Ogden Goelet
- Bobby Kelley
- Sep 11
- 2 min read
(June 11, 1851 - August 27, 1897)
Ogden Goelet was born in New York City on June 11, 1851, the son of Robert Goelet and Sarah Ogden Goelet. He was a member of one of New York's wealthiest families, heirs to a fortune rooted in extensive Manhattan real estate holdings that had been built over generations. Alongside his brother, Robert Walton Goelet, he expanded this legacy, becoming known as both a financier and a developer at a time when the city was undergoing rapid growth.
In 1877 Goelet married Mary Reta "May" Wilson. The couple had two children, Ogden Goelet Jr. and Mary Goelet, and were prominent figures in both New York and Newport society.
In the early 1880s the Goelet brothers financed and constructed several notable buildings, including the Gorham Building, the Judge Building, the Goelet Building, and the Metropolitan Club. These projects not only reinforced their family's place among New York's leading landowners but also helped to shape the commercial architecture of late nineteenth-century Manhattan.
Goelet was equally celebrated as a yachtsman. A member of the New York Yacht Club, he competed in regattas and established the Ogden Cup, awarded in the club's annual races off Newport, Rhode Island.
His yacht, the Mayflower, was regarded as one of the finest sailing vessels of its day. After his death it was acquired by the United States Navy, serving as Admiral George Dewey's flagship during the Spanish-American War and later as a presidential yacht.
In keeping with the traditions of New York's elite, Goelet built a grand summer residence in Newport. In the 1890s he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design Ochre Court, a French chateau-style mansion on Bellevue Avenue. At a cost of more than four million dollars, it was among the largest and most splendid homes of the Gilded Age, a centerpiece of Newport society life. The property was later donated by his family to the Religious Sisters of Mercy and today forms part of Salve Regina University.
Ogden Goelet died suddenly aboard his yacht at Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, on August 27, 1897, at the age of forty-six. He was entombed in the Goelet Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
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