I appreciate your longer content, which allows the viewer to follow a thread connecting a number of houses and how they are part of a family’s history.
I always wonder what happens when people with multiple residences are looking for that green sweater they just _have_ to wear? Does that start a barrage of phone calls by the servants to different homes, or does one just buy that green sweater for every single house? Oy, such problems!
James "Buck" also founded Duke Energy. Duke Energy's history began more than a century ago when James B. Duke led a group that built a system of lakes and dams along the Catawba River to generate electricity that would drive the economic growth of the Piedmont Carolinas. Through the years, many other companies have joined this tradition.
Wonderful! The Hawaiian house was so beautiful! I worked for a couple of years in the Frist Duke House on Fifth Ave. (mid-'90s), selling what few antiques were left in the house to local dealers in Manhattan.
Doris Duke was larger than the life she inherited - she broke traditions, boundaries and stereo types in high style with no regrets. Her story is worthy of a movie - and it all began on a sharecropper tobacco farm in pre Civil War North Carolina.
I have an interest in Doris Duke after living in Newport. I visited Rough point several times. I think it is my favorite of the summer cottages. Her story is so interesting. Bittersweet.
Nice story about the dukes and how they got rich at the expense of many of their customers getting sick from the tobacco. I'm so glad today that the governments are going after these companies and getting them to pay some of the medical bills of people who are getting sick from the tobacco. My dad, rest is soul, was I think one of them!
Thanks Ken, what an interesting video! The brothers' Manhattan mansions are some of my favorite. I think the mansion on 84th and 5th was built as a spec house, four houses or so in a row by the same builder, with buyers to materialize later. I had forgotten about Shangri-La! Thanks again! *edit: 82nd st and 5th ave.
Interesting family history. It is a shame that manny of the houses of that time are now gone. The dominican diplomatic she married was called Profirio Rubirosa.
All magnificent but my favourite Duke mansion is one that wasn't built. Horace Trumbauer designed an enormous French chateau style mansion for Duke Farms. The floor plan and an image of what it would have looked like can be found on-line.
Doris Duke and Duke Uni--didn't know there was a connection. ❤❤Brodie's Durham County Italianate mansion. The interior of Ben's mansion didn't disappoint either, including the second Manhattan mansion. Ditto for Buck's mansion. The lives and grand homes of the extraordinarily wealthy--so interesting.. Thank you, Ken.
Learned something NEW!!. Did not know they were the originators of the tobacco companies!. Now i know Why they became so wealthy!. I like that original red brick townhouse mansion facing Central Park!. It just went up for sale a year or two ago. I viewed a virtual tour and was completely UNIMPRESSED!. The ONLY thing left is the structure--but the new designers had to modernize the whole frickin thing. No ornate chandeliers, or period French style furniture (which is what those rooms were designed to showcase!!). Well, at least its still here. And, we all can still aspire!!. Lol. 🍾🥂⚜️
When James Duke was on his deathbed in the Manhattan house his wife told the servants to open up all of the windows and shut off the boiler. Not long after he drifted away.
I was wondering if the estate house that Mary Duke Biddle was going to b mentioned. This estate is located in Tarrytown NY. It became Tarrytown Confrence Center.