Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard (
New Dorp,
New York (state) July 23, 1845 –
Manhattan, March 3, 1924) was an American heiress and a member of the prominent
Vanderbilt family.[1] As a philanthropist, she funded the YMCA, helping create a hotel for guests of the organization. She was married to prominent New York City lawyer, banker, and newspaper editor
Elliott Fitch Shepard.
She was the granddaughter of the Commodore
Cornelius Vanderbilt and his first wife, Sophia (
née Johnson) Vanderbilt.[3]
Charity work
An ardent supporter of the
YWCA, she built, in 1891, the Margaret Louisa, a
YWCA hotel strictly for transient guests at 14 E. 16th Street in
New York City. Mrs. Shepard fully financed and furnished the building which was named the "Margaret Louisa Home for Protestant Women".[4][5]
Margaret Louisa narrowly escaped being a victim of the
RMS Titanic, having booked passage but for unknown reasons cancelled and traveled a week earlier on the
RMS Olympic.[6]
Personal life
On February 18, 1868, Margaret Louisa was married to
Elliott Fitch Shepard (1833–1893) in the Church of the Incarnation in New York.[7] He was the son of Fitch Shepard and Delia Maria Dennis. Shepard was a lawyer, banker, and owner of the Mail and Express newspaper, as well as a founder and president of the
New York State Bar Association.[8] Together, they had five daughters and one son:
Elliot Fitch Shepard, Jr. (1877–1927), who married Esther Potter, and after their divorce, Eleanor Leigh Terradell (1882–1962).[15]
Margaret died at her apartment on 998
Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on March 3, 1924.[2] She is buried in the Vanderbilt Private Section, a burial ground just outside the Vanderbilt Mausoleum
Moravian Cemetery, Staten Island. At her death, she left over $5,000,000 in trust to her daughters.[16] She donated $180,000 to charities, $20,000 to each of her sixteen grandchildren, and $100,000 to the
Scarborough Presbyterian Church,[16] in addition to the $100,000 left to the Church upon her husband's death in 1893.[17]
^Williams, Gray (2003). Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County. Elmsford, New York: Westchester County Historical Society.
ISBN0-915585-14-6.