August Heckscher was born on August 26, 1848 in Hamburg, Germany. He was the only child of Johann Gustav Wilhelm Moritz Heckscher and Marie Antoinette (Brautigam) Heckscher. His father, a noted lawyer and public official who served during the revolution of 1848 as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the provisional German government headed by Archduke John of Austria, hoped his son would join the bar, but August seemed intent upon becoming a merchant.
Heckscher was sent to school in Switzerland and, after returning home, was apprenticed for three years to an exporting house in Hamburg.
In 1867, against his parents' wishes, Heckscher decided to emigrate to the United States, where he had relatives. Borrowing $500 in gold from his mother, he booked passage for New York City. There he rented a small room and set out to teach himself English. He joined the Mercantile Library on Astor Place and spent twelve to fifteen hours a day reading English books and practicing diction; within three months he could read and write the language well. He then called on his cousin Richard Heckscher, who, with other members of the family, owned some 20, 000 acres of anthracite lands and a mining company in Schuylkill County, near Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.
Although he was only nineteen years old and knew nothing of the industry, Heckscher was hired to help run the company. Two weeks later, when his cousin became ill, he took over complete management. His business training, his drive, and his good sense carried him through, and the mine prospered. When in 1884 the Heckscher mine was sold to the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Company, Heckscher invested his share of the substantial profits in the Lehigh Zinc & Iron Company, which he had helped organize three years earlier at South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The competition of the powerful New Jersey Zinc & Iron Company forced the Heckscher concern to purchase land near that of its larger rival in Sussex County, New Jersey.
When it opened a mine on the new land, it discovered the richest zinc deposits in the United States. New Jersey Zinc asserted title to the ore lands, and one of the most famous court cases in the history of jurisprudence resulted. Pouring all his energy and financial resources into the battle, Heckscher with his lawyers fought the case from court to court for ten years, winning eventual vindication. The Pennsylvania and New Jersey concerns merged shortly thereafter (1897), with Heckscher becoming general manager, a post he retained until 1904. Resigning that year, at age fifty-six, the tufty-bearded immigrant intended to retire.
New York real estate, however, caught his interest, and he began a new and extremely successful career. He shrewdly acquired land and buildings in midtown Manhattan, particularly around 42nd Street. Within a few years he was one of the largest real estate operators in the city, accumulating many millions on his investments.
Heckscher had a sense of social obligation, and he began to donate much of his wealth to various good causes. Concerned with the plight of delinquent, homeless, and neglected children, in 1921 he established the Heckscher Foundation for Children. One of the foundation's first acts was to construct a five-story building on upper Fifth Avenue for the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, to serve as a neighborhood center and a home for children committed to the society by the courts. The building, which contained dormitories for several hundred children, an infirmary, classrooms, an 800-seat theater, and a large indoor swimming pool, was the finest home and recreation facility of its kind in America; its total cost of $4, 000, 000 made it the largest single charitable donation for the benefit of children in New York's history. Heckscher gave generously also for the establishment of day nurseries and dental clinics, and made funds available for parks and playgrounds in congested areas throughout New York City.
In 1926 he became concerned with the city's crowded and disease-breeding tenements, which he sought to have torn down and replaced by modern, sanitary, fireproof structures. With the encouragement of Mayor James J. Walker, he developed several ambitious but unrealistic plans for this purpose, which achieved considerable publicity but soon lapsed into oblivion.
In later life Heckscher was chairman of the board of Union Bag and Paper Corporation and an officer and director of many other companies, including several banks and real estate corporations. Living to the age of ninety-two, he died at his winter estate at Mountain Lake (near Lake Wales), Florida, of "malnutrition and anemia with arteriosclerosis. " After Episcopal services, he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City.
Heckscher was a noted capitalist, who eventually became a multimillionaire and a philanthropist. He founded the Zinc and Iron Company, started The Heckscher Foundation for Children and created playgrounds in lower Manhattan and in Central Park. The Heckscher Playground in Central Park is the park's largest playground. He also created Heckscher Park in the town of Huntington and created the Heckscher Museum of Art. The State of New York purchased nearly 1, 500 acres in East Islip with money donated by Heckscher to create Heckscher State Park, made famous for hosting summer concerts for 35 years of the New York Philharmonic.
In later years Heckscher became a victim of gout and rheumatism but through vigorous exercise, daily swimming, and a rigorous diet managed to regain his health.
On October 13, 1881, Heckscher married Anna P. Atkins, the daughter of a pioneer Pottsville, Pennsylvania, ironmaster, who bore him two children: Gustave Maurice and Antoinette. In 1924 his wife died and his son, who had lost heavily in the Florida land boom, was adjudged bankrupt.
In July 1930 he married an associate in his child welfare work, Mrs. Virginia Henry Curtiss, the widow of Edwin Burr Curtiss, one-time president of A. G. Spalding & Brothers.
His grandson and namesake became Commissioner of Parks in the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay.
