Background
Hope Goddard was the daughter of Colonel William Goddard of Providence, Rhode Island, a chancellor of Brown University and a scion of a family that had accumulated great wealth from mercantile and manufacturing activities.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Hope Edith
Edit ProfileCareer
She also owned thoroughbred racehorses. The headline of their wedding announcement in the May 5, 1896 New York Times read, "Hope Goddard Engaged to Commanding Officer Iselin, Well-Known Yachtsman to Marry Heiress of millions." Twenty-six-year-old Hope Goddard was in line to inherit a huge fortune. The couple had many extravagant homes, including their primary residence in New Rochelle, New York, "All View", a palatial waterfront estate on a private peninsula overlooking Long Island Sound.
The home was designed by renown architect Stanford White.
Fredrick Law Olmstead, who designed Central Park, was their personal landscape architect. A breakwater was constructed adjacent to Premium Point in Echo Bay so that they could dock their yachts including the Vigilant, Defender and Columbia safely next to their home.
The Iselins were influential in bringing the popularity of yacht racing to the Long Island Sound shore communities of Westchester, making New Rochelle the focal point of all the pre-racing activities. In Aiken, South Carolina, where the Iselins maintained a winter residence named "Hopelands", they organized the Aiken Hospital and Relief Society, which built and equipped Aiken"s first hospital in 1917.
They continued to support the hospital until it was replaced by the county hospital in 1937.
Mistress Iselin also served as a director of the Martha Schofield School for many years, when it was operated under private auspices for the education of young African-Americans. On her death she bequeathed Hopelands Gardens, where the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum is located, to the city of Aiken.
There is a bust of Hope Goddard Iselin at Hopeland Gardens that was sculpted by Maria Kirby Smith.
Mistress Iselin died in her home in 1970 at the age of 102.
-
Born
-
Died
April, 1970 (aged 102) -
Nationality
United States