Charles Crooke Auchincloss

Charles Crooke Auchincloss (September 24, 1881 – May 14, 1961) was an American lawyer and stockbroker.

Early life Auchincloss was born on September 24, 1881, in New York City. He was one of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, born to Edgar Stirling Auchincloss (1847–1892) and Maria LaGrange ( Sloan) Auchincloss (1847–1929), who married in 1872. Among his siblings were Samuel Sloan Auchincloss, Hugh Auchincloss, U.S. Representative James C. Auchincloss, Gordon Aucincloss, and Reginald LaGrange Auchincloss.

Among his uncles were Hugh Dudley Auchincloss (father of Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr.) and John Winthrop Auchincloss (grandfather of Louis Auchincloss). His maternal aunt, Sarah Auchincloss, married Sir James Coats, 1st Baronet of the Scottish thread-manufacturing family, and they were the parents of Sir Stuart Coats, 2nd Baronet and British Member of Parliament. His maternal grandparents were Mary (née Elmendorf) Sloan and New York State Senator Samuel Sloan, who served as president of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad for 26 years. by the Rev. Dr. Endicott Peabody. He held a bachelor dinner at Delmonico's on the Wednesday before the wedding. She was a daughter of the late William Gurdon Saltonstall, and Josephine Rose ( Lee) Saltonstall (youngest daughter of John Clarke Lee, founder of Lee, Higginson & Co.). Together, they were the parents of:

Rosamond Saltonstall Auchincloss (1907–1971), who married Burton James Lee Jr. in 1929. They divorced and she married Benjamin Carlton Betner in 1951. They divorced and she married Thomas Campbell Plowden-Wardlaw in 1954. Richard Saltonstall Auchincloss (1909–1990), who married Mary King Wainwright (1911–2008), a daughter of Clement Reeves Wainwright, in 1939. Josephine Lee Auchincloss (1912–2005), who married Benjamin Carlton Betner in 1932. They divorced and he married her elder sister, Rosamond, in 1951 while she married Harry Ingersoll Nicholas in 1960.

His wife died on February 4, 1953, in Beacon, New York after a long illness. Auchincloss died at his home, 120 East 70th Street, on May 14, 1961. After his death, the Parke-Bernet Galleries held an auction of French, English and other furniture from his estate.

Descendants Through his eldest daughter Rosamond, he was a grandfather of Burton J. Lee III (1930–2016), the Physician to the President from 1989 to 1993, and Rosamond Saltonstall Lee (1930–2021), a debutante who married Francis Irénée du Pont II, and Bernard Jackson Felch.

Residences In 1916, Auchincloss built Builtover, today known as the Charles Crooke Auchincloss House, a 25-room Georgian Revival mansion built by the firm of Peabody, Wilson & Brown in Roslyn, New York. The Olmstead Brothers, the same firm that designed Central Park, were the architects for the grounds in 1917. In 1925, burglars entered their Roslyn home during a storm and "stole Oriental rugs, tapestries and household ornaments valued at more than $10,000". His wife became a well known hostess and member of society. In 1946, they sold Builtover to Dr. Daniel Twohig who renamed the mansion My Beloved. The Long Island Expressway was later built on the other side of the property. Auchincloss took over 120 East 70th Street from his brother, Edgar, who lived there with his wife and family, together with their brothers Gordon and Samuel, who also lived there with their wives. On October 19, 1930, The New York Times announced Charles' plans to replace the 70th Street house with "a five-story, brick, marble and granite trim" residence designed by Edward S. Hewitt. The home was completed a year later in the stylized neo-Georgian design and sat on a street that Fortune Magazine described nine-years later as "the most beautiful residential block" in the city.