Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor - Childhood and Youth

Childhood and Youth

Caroline Webster Schermerhorn was born into New York City's Dutch aristocracy, descendants of the city's original settlers; her father, Abraham Schermerhorn, his brother and the extended Schermerhorn family were engaged in shipping. At the time of her birth, her family lived at 1 Greenwich Street, near the Bowling Green, but the population growth and increasing urbanization of lower Manhattan in the 1830s led her family to move farther north to 36 Bond Street, near the then-ultra fashionable "Lafayette Place," which had been developed by her future husband's grandfather, John Jacob Astor. Caroline married William Backhouse Astor, Jr. in 1854.