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
John Jacob Astor Hotel and no longer colored pink. The lowermost two floors remained mostly vacant into the 1990s, but gradually businesses moved into the commercial spaces. The ornate lobby remained unused until 2010, when a business selling vintage furniture and hardware moved into the space. The Hotel Astoria (later John Jacob Astor Hotel) was designed by architects Tourtellotte & Hummel, who were based in Portland from 1922 to 1930 and who, after the Astoria project, designed two other hotels that are now NRHP-listed: the Lithia Springs Hotel (Ashland, Oregon) and the Redwoods Hotel (Grants Pass, Oregon). Constructed of reinforced concrete, the eight-story John