are. There is no Whitney Street, Whitney Park, Whitney Station, Whitney Plaza, Whitney Hospital, Whitney Library, etc.
Whitney died in 1860, and his wife soon after, leaving an estate estimated at $15 million (About $400 million today). The mausoleum was built circa 1875. It has a desk and bench inside for a priest or devotee. One can imagine the sort of guy he was, whose biggest accomplishments included funding a building for the stock market and naming a ship after himself, while donating zero dollars to the public good, but still thought there’d be someone manning a desk in his mausoleum for eternity.
