flâneur

Founders Notes: Hetty Green

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The Richest Woman in America Janet Wallach A passerby might say she looked as poor as a church mouse, but her clothes were merely a costume to conceal her incredible wealth. Standing in front of the granite building was Hetty Green, the richest woman in America. She was, admittedly, the smartest woman on Wall Street, a financial genius, a railroad magnate, a real estate mogul, a Gilded Era renegade, a reliable source for city funds. "I have had fights with some of the greatest financial men in the country," she said "Did you ever hear of any of them getting ahead of Hetty Green?" The public resented the somberness of her clothing, the plainness of her diet, the austerity of her home. But Hetty Green refused to yield to the role of Gilded Age socialite. Indeed, she refused to comply with any stereotype. Defiantly independent, she made her own rules and lived by them, even if she sometimes changed them in midstream. Whatever methods she used to make her money, however, she would not succumb to the tactics of other millionaires. She did not employ workers at slave wages, did not steal land from the public or outsmart stockholders or pay off government officials like some. She did not

The Richest Woman in America Janet Wallach A passerby might say she looked as poor as a church mouse, but her clothes were merely a costume to conceal her incredible wealth. Standing in front of the granite building was Hetty Green, the richest woman in America. She was, admittedly, the smartest woman on Wall Street, a financial genius, a railroad magnate, a real estate mogul, a Gilded Era renegade, a reliable source for city funds. "I have had fights with some of the greatest financial men in the country," she said "Did you ever hear of any of them getting ahead of Hetty Green?" The…

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