Rodman Wanamaker
Rodman Wanamaker | |
---|---|
Born | Lewis Rodman Wanamaker February 13, 1863 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | March 9, 1928 | (aged 65)
Education | Princeton University (AB) |
Spouse | Fernanda Henry |
Children | Fernanda Wanamaker John Wanamaker II Anne Marie Louise Wanamaker |
Parent | John Wanamaker |
Lewis Rodman Wanamaker (February 13, 1863 – March 9, 1928) was an American businessman and heir to the
In 1916, he served as a
Early life and education
Wanamaker was born on February 13, 1863, in Philadelphia, to John Wanamaker and Mary Erringer Brown. He entered Princeton University in 1881, graduating in 1886. In college, he sang in the choir, and was a member and business manager of the Princeton Glee Club. He was a member of the Ivy Club, Princeton University's first eating club. He was a member of the 1885 Princeton Tigers football team that won the national championship with a dramatic last-minute punt return over the Yale Bulldogs.
Career
In 1886, Wanamaker joined his father's business. He married Fernanda Henry of Philadelphia and went to Paris as resident manager in 1889, where he lived for more than ten years. When his father purchased the former Alexander Turney Stewart business in New York City, in 1896, he helped revolutionize the department store with top quality items and is credited in particular with fueling an American demand for French luxury goods.
In 1911, he bought the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph with his third cousin Samuel Martin Broadbent, who was also a Princeton University alumnus.[6]
Wanamaker was content to live in his father's shadow and did not actively seek the limelight except for some official, largely ceremonial positions he held in New York City toward the end of his life. In 1922, before his death, his father turned over his holdings of the two Wanamaker's stores to Rodman. It represented one of the largest transfers of a retail merchandising business to a single person.[citation needed]
Rodman Wanamaker suffered from kidney disease in the last decade of his life, and the toxins from this condition slowly took their toll on his health. He had a son, Captain John Wanamaker, and two daughters. The son had health problems that made his choice as successor to the family business increasingly problematic.[citation needed] After his death, control of the stores passed to a board of trustees charged with serving the interests of the surviving Rodman Wanamaker family.
Wanamaker died on March 9, 1928, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.[1] He was interred in the Wanamaker family tomb in Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.[7]
Music
The
In 1926 Wanamaker commissioned a 17-ton bell from founders
Toward the end of his life, Wanamaker gathered a huge collection of
Florence Price rose to prominence after winning First Prize in the Rodman Wanamaker Symphony Competition of 1932.
Aviation
Rodman Wanamaker was a pioneer in sponsoring record-breaking aviation projects and in particular and especially an important early backer of transatlantic flight development.
In 1913 he commissioned
Through the American Trans-Oceanic Company he also funded efforts to increase aircraft range throughout the next decade, with a Wanamaker entry in the transatlantic challenge, the Fokker trimotor America flown by Commander Richard E. Byrd, taking to the air only a few days after Lindbergh's historic solo crossing on May 21–22, 1927 that won the cash prize in the contest.[10] In both cases, aviation and arguably the world benefited from the sponsorship of Wanamaker.
Liturgical arts
Rodman Wanamaker was a patron of many important commissions in the field of
He commissioned architect John T. Windrim to design a free-standing bell tower for the Church of St. James the Less in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Allegheny West. It is also an extensive mausoleum for the Wanamaker family.
Wanamaker-Millrose Games
In 1908 Rodman Wanamaker initiated the Millrose Games. They are now held at The Armory in New York City. (Millrose was Wanamaker's country estate near Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.) He also inaugurated the Wanamaker Mile, and reportedly began the tradition of playingThe Star-Spangled Banner at sporting events. The games were moved from Madison Square Garden to the New Balance Track and Field Center at The Armory.
Native Americans
Between 1908 and 1913, Wanamaker sponsored three photographic expeditions to the
The resulting large bromide prints were presentation photographs, such collections having been placed in several museums. Mostly, the subjects are
The Wanamaker photographic expeditions are fictionally treated in the novel Shadow Catcher by Charles Fergus.
In 1909, Wanamaker conceived the idea of a national monument to Native Americans. He developed the project for a Statue of Liberty-like colossal statue, and sponsored the 1913 groundbreaking for a National Memorial to the First Americans on Staten Island, at the mouth of New York Harbor. The monument was never built, but photographs of the groundbreaking are represented in the American Museum of Natural History's Library's collection.
Professional Golfers Association
On January 17, 1916, Wanamaker invited a group of 35 prominent golfers and other leading industry representatives, including the legendary Walter Hagen, and the "Father of American Golf" Alexander A. Findlay to a luncheon at the Taplow Club in New York for an exploratory meeting, which resulted in the formation of the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA). During the meeting, Wanamaker hinted that the newly formed organization needed an annual all-professional tournament, and offered to put up $2,500 and various trophies and medals as part of the prize fund. Wanamaker's offer was accepted, and seven months later, the first PGA Championship was played at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York. Jim Barnes was the first winner of the event and Thomas Kerrigan, the Head Golf Professional at Siwanoy Country Club at the time, was the first player ever to tee off.[16]
First held in October 1916, the PGA Championship has evolved into one of the world's premier sporting events, one of golf's four major championships. Each year, now in early August (mid-May beginning in 2019), a top course in the United States hosts the world's best professionals, as they compete for the Wanamaker Trophy.
World War I
He accepted an appointment during World War I as Special Deputy Police Commissioner in New York City, greeting distinguished guests from around the world and helping organize the victory parade for
After World War I, Wanamaker financed the rebuilding of a school in Sarcus, France. A town fountain was dedicated in his memory.
Real estate
Wanamaker's winter home in Palm Beach, Florida, known as La Guerida, or "bounty of war", was built in 1923 by Addison Mizner. In 1933, the 11,300 square feet (1,050 m2) compound was purchased by Joe Kennedy for $120,000 (equivalent to $2,820,000 in 2023), and eventually gained notoriety as the "Winter White House" of President John F. Kennedy. Decades later, the compound was featured at the center of the 1991 William Kennedy Smith rape trial. In 1995 it was purchased by John K. Castle of Castle Harlan for $4.92 million (equivalent to $9,840,000 in 2023), and later sold in 2020 to undisclosed trustees for a reported $70 million (equivalent to $82,400,000 in 2023).[17][18]
Wanamaker also owned a townhouse on Spruce Street in
See also
- Albert Leo Stevens
- Wanamaker Triplane
References
- ^ a b "R. Wanamaker Dies Suddenly At 65 At Atlantic City" (PDF). The New York Times. March 10, 1928. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
- ^ "R. Wanamaker Made a Police Deputy" (PDF). The New York Times. February 26, 1918. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
- ^ "Work for Airmen Policing the City" (PDF). The New York Times. December 8, 1918. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
- ^ "Police Reserves on New Footing" (PDF). The New York Times. March 17, 1918. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
- ^ "Lock Horns Over Styles of Golf Play". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. January 23, 1916. p. 2. Retrieved August 13, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Philadelphia Paper Sold" (PDF). The New York Times. February 3, 1911. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
- ^ "Wanamaker Burial To Be Tomorrow" (PDF). The New York Times. March 11, 1928. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
- ^ Arthur Sweetser. Opportunities in Aviation.
- ^ "Wanamaker Gives Airship" (PDF). The New York Times. March 31, 1917. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
- ^ "Charles Lindbergh-Medal of Honor Recipient". Charleslindbergh.com. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ "Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham - Sandringham Estate". Sandringhamestate.co.uk. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ "Friends of the Wanamaker Organ". Wanamakerorgan.com. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ "See the 25 Movies Just Added to the National Film Registry". Time. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
- ^ "National Film Registry Turns 30". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
- ^ "Here's What Happened at the Very First PGA Championship Ever Played". Golf.about.com. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ Martin, Guy (June 24, 2020). "Former Kennedy Palm Beach Compound Reportedly Sold By Billionaire Jane Goldman For $70 Million". Forbes. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
- ^ Larsen, Keith (June 19, 2020). "Kennedy Family's Palm Beach "Winter White House" Sells For $70M". The Real Deal South Florida. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
External links
- Wanamaker's transatlantic America flying boat Film of the assembly and naming of America, June 22, 1914
- "Milrose Games". Millrosegames.com. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- FindLaw | Cases and Codes
- Search the Opinions of the US Circuit Courts
- Obituary in Motor Boating, Jan. 1935 at Lesliefield.com