Joshua Seney Cosden

Joshua Seney Cosden was born on 8 July 1881 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was raised in modest circumstances and began working as a drugstore clerk while still a young man. In 1903 he married Ottilie Fowitz. Soon afterward he left Baltimore to seek opportunity in the oil fields of Oklahoma, arriving during the early years of rapid development that transformed small towns into centers of production.

He began with manual labor, driving teams and working as a rigger, learning drilling operations from the ground up. After saving enough capital he established a small refinery at Bigheart, Oklahoma. The venture proved profitable and enabled him to expand. In 1913 he built a larger refinery in West Tulsa and organized Cosden and Company. The plant initially processed fewer than five thousand barrels of crude per day.

In 1915 he constructed nearly one hundred miles of pipeline to connect the refinery with the Cushing oil field, forming the basis of what became the Mid Continent pipeline system. He organized the Cosden Pipe Line Company and the Cosden Oil and Gas Company to control production, transportation, and refining. In 1917 his interests were consolidated in Cosden and Company, incorporated in Delaware. Within a few years his personal fortune was widely estimated at fifty million dollars.

In 1918 he constructed the Cosden Building in Tulsa, regarded as the city’s first skyscraper and a symbol of its growth as an oil capital. That same year his marriage to Ottilie ended in divorce. He later married Eleanor Neves, the former wife of Charles Roeser of Tulsa.

As his wealth increased he divided his time between business in the Southwest and residences in the East. He maintained homes in New York, Florida, and Rhode Island, owned a racing stable, and traveled by private railroad car and yacht. In 1924 he and his wife entertained the Prince of Wales during his visit to the United States.

In 1923 Cosden commissioned a winter residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on approximately twenty seven acres of oceanfront property at 947 North Ocean Boulevard.

The seventy three room mansion, named Playa Riente, was designed by Addison Mizner in a Moorish style and reportedly cost about 1.8 million dollars to construct and furnish. The interiors included murals by José Maria Sert that had originally been painted for Alfonso XIII.

Contemporary accounts described the residence as one of the largest and most elaborate in Palm Beach. Its scale, imported architectural elements, and decorated rooms reflected Cosden’s position at the height of his fortune.

The property was completed as his financial position began to weaken. By 1925 he had lost control of key holdings, and Mid Continent Petroleum Company acquired his refinery and related assets.

In 1926 Playa Riente was sold for approximately the amount invested in it to Anna Thomson Dodge, widow of automobile manufacturer Horace Elgin Dodge. Cosden’s ownership of the estate had lasted only about three years.

After the sale he rebuilt part of his fortune. In 1928 he established headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, and invested in West Texas oil fields, accumulating wealth again estimated at fifteen million dollars. The Great Depression, however, substantially reduced his holdings. He continued in oil ventures but never regained his earlier standing.

On 17 November 1940 he suffered a fatal heart attack aboard a train near Willcox, Arizona, while traveling to El Paso. He was fifty nine years old. After cremation, his ashes were entombed at Ferncliff Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.