A biographer once described businessman Frederick Vanderbilt as “a thoroughly good fellow, entirely devoid of any snobbishness or nonsense.” True, by all accounts, the grandson of famed shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt was modest, generous and publicity-shy. But let’s face it: he was a Vanderbilt, a member of the richest and most powerful dynasty in late 1800s America—with a fabulous lifestyle to back it up. Vanderbilt owned multiple yachts, hobnobbed with fellow bluebloods of the day, gave piles of money to Yale University and other lofty institutions—and in 1895, along with his wife Louise, commissioned the design of the…
