Robert Donaldson Jr.

Robert Donaldson Jr. (June 15, 1800 – June 18, 1872) was an American banker and patron of the arts.

Robert Donaldson Jr.
Born(1800-06-15)June 15, 1800
Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedJune 18, 1872(1872-06-18) (aged 72)
Barrytown, New York, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Spouse(s)
Susan Jane Gaston
​
​
(m. 1828; died 1866)​
Childrenfive
Parent(s)Sarah Henderson Donaldson
Robert Donaldson Sr.
RelativesWilliam Gaston (father-in-law)

Early life

Donaldson was born on June 15, 1800 in Fayetteville, North Carolina where he also grew up. He was the eldest of six children born to Sarah (née Henderson) Donaldson and Robert Donaldson Sr., a Scottish born merchant who had consolidated his business at the trading center on Cape Fear River.[1] Among his siblings was brother James Donaldson (who married Alethea Lenox, a daughter of Robert Lenox),[2] and sister, Joanna Donaldson,[3] was married to Dr. Oliver Bronson, "heir to a wealthy Connecticut financier, banker, and real estate speculator."[4] His sisters attended Mordecai Female Academy in Fayetteville.[5]

Young Donaldson was orphaned at the age of eight and was sent, along with his younger siblings, to live with family members nearby. In 1818, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After his graduation, he traveled for five months through the mid-Atlantic and in 1820, he traveled to England, Scotland, and France. While in London, he received an inheritance of $300,000 (equivalent to $5,487,857 today) from the estate of Samuel Donaldson,[6] his bachelor uncle who had owned a prosperous commission house.[1] In 1821, he had his portrait painted by Charles Robert Leslie.[7]

Career
The cover of Andrew Jackson Downing's novel, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape featuring Dondaldson's home, Blithewood.

After returning to Fayetteville, he built the Lafayette Hotel, in anticipation of the March 4 and 5, 1825 visit by General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette to the town named in his honor on during Lafayette's grand tour of the United States.[8]

In the early 1820s, he relocated to New York City and began working as a banker.[9] He returned to North Carolina in 1828 where he married, and with his wife and younger brother, James, and two sisters, they all moved to New York City. Once in New York, he became a patron of young artists and writers of the Romantic movement.[10] In his 1837 book, Rural Residences, Donaldson's friend and architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, acknowledged Donaldson's support by describing him as "an ardent amateur of the rural arts."[7] Downing also dedicated his 1847 book, Cottage Residences: Or, A Series of Designs for Rural Cottages and Cottage Villas, and their Gardens and Grounds adapted to North America. to Donaldson.[11] He was friends with many prominent painters of the Hudson River School, including Asher Brown Durand, owned several important artworks including Gypsying Party by Leslie, The School of Athens, a copy of Raphael's fresco made by Morse for Donaldson in 1831, some Italian paintings, portraits, and several Dutch landscapes.[1]

Personal life
Mrs. Robert Donaldson (Susan Jane Gaston) by George Cooke, c. 1832.

In 1828, Donaldson was married to Susan Jane Gaston (1808–1866).[10] She was the daughter of William Gaston, a judge and U.S. Representative from North Carolina, and his second wife, Hannah (née McClure) Gaston.[12] Donaldson wanted to collect and publish his father-in-law's correspondence (including with Daniel Webster, John Marshall, and John Church Hamilton)[13] and writings while Gaston was living, but he declined.[12] Together, they were the parents of:

  • Robert Donaldson III (1838–1872),[14] who died in Pueblo, Colorado in February 1872.[15]
  • William Gaston Donaldson (b. 1841)[14]
  • Eliza Donaldson (1842–1897), who did not marry.[14]
  • Isabel Donaldson (1846–1931), who married her cousin,[14] Robert Donaldson Bronson (1845–1912).[16][17]
  • Mary Susan Donaldson (1850–1868)[14]

In 1845, Donaldson was stated to be worth $200,000.[18]

Donaldson died at Edgewater on June 18, 1872 in Barrytown, New York.[19]

Residences
Design by Alexander Jackson Davis for an unbuilt villa for Donaldson in Fishkill Landing, New York, c. 1834.

In 1827, Donaldson purchased 15 State Street in Manhattan that overlooked the Battery. The home was previously owned by Archibald Gracie and was the site of Herman Melville's birth in 1819.[1] Donaldson hired his friend, architect Alexander Jackson Davis to remodel the home and included decorative sculptures by John Frazee,[20] paintings by Samuel F. B. Morse and Charles Robert Leslie and furniture by Duncan Phyfe.[10] He owned the house until 1842 when he decided to live at Blithewood year-round.[1]

Blithewood

In the 1835, he left Manhattan and purchased Annandale,[21] a 92 acres (37 ha) estate on the Hudson River from John Church Cruger. Cruger was the son-in-law of Stephen Van Rensselaer) and father of Stephen Van Rensselaer Cruger. Donaldson renamed the estate "Blithewood".[22] The property was originally part of the Schuyler patent. In 1795 John Armstrong Jr. purchased a part of the Van Bentheusen farm, and converted the existing barn into a two-story twelve-room Federal style home.[21]

Donaldson hired his friend Alexander Jackson Davis to turn the home into the rural Gothic style (as well as build a gatehouse (similar in style to the Henry Delamater House),[23] and hired friend and horticulturist and landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing to build an English garden with winding roads, waterfalls, and bridges.[1] In 1853, he sold part of Blithewood to John Bard, who maintained the home and landscape and donated a portion of the estate to found St. Stephen's College (today known as Bard College).[24] In 1899, after Bard's death, Andrew C. Zabriskie purchased the remaining estate, and hired the architect Francis L. V. Hoppin to raze Blithewood and build a new mansion, also known as Blithewood, which stands to this date.[24][25]

Edgewater

In 1853, he purchased the Edgewater estate in Barrytown, New York after the death of its original owner, Rawlins Lowndes Brown, from Brown's widow, Margaretta (née Livingston) Brown.[6] In 1902, the executor of the Donaldson estate sold the house to Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler. Years later, it was owned by writer Gore Vidal and financier Richard Jenrette.[1]

References
  1. Kenny, Peter M.; Phyfe, Duncan; Brown, Michael Kevin (2011). Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 129–130. ISBN 9781588394422. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  2. Powell, William S.; Allcott, J. V. (2000). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 2, D-G. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 9780807867013.
  3. A Biographical Record of the Kappa Alpha Society in Williams College, Williamstown, Mass: From Its Foundation to the Present Time. 1833-1881 ... Kappa Alpha Society. 1881. p. 188. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  4. Rinaldi, Thomas E.; Yasinsac, Rob (2006). Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape. University Press of New England. pp. 92–98. ISBN 9781584655985. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  5. Richards, Penny L. (2 February 2014). "The Mordecai Female Academy: 130., 131., 132. The Donaldsons (Eliza, Isabella, and Joanna)". The Mordecai Female Academy. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  6. Jenrette, Richard Hampton (2005). Adventures with Old Houses. Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9780941711760. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  7. Beach, Laura (6 January 2012). "Hudson River Classics: Edgewater and Richard Hampton Jenrette". The Magazine ANTIQUES (January/February 2012). Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  8. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, 3rd ed., Vol. 2 (1999), p. 254.
  9. Bidwell, John (2013). American Paper Mills, 1690-1832: A Directory of the Paper Trade, with Notes on Products, Watermarks, Distribution Methods, and Manufacturing Techniques. UPNE. p. 151. ISBN 9781584659648. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  10. "Donaldson, Robert, Jr. | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  11. Downing, Andrew Jackson (1847). Cottage Residences: Or, A Series of Designs for Rural Cottages and Cottage Villas, and Their Gardens and Grounds. Adapted to North America. Wiley and Putnam. p. 3. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  12. Edwards, Laura F. (2014). The People and Their Peace: Legal Culture and the Transformation of Inequality in the Post-Revolutionary South. UNC Press Books. p. 307. ISBN 9781469619859. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  13. Connor, R. D. W. (October 1933). William Gaston | A Southern Federalist of the Old School and His Yankee Friends -- 1778-1844 (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. pp. 381–446. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  14. The North Carolina Historical Review. North Carolina Historical Commission. 1975. pp. 635, 428, 433. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  15. "DONALDSON". New York Daily Herald. March 9, 1872. p. 9. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  16. Adams, William R. (2015). St. Augustine and St. Johns County: A Historical Guide. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 73. ISBN 9781561649006. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  17. "Mrs. J. W. Cromwell". Asheville Citizen-Times. December 27, 1961. p. 3. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  18. Crimmins, John Daniel (1902). St. Patrick's Day: Its Celebration in New York and Other American Places, 1737-1845 ; how the Anniversary was Observed by Representative Organizations, and the Toasts Proposed. The author. p. 356. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  19. "Robert Donaldson". Rhinebeck Gazette. June 20, 1872. Robert Donaldson died 6.18 at 72 years in Barrytown.
  20. Voss, Frederick; Frazee, John; Montagna, Dennis; Henry, Jean; Institution), National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian; Athenaeum, Boston (1986). John Frazee, 1790-1852, sculptor. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. p. 33. ISBN 9780934552462. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  21. Kenny, Peter M. ""The Consummation of Earthly Bliss": – Classical American Homes Preservation Trust". Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  22. "Robert Donaldson (1800–1872) | Cultivating a Taste for Scenery". omekalib.bard.edu. Stevenson Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  23. Dunwell, Frances F. (2008). The Hudson: America's River. Columbia University Press. pp. 148-150, 152, 177. ISBN 9780231509961. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  24. Mason, Willit (2017). Guidebook to Historic Houses and Gardens in New England: 71 Sites from the Hudson Valley East. p. 227. ISBN 9781532025419. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  25. "Blithewood Garden: Remember the Past · Blithewood Garden: Structured Beauty". omekalib.bard.edu. Stevenson Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 3 April 2019.

Further reading
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