Emily Vanderbilt Sloane

Emily Vanderbilt (1933)
Photo by Carl Van Vechten

Emily Vanderbilt Sloane was born on September 17, 1874 to Emily Thorn Vanderbilt (1852–1946) and W. & J. Sloane heir William Douglas Sloane (1844–1915).[2][3] She was the granddaughter of William Henry Vanderbilt.[1]

She was raised in New York, and summered at Elm Court, a mammoth shingle-style cottage in Lenox, Massachusetts.[1] Uninterested in the débutante social circles of her peers, she preferred playing the piano at Sunday school. She took a keen interest in religion, delivering small sermons to her brothers and sisters, and later considered her faith important to mask the guilt of being born into a wealthy family.[4]

As an adult, Emily regularly attended opera and public lectures, and employed a social secretary. She disliked alcohol and tobacco and forbade either of them to be consumed in her house.[5]

Vanderbilt Sloane was enthusiastic about donating money to good causes and social demands.[5] She was a supporter of educationalist Martha Berry and made many financial contributions to Berry College; correspondence between the two women was later made public.[6] A major activity of hers was the restoration of the Theodore Roosevelt House at 28 East 20th Street. She was president of the Women's Roosevelt Memorial Association for many years. She was president of the Home Thrift Association, supporting a Yorkville settlement house, and was president for 43 years of the Three Arts Club, a residence for women studying music, painting and drama. She was a founder of the Parents' League of New York in 1914, and later became its president. She was the president of the Peoples' Chorus of New York, and a commissioner of the Girl Scouts of Westchester County.[5]

After her husband's death in 1949, she donated the family's 277-acre Mount Kisco estate, Dellwood, to the controversial Moral Rearmament movement.[5][7]

John Henry Hammond House, home of Emily Vanderbilt Sloane Hammond

Emily's parents commissioned the architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings to design a mansion for the couple at 9 East 91st, on land purchased from Andrew Carnegie; it was known as the John Henry Hammond House. The house has since been restored and is now the Consulate General of the Russian Federation.[8]

The reception rooms on the second floor – a ballroom,[9] library and music room – routinely sat three hundred guests, at concerts often featuring Vanderbilt Sloane on piano, and her son John Hammond, Jr. playing violin or viola. Many greats of jazz played in the house, including Benny Goodman[10] Rachel Hammond Breck noted that her mother's parties never went for long, mainly due to her refusal to serve alcohol.[10]

On April 5, 1899, she married John Henry Hammond I at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church. He was the brother of Ogden H. Hammond, U.S. Ambassador to Spain.[3][11][12] Together, they had four children:

• Adele Sloane Hammond (1902–1998), who married John K. Olyphant Jr. in 1927.[13] After his death in 1973,[14] she married John Josiah Emery, Jr. (1898–1976).[15]
• Alice Frances Hammond (1905–1978), who married George Arthur Victor Duckworth (1901–1986) in March 1927.[16] They divorced in January 1942.[17] She married Benny Goodman (d. 1986)[18] in March 1942.[19]
• Rachel Hammond (1908–2007),[20] who married Richard L. McClenahan.[21] They divorced in February 1942 and she married John Gordon Ferrier Speiden (1900−1970) in May 1942.[22] They also divorced and she married Manley du Pont Breck (1906−1972) in 1961.[23]
• John Henry Hammond II (1910–1987), who married Jemison "Jemy" McBride in 1941. They divorced in 1948 and in 1949, he married Esme O'Brien Sarnoff.[3][24]

John Henry Hammond I died in 1949.[25] Emily died on February 22, 1970 at her home at 136 East 64th Street, aged 95.[1][26]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Emily Vanderbilt Sloane.

• The Golden Treasury of the Bible (1919)
• Comfort Thoughts for Those at Home (1923)
• A Trip that Kindles (1953)

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