834 Fifth Avenue - Residents

Residents

834 Fifth Avenue has historically been home to a large number of founders and heirs of major American family fortunes. The fortunes include those associated with Standard Oil, Johnson & Johnson, Woolworth Stores, the Hearst Corporation, Ford Motor Co. and the Chase Manhattan Bank. The building has long been associated with the Rockefeller family and its various business and charitable interests.

In addition, 834 Fifth Avenue has welcomed a higher percentage of entrepreneurs and self-made businessmen than its peer buildings. Firms founded by tenants of 834 Fifth include Charles Schwab, TLC Beatrice, the Limited and Fox. This helped establish its reputation as a haven for the high-achieving elite within New York society.

When Charlie Chaplin was in New York City during his contract negotiations with Mutual Film, and found out that his first love, Hetty Kelly, was staying with her sister, Mrs. Frank Jay Gould, at 834 Fifth Avenue, he stalked the place.

Past and current residents include:

  • Laurance Rockefeller (who owned the building before it became a cooperative, and resided in the penthouse triplex for nearly fifty years)
  • Rupert Murdoch (founder of the Fox Network, BSkyB)
  • Robert Bass (billionaire investor)
  • Loida Nicolas-Lewis (business woman, philanthropist, widow of Reginald Lewis)
  • Leslie Wexner (founder, The Limited)
  • John Gutfreund (former chairman of Salomon Brothers) and wife Susan
  • Damon Mezzacappa (financier, former vice chairman of Lazard Freres)
  • Elizabeth Arden (founder of the eponymous cosmetics company)
  • Harold Prince (the Broadway producer)
  • Carroll Petrie (a philanthropist, widow of the founder of Petrie Stores)
  • Alfred Taubman (shopping mall developer, former chairman of Sothebys)
  • John DeLorean (former automotive magnate)
  • Joan Whitney Payson (an heiress, and philanthropist)
  • Robert (Woody) Johnson IV (one of the heirs of the Johnson & Johnson fortune, owner of the New York Jets)
  • Simon Hodges (one of the heirs to Donald Bren's fortune and philanthropist)
  • Charles R. Schwab (founder and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation)
  • Frank Jay Gould
  • Casey Johnson (an heiress to the Johnson and Johnson fortune, well-known socialite celebutante and daughter of Jets owner Woody Johnson)

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Famous quotes containing the word residents:

    “Most of the folktales dealing with the Indians are lurid and romantic. The story of the Indian lovers who were refused permission to wed and committed suicide is common to many places. Local residents point out cliffs where Indian maidens leaped to their death until it would seem that the first duty of all Indian girls was to jump off cliffs.”
    —For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    “In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
    —Stephanie Coontz (20th century)