Lecture featuring Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt III

We welcome to the Homestead New Canaan resident Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt III, grandson of the first Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877), and a sixth generation direct descendant of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built his fortune in shipping and railroads and erected Grand Central Terminal. 

The Vanderbilts were famous for parties, yachts, horse racing, contract bridge, and for entertaining lavishly in their homes and country estates which lined Fifth Avenue and dotted the East Coast.  Three of the most notable houses are open to tourists: Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina; Marble House and The Breakers, in Newport, Rhode Island.  Following this Gilded Age of the late 19th century, by the early 20th century, a more rustic trend was taking hold, leading Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, an accomplished sportsman, to purchase Sagamore in 1901.  He built "Great Camp Sagamore," an Adirondack hunting lodge, which is also now open to tourists.  Influenced by the writings of Thoreau and Muir, the camp is a prime example fo the rustic movement, known as the 'greatest of the great camps.' 

Alfred fondly remembers "going to camp" with his parents when it was still owned by his grandmother. He will share stories from these days as well as the story of then he accidentally fired one of the butlers at his father's mansion when he was three years old!  

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt III is a retired public relations executive who is completing a book about his childhood called, "The Unknowable Man."