Matthew Astor Wilks acre estate known as Cruickston Park and mansion designed by Detlef Lienau. Through his mother, Wilks was great-grandson of America's first millionaire John Jacob Astor, the fur trader and real estate magnet. Among his first cousins were DeLancey Astor Kane, Woodbury Kane, S. Nicholson Kane, and John Jacob Astor IV. His father, an English gentleman, was the son of a reverend and was born in London. Wilks, who inherited several million dollars from his family, began buying up property in lower Manhattan in 1876. He torn down the various mixed buildings and commissioned architect Charles W. Clinton to build a
The Astor Orphan The Astor Orphan The Astor Orphan is a 2013 memoir by Alexandra Aldrich, a member of the Astor family. Alexandra Aldrich, a direct descendant to John Jacob Astor, recounts her childhood at Rokeby, a 43-room historic estate in Barrytown, New York. The family is land-rich but cash-poor. Her father is unemployed and her grandmother is an alcoholic. The book ends as she leaves for boarding school. The book was described by "Publishers Weekly" as a "sparklingly mischievous debut". In the "Chicago Tribune", Kevin Nance compared it to "Grey Gardens", adding that, "Aldrich delivers buckets of eccentricity." However, he argued that