Virginia Fair Vanderbilt
- Bobby Kelley
- Sep 13
- 2 min read
(January 2, 1875 - July 7, 1935)
Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt was born on January 2, 1875, in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Senator James Graham Fair, one of the famed "Bonanza Kings" of the Nevada Comstock Lode, and Theresa Rooney Fair.
Known as Birdie, she grew up surrounded by extraordinary wealth and prominence. Her father's fortune in silver mining made her one of the wealthiest young women in America, and she was regarded as one of the most admired heiresses of her generation.
On March 26, 1903, she married William Kissam Vanderbilt II, eldest son of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt. The marriage united the Vanderbilt railroad fortune of the East with the Fair silver fortune of the West and was one of the most celebrated unions of its time. The couple had three children: Muriel Fair Vanderbilt, who became a philanthropist and horsewoman; Consuelo Vanderbilt, who lived a long and quiet life; and William Kissam Vanderbilt III, whose promising life was cut short by an automobile accident in 1933 at the age of twenty-six.
Virginia and William separated after several years of marriage and were formally divorced in 1927. Following the separation, she began establishing residences of her own. On Long Island she built a large country estate in Jericho and Brookville, designed by the architect John Russell Pope in the early 1910s. The house was among the notable North Shore estates of its day, although it was later demolished.
In New York City she commissioned a 51-room French Classical style townhouse at 60 East 93rd Street, completed in 1931, also designed by Pope. The residence reflected her taste and stature and later served as the home of the Lycée Français de New York before returning to private use.
Beyond her private homes, Virginia maintained ties to San Francisco through the Fair family's role in the creation of the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. Along with her sister, Theresa Fair Oelrichs, she oversaw its construction and later reconstruction after the 1906 earthquake. The hotel was named for their father and became a landmark of the city.
Virginia was admired for her elegance, generosity, and devotion to her Roman Catholic faith. She supported a number of Catholic charities throughout her life and was remembered as a woman of quiet influence and dignity. Her later years, however, were clouded by personal sorrow. The sudden death of her son William in 1933 deeply affected her, and her health began to decline. She suffered a prolonged illness during the spring and summer of 1935 and died in New York City on July 7, 1935, at the age of sixty.
Her funeral was a private service held at her New York residence, attended by family and close friends. Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, not far from her sister Theresa.
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