Banking Career
His ties to the Whitney family helped him achieve great success in banking, real estate investment and opened the door to profitable business opportunities. Barney was made a special member of the firm of Rogers & Gould, members of the New York Stock Exchange. He joined the Knickerbocker Trust Company in 1884, was elected vice president in the 1890s and in 1897 succeeded Robert MacClay as president. During his tenure at Knickerbocker, the company's total deposits rose from $11 million to over $65 million. At its peak it was the third largest trust company in the city. In 1902-04 it built a new main office at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street (pictured), designed by McKim, Mead and White. There were also branch offices at 66 Broadway and in Harlem and The Bronx.
In his real estate operations, Barney joined William C. Whitney, Henry F. Dimock, W.E.D. Stokes, Francis W. Jenks, and others in forming the New York Loan and Improvement Company in 1890. This concern was responsible for the development of the Washington Heights section of New York City. He formed with George D. Sheldon and others in 1899 the so-called Barney-Sheldon real estate syndicate.
Besides serving as president and a director of the Knickerbocker Trust Company, Barney was president and a director of the New York Loan and Improvement Company; a trustee of the Bank for Savings; a director of the Brooklyn Life Insurance Company, Lawyers' Mortgage Insurance Company, United States Realty and Improvement Company, Title Insurance Company of New York, New York Mortgage and Security Company, Century Realty Company, Hudson Mortgage Company and Chelsea Realty Company; and a shareholder of the Santa Cecilia Sugar Company, Cuba Hardwood Company, Cuba Northeastern Railroad, American Ice Company, Ice Securities Company, Eastern Steamship Company, Metropolitan Steamship Company, Dominion Iron Company Ltd., Dominion Iron and Steel Company Ltd., and the Hudson Navigation Company (the Hudson River Night Line). He was also an investor in the New York Subway and the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company.
Barney and his family resided at 101 East 38th Street, corner of Park Avenue, in his father's old home. At the Metropolitan Opera he was the holder of box 9. A sportsman, he enjoyed hunting and pistol-shooting. He was chairman of the executive committee of the New York Zoological Society from 1904 until his death.
Of his sons, the elder, James W. Barney, was graduated from Yale University in 1900 and, an architect by profession, took up residence in Paris. The younger, Ashbel H. Barney II, joined the Wall Street firm of Rogers & Gould, in which Barney was still a special member.
William C. Whitney gave a debutante ball for Barney's daughter Helen at the Whitney mansion, 871 Fifth Avenue, on January 5, 1901.
With his mustache and beard and slightly thinning hair, Charles T. Barney somewhat resembled his late, well-regarded father in appearance. He was one of Wall Street's most prominent bankers, but his career came to a rapid and ignominious end in October 1907.
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