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 III the street address of the Empire State Building. Later, he had an imposing vacation home, "Beaulieu", built in Newport, Rhode Island, and he had a country estate, Nuits, at Ardsley-on-Hudson in Irvington, New York. Astor increasingly visited London in his later years. His son moved there permanently with his family in 1891 and became a citizen in 1899 where he was later made a peer. John Jacob Astor III died on February 22, 1890 and was interred in the Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan. John Jacob Astor III John Jacob Astor III (June 10, 1822 – February 22, 1890) was