Robert Goelet

Robert Goelet Jr. (September 29, 1841 – April 27, 1899) He had a younger brother, Ogden Goelet, who married society leader Mary Rita Wilson and built Ochre Court in Newport, Rhode Island. who married Henry Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe and real estate developer Robert Wilson Goelet.

His parents lived at 5 State Street, overlooking the Battery in Manhattan. His father was a prominent landlord in New York, as was his uncle, Peter Goelet, who was named after his great-grandfather, Peter Goelet. His grandfather was the merchant and landowner Peter P. Goelet. and was subsequently admitted to the bar. Goelet practiced law in the C.J & E. DeWitt (later DeWitt, Lockman and Kip) law firm that also counted his cousin George Goelet Kip and George Gosman DeWitt among its partners, before retiring in 1879 to manage the real estate of his father and his unmarried uncle. After their deaths, he inherited half their fortune. He also served on the board of directors of the Union Trust Company, the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, the Bank of New Amsterdam, the Chemical National Bank, which his father and uncle were instrumental in founding. and prominent architects Whitney Warren and Lloyd Warren.

The Goelets lived in a townhouse located at 591 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (designed by Edward H. Kendall in 1880), as well as at seasonal homes in Tuxedo Park, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island (designed by McKim, Mead & White, –1883). Together, Harriette and Robert Goelet had two children:

Robert Walton Goelet (1880–1941), a financier and real estate developer. Beatrice Goelet (1885–1902), who died of pneumonia in 1902, aged 17. As a child, she was painted by John Singer Sargent.

He died of heart disease on April 27, 1899, in Naples, Italy. After his body was brought from Italy by his yacht Nahma, his funeral was held at Trinity Church in Newport. His widow lived for another 13 years until her death in December 1912 at her home in Paris, 46 Avenue d'Iéna.

The statue Alma Mater at Columbia University was given in his memory.