Business magnate and member of socially prominent New York family. Goelet and his brother Robert controlled the family fortune, worth tens of millions. In the early 1880s, they constructed such buildings in Manhattan as the Gorham Building, the Judge Building, The Goelet Building, and the Metropolitan Club. A competitive yachtsman, he donated the Ogden Cup for the New York Yacht Club's annual race off of Newport, Rhode Island. He died on his yacht Mayflower, which was purchased by the U.S. Navy after his death. It served as Admiral Dewey's flagship and was later converted for use as a presidential yacht. Goelet built one of the first of the major Newport mansions, Ochre Court, at a cost of $4.5 million in the 1890s. It was donated by his son to the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1947, and is now the administrative center of Salve Regina University in Newport. Find a Grave
