William Rhinelander Stewart, Sr. (1852-1929)
President of Rhinelander Real Estate Co. & the New York State Board of Charities
He was born in New York City and graduated in law from Columbia University (1873), later becoming President of the Rhinelander Real Estate Company, a trustee of the Greenwich Savings Bank and a Director of the Corn Exchange Bank. Described as, "a man of such social position and fortune as tend to divert the attention of most men from interest in civic affairs, he yet gave the best part of his life to various enterprises of benefit to the city and state." For 25-years he was President of the State Board of Charities which saw him become President of the National Conference of Charities & Corrections. He organized the committee that built the Washington Arch on New York's Washington Square and as Chairman of the Grant Monument Association at the time of his death, he had already raised $100,000 of the necessary $400,000 for the completion of the Grant Monument, the largest mausoleum in North America.
He was the author of Grace Church and Old New York (1924), an illustrated book limited to 1,500 copies, and lived and died at his home, 701 Park Avenue. In 1879, he became the first of the three notable husbands of Annie Armstrong and through her brother-in-law to Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. They divorced but were the parents of two notable figures in New York society, "the best-dressed man in New York" and the Princess de Braganza.
He was the author of Grace Church and Old New York (1924), an illustrated book limited to 1,500 copies, and lived and died at his home, 701 Park Avenue. In 1879, he became the first of the three notable husbands of Annie Armstrong and through her brother-in-law to Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. They divorced but were the parents of two notable figures in New York society, "the best-dressed man in New York" and the Princess de Braganza.
