Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb

Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb
Born	Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt 1860
Died	1936 (aged 75–76)
Nationality	American
Other names	Lila Vanderbilt Webb
Education	Miss Porter’s School
Occupation	Socialite
Spouse	William Seward Webb
Children	Frederica Vanderbilt Webb James Watson Webb, Sr. William Seward Webb, Jr. Vanderbilt Webb
Parent(s)	William Henry Vanderbilt Maria Kissam Vanderbilt
Family	Vanderbilt

Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb (1860–1936) was an American heiress.

Early life

Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt was born in 1860. She was the youngest daughter and seventh child of William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885) and Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt. Her grandfather was Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877). Her siblings were Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899), Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard (1843–1924), William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849–1920), Frederick William Vanderbilt (1856–1938), Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly (1854–1952), Emily Thorn Vanderbilt (1852–1946) and George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862–1914). She attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut.

Houses

With her US$10 million inheritance, Vanderbilt bought and developed Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont in 1899. She planned meals, hired servants, hosted guests, and took care of the interior decorating and garden design. She entertained at Shelburne Farms until her death in 1936. During his 1909 visit to Shelburne Farms, President William Howard Taft said her husband was absent because he was drunk.

In April 1923, Vanderbilt built a house on Dunbar Road in Palm Beach, Florida. Later, she built another house in Gulf Stream, Florida.

Personal life and death

In 1881, Vanderbilt married William Seward Webb (1851–1926), and they had four children: Frederica Vanderbilt Webb, James Watson Webb, Sr., William Seward Webb, Jr. (1884–1960), and Vanderbilt Webb. She enjoyed playing golf, contract bridge, gardening, traveling and reading. She was one of the first female members of the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Vanderbilt died in 1936.

References

• Robert W. Ganger, Lila Vanderbilt Webb's Miradero: window on an era (2005).