Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo

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Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo (May 12, 1842 – May 27, 1914) was an American heiress from a wealthy New York family. She is best known for commissioning the Rhinelander Mansion at 867 Madison Avenue, on the corner of 72nd Street. The building was designed in the 1890s by Kimball & Thompson and finished in 1898. She never lived in the mansion, choosing to stay with her sister in a row house across the street.

Gertrude was born Gertrude Rhinelander in New York City, the youngest of seven children of Bernard Rhinelander and Nancy Elizabeth Mary Post Rhinelander. Her family had deep New York roots going back to the 17th century. Her father’s side included long-time residents of the city, and her great-great-grandfather, Philip Jacob Rhinelander, was a German-born Huguenot who arrived in America in 1686.

On June 6, 1876, she married stockbroker Francis William Waldo. He had been bankrupted during the Panic of 1873 and died in 1878. They had a son, Rhinelander Waldo, born in 1877, who later became involved in New York politics.

In 1882 Gertrude received a large inheritance, mostly real estate. By 1889 she was said to be involved with lawyer Charles H. Schieffelin, and in 1899 she sued him to recover $12,000 she claimed he misused. He said they planned to marry; she insisted she would never marry him because of his prior divorce.

Gertrude Waldo died of apoplexy in New York City on May 27, 1914. Her funeral was held at the Hotel Netherland, and she was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. In 1915, it was reported that she left more than $135,000 in debt, largely loans from the L. V. Rhinelander Estate.

The two houses Waldo had built on the corner of 72nd Street and Madison Avenue were not lived in during her life. Facing financial trouble, one home was foreclosed in 1911 and the other in 1912. The Rhinelander Mansion stood vacant until 1921, when it was divided into commercial space on the street level and two residential floors above. It later became the Polo Ralph Lauren flagship store, after a renovation completed in 1986.