The House the Rockefellers Built


Book Description

What it was like to be as rich as Rockefeller: How a house gave shape and meaning to three generations of an iconic American family One hundred years ago America's richest man established a dynastic seat, the granite-clad Kykuit, high above the Hudson River. Though George Vanderbilt's 255-room Biltmore had recently put the American country house on the money map, John D. Rockefeller, who detested ostentation, had something simple in mind—at least until his son John Jr. and his charming wife, Abby, injected a spirit of noblesse oblige into the equation. Built to honor the senior Rockefeller, the house would also become the place above all others that anchored the family's memories. There could never be a better picture of the Rockefellers and their ambitions for the enormous fortune Senior had settled upon them. The authors take us inside the house and the family to observe a century of building and rebuilding—the ebb and flow of events and family feelings, the architecture and furnishings, the art and the gardens. A complex saga, The House the Rockefellers Built is alive with surprising twists and turns that reveal the tastes of a large family often sharply at odds with one another about the fortune the house symbolized.




The Rockefeller Family Home


Book Description

Dozens of color and bandw photographs, ranging from the construction of the house to snapshots of family members, illustrate the text which recounts the history of the estate from its founding early in the century through its recent transfer to the National Trust. It tells how each successive generation left its stamp, and includes never before published reminiscences of five generations of Rockefellers. Contains a family tree, visitor information, and a map of the gardens. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Forest Hill


Book Description

John D. Rockefeller's Cleveland roots stretched across the oil-drenched banks and murky flats of Kingsbury Run in Cleveland and ended in the wooded sanctuary at Forest Hill. Six miles east of Public Square, Forest Hill was the Rockefeller family's country estate and summer home for four decades. It had formal gardens, greenhouses, a lake and lily pond, a golf course, a horse track, and acres of farmland. In the early 1900s, tourists and local residents rode the streetcar out Millionaires' Row to East Cleveland, where they peered through the imposing iron gates scrolled with an R to peek at the gatekeeper's lodge, the manicured lawns, and the road that led to the mansion atop the hill. Unfortunately, in 1917, Forest Hill burned to the ground. Because so many records, mementos, and photographs perished, the estate remains as shrouded in secrecy today as it did during its lifetime. Forest Hill: The Rockefeller Estate unveils the story of the estate, how it evolved and changed over the years, and how its legacy continues.




Great Fortune


Book Description

In this hugely appealing book, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, acclaimed author and journalist Daniel Okrent weaves together themes of money, politics, art, architecture, business, and society to tell the story of the majestic suite of buildings that came to dominate the heart of midtown Manhattan and with it, for a time, the heart of the world. At the center of Okrent's riveting story are four remarkable individuals: tycoon John D. Rockefeller, his ambitious son Nelson Rockefeller, real estate genius John R. Todd, and visionary skyscraper architect Raymond Hood. In the tradition of David McCullough's The Great Bridge, Ron Chernow's Titan, and Robert Caro's The Power Broker, Great Fortune is a stunning tribute to an American landmark that captures the heart and spirit of New York at its apotheosis.




The Rockefellers


Book Description

This is the story of an American dynasty. It is the story of the father, who built the fortune. Of the son, who cleansed the name. Of the Brothers, who manipulated both the name and the fortune to their own ends. And of the Cousins, who often wish they had inherited neither.




America's Medicis


Book Description

From literary polymath Suzanne Loebl (the author of ten books, most recently the acclaimed America’s Art Museums) comes the captivating, first-of-its kind exploration into the philanthropic and cultural legacy of one of America’s wealthiest and most influential families: The Rockefellers. Fueled by John D. Rockefeller’s vast petroleum fortune, the entire family’s terrific passion for the arts transformed the artistic infrastructure of twentieth century America. Funding museums like the MoMA, the Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the Oriental Art at the University of Chicago, and commissioning major architectural projects like Rockefeller Center, Riverside Church, and Lincoln Center, the Rockefellers’ achievements forever changed the cultural landscape of the Western world. Loebl’s penetrating biography is the first book to deeply explore the family’s critical role as collectors and patrons of the arts.







Memoirs


Book Description

Born into one of the wealthiest families in America—he was the youngest son of Standard Oil scion John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the celebrated patron of modern art Abby Aldrich Rockefeller—David Rockefeller has carried his birthright into a distinguished life of his own. His dealings with world leaders from Zhou Enlai and Mikhail Gorbachev to Anwar Sadat and Ariel Sharon, his service to every American president since Eisenhower, his remarkable world travels and personal dedication to his home city of New York—here, the first time a Rockefeller has told his own story, is an account of a truly rich life.




Overhills


Book Description

In the early 1900s, Overhills emerged as an exclusive hunt club hidden among the longleaf pine and wiregrass forest, sandy roads, and rural solitude of the North Carolina Sandhills. Soon becoming the Overhills Country Club, this rustic retreat featured a clubhouse, horse stables, dog kennels, train station, post office, and a golf course designed by the legendary Donald Ross. At its height, Overhills boasted fox hunting, bird hunting, polo, and golf with personal cottages on the property commissioned by William Averell Harriman and Percy Avery Rockefeller. By the era of the Great Depression, Overhills evolved from a country club to a country estate for the family of Percy and Isabel Rockefeller, lasting well into the latter decades of the 20th century. Throughout its history, the resident employees and tenant farmers of Overhills contributed to a unique community in this private southern arcadia.




What Would the Rockefellers Do?


Book Description

Would you rather earn interest than pay it, and eliminate the necessity of paying fees to banks and jumping through hoops to get loans? Are you frustrated with being over-taxed and/or being dependent on a volatile stock market? Do you suspect that the ultra-wealthy play by a different set of rules than you do, and that their secrets have been kept just out of your reach? What would it mean to you and your family if you knew these rules to play by them too?