Business: Passing of a Wendel

When William Waldorf Astor died in 1919, he owned more New York City real estate than any other one person—something in the vicinity of $60,000,000 worth —a fortune founded in the fur business (and, says legend, in Captain Kidd’s treasure; by the first John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). Another oldtime furrier was one John Gottlieb Wendel, who retired about the same time as John Jacob Astor and who, like Astor, put his money into Manhattan realty. Last week died Mrs. Rebecca Wendel Swope, next to last of seven grandchildren of John Wendel. Miss Ella Wendel, the surviving sister, remained sole owner of realty now worth something over $100,000,000. Since the Astor holdings are now split up among three heirs, Ella Wendel became Manhattan’s land-richest individual.

Ella Wendel lives in the bleak red brick house that stands on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 39th Street, across the street from the (soon-to-pass) Union League Club, one block down from the Public Library, one block up from the famed department store of Lord & Taylor. All day shoppers pass the house by tens of thousands, glance curiously at the shuttered windows, the heavily barred front door. Not for 25 years have those windows or that door been opened. Only the side door is used. The house, which cost $5,000 to build, is assessed today at $2,000,000. There was a time when Miss Ella used to venture forth to ride in the family carriage or to exercise her dogs, but the coachman, the horses, the dogs are all dead now.

Also dead, well over a decade ago, is the person whose fanaticism kept intact the $100,000,000 Wendel realty holdings, who turned all his sisters but one into eccentric old maids. The silent, grim old house on Fifth Avenue, lighted by gas and without a telephone, is a monument to John Gottlieb Wendel. He it was who dominated his six sisters, holding all the titles to the Wendel properties in his own name, forbidding them to marry lest the family property be split up. He looked on with approval as they made their own clothes and wore the round sailor hats popular in the 1870’s. Twice only did he meet rebellion. When Georgiana ran away at the age of 50 and registered at the Park Avenue Hotel, Brother John at once had her committed to the psychopathic ward at Bellevue and later pronounced insane by a sheriff’s jury. After much maneuvering, legal and medical, Georgiana went back to live in the house. More successful was Rebecca’s rebellion. In spite of Brother John’s violent objections, she married Professor Luther A. Swope, who was related to the Vicar of Trinity Church. After that, Brother John dicouraged his sisters from going to church.

When iron-willed John Gottlieb Wendel died, he left $80,000,000 in real estate, $10 in clothing. He also left a tradition as to how the property was to be managed. He and his sisters had long agreed that theatres or saloons should never be allowed on their properties. Electric signs were equally taboo. They established a record in Puritanism when they held up a $1,000,000 lease until they obtained guarantees that certain first-aid kits in the projected building would not contain more than one pint of whiskey. The main tradition handed on by Brother John had been long in the family: “Buy, but never sell.”‘ Ella Wendel is now 80. Some day there will be no Wendels either to buy or to sell.

Largest property owner in Philadelphia is also a woman: Mrs. Anne Weightman Penfield, who inherited a $60,000,000 estate from her father, famed chemist William Weightman. In contrast to the moralizing Wendels, it was Mrs. Penfield who backed with some $250,000 Earl Carroll’s production of Fioretta, and who was sued for the same amount by Showgirl Dorothy Knapp when a dispute arose as to Miss Knapp’s ability to sing. Whereas the Wendels disapproved of bars on their properties, Mrs. Penfield rejoiced to see them on hers. Last week she sued the Government for $420,000 in tax refunds, claimed that Prohibition had caused that much damage to the hotels she owns by “wrecking” the goodwill and practical usefulness of the hotel bars.