The Mrs. Astor and The Four Hundred

In Gilded Age New York, Caroline "Lina" Astor (1830-1908) aka "The Mrs. Astor" was the ruler of the New York social scene, hosting parties in her mansion at 350 Fifth Avenue.  Her annual balls, always thrown on a Monday in January, were a must-attend event, where Mrs. Astor would often be seen sitting on a red velvet couch surveying her guests’ behavior

developing the guest list determining who was ‘in’ for the rest of the year. Infamously known as "The Four Hundred", Mrs. Astor and her friend, Ward McAllister, would create a list of the 400 people that in their opinion represented the cream of New York society. The prerequisites for inclusion stipulated that those listed had to come from families who'd enjoyed at least three generations of wealth and were people who felt at ease in the grandest ballrooms.

 

New Money

Alva Smith married into the richest family in the country, the Vanderbilts. However, the Vanderbilts were "new" money and Alva was not initially welcomed into The Four Hundred.  Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt's magnificent “Petit Chateau” was completed in 1883, and she introduced her new mansion to society by hosting the most extravagant private party ever held in New York, the legendary Great Vanderbilt Ball, that cost over $6M in today's dollars, leaving Mrs. Astor little choice in including the Vanderbilt's into her elite social circle. The “Four Hundred," from that day on, it is said, remained a name, but ceased to have any mathematical significance. ​​

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Changing of the Guards

By the 1890's, Mrs. Astor was beginning to slow down.  Her husband, William Backhouse Astor, died in 1892 and her daughter Helen Astor Roosevelt died in 1893, which necessitated two years of mourning in a row. In 1895, Mrs. Astor's original mansion at 350 Fifth Avenue was demolished, and her co-conspirator, Ward McAllister died. These events left her without the same gusto for entertaining. In 1896, Mrs. Astor's son "Jack" John Jacob Astor IV (1864-1912) built a palatial twin residence for himself and his widowed mother at 840 Fifth Avenue where she died in 1908. ​​After Mrs. Astor's death in 1908, her role in society was filled by three women who became known as the new "triumvirate" of American Gilded Age society: Mrs. Astor's longtime friend Marion "Mamie" Fish, Thersa "Tessie" Fair Oelrichs the sister of William K. Vanderbilt II's wife Virginia "Birdie" Fair Vanderbilt, and the former Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt I, later known as Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. Where Alva was the extravagant hostess and Mamie threw exotic and often raucous parties, Tessie was known as the martinet, the drill sergeant, of the three, enforcing the rules of polite society.

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Mrs. Astor's original Mansion

The site of Mrs. Astor's original mansion at 350 Fifth Avenue sat on some of the most valuable real estate in the world and was demolished in 1895 to build the Astoria Hotel. The new hotel was built by Mrs. Astor and her son Jack to compete with the Waldorf Hotel opened next door by Jack's cousin William Waldorf Astor in 1893. However, when the Astoria opened in 1897, management convinced the family to merge the hotels into the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. In 1929, the now combined Waldorf-Astoria hotel was demolished to build the Empire State Building which became the tallest building in the world at the time. At the time of its opening in 1931, the Waldorf Astoria New York was the tallest, largest and most expensive hotel in the world, standing at 625 feet and covering an entire city block.​