Alexander Cassatt
Encyclopedia
Alexander Johnston Cassatt (December 8, 1839 – December 28, 1906) was the 7th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad
(PRR), serving from June 9, 1899 to December 28, 1906. Frequently referred to as A. J. Cassatt, the great accomplishment under his stewardship was the planning and construction of tunnels under the Hudson River
to finally bring PRR's trunk line into New York City
. His purchase of a controling interest in the Long Island Rail Road
and the construction of tunnels under the East River
created a PRR commuter network on Long Island. Unfortunately, Cassatt died before his grand Pennsylvania Station in New York City was completed.
Cassatt more than doubled the PRR's total assets during his term, from US$276 million to US$594 million (an increase of 115 percent). Track and equipment investment increased by 146 percent. The route from New York through Philadelphia
, Harrisburg
and Altoona
to Pittsburgh
was made double-tracked
throughout; to Washington, DC, four-tracked—Pennsy's "Broad Way." Many other lines were double-tracked; almost every part of the system was improved. New freight cutoffs avoided stations; grade crossings were eliminated, flyovers
were built to streamline common paths through junctions
, terminals were redesigned, and much more. Cassatt initiated the Pennsy's program of electrification
which led to the road being the United States
' most electrified system.
Alexander Cassatt was succeeded as Pennsylvania Railroad
president by James McCrea
.
. His sister was the painter Mary Cassatt
. He married Lois Buchanan, daughter of the Rev. Edward Y. Buchanan and Ann Eliza Foster. Lois Buchanan was a niece of James Buchanan
, 15th President of the United States
, and through her mother, a niece of songwriter Stephen Foster
. The couple had two sons and two daughters.
enthusiast and fox hunter
who owned Chesterbrook Farm in Berwyn, Pennsylvania where he bred
Thoroughbred
racehorses
. The 600 acres (242.8 ha) property is today the site of a subdivision
with office buildings and homes using the Chesterbrook Farm name. The original main barn designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness
has been maintained and restored. (Furness also designed Cassatt's Rittenhouse Square
townhouse.)
Cassatt initially raced under the pseudonym, Mr. Kelso, and his horses as from the Kelso Stable.http://www.pennhighlands.edu/library/digital/Pittsburgh%20Post%20Gazette/1889-10-21/0006.pdf He owned the 1886 Preakness Stakes
winner, The Bard
and the 1889 Belmont Stakes
1889 winner Eric. As well, he bred the winner of the 1875, 1876, 1878, and 1880 Preakness Stakes and Foxford who won the 1891 Belmont.
In addition to flat-racing
his Thoroughbreds, in 1895 A. J. Cassatt helped found the National Steeplechase Association
to organize competitive steeplechase racing
. He was also responsible for the introduction of the Hackney pony
to the United States. In 1878 he acquired 239 Stella in Britain and brought her to Philadelphia. In 1891, Cassatt and several fellow Hackney enthusiasts founded the American Hackney Horse Society. The organization and registry continues to this day with its headquarters now in Lexington, Kentucky
.
townhouse in Philadelphia, after a six-month illness. He was interred in the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
. His widow died in 1920.
in Baltimore, Maryland was built by Alexander Cassatt in 1902.
In 1910, the PRR erected a statue of Cassatt at Pennsylvania Station, New York, with the following inscription:
The statue is currently located at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
in Strasburg, Pennsylvania
.
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
(PRR), serving from June 9, 1899 to December 28, 1906. Frequently referred to as A. J. Cassatt, the great accomplishment under his stewardship was the planning and construction of tunnels under the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
to finally bring PRR's trunk line into New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His purchase of a controling interest in the Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
and the construction of tunnels under the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
created a PRR commuter network on Long Island. Unfortunately, Cassatt died before his grand Pennsylvania Station in New York City was completed.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Harrisburg
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
and Altoona
Altoona, Pennsylvania
-History:A major railroad town, Altoona was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849 as the site for a shop complex. Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868...
to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
was made double-tracked
Double track
A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...
throughout; to Washington, DC, four-tracked—Pennsy's "Broad Way." Many other lines were double-tracked; almost every part of the system was improved. New freight cutoffs avoided stations; grade crossings were eliminated, flyovers
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
were built to streamline common paths through junctions
Junction (rail)
A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge.This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes , 'points' and signalling.one or two tracks each meet at a junction, a fairly simple layout of tracks suffices to...
, terminals were redesigned, and much more. Cassatt initiated the Pennsy's program of electrification
Electrification
Electrification originally referred to the build out of the electrical generating and distribution systems which occurred in the United States, England and other countries from the mid 1880's until around 1940 and is in progress in developing countries. This also included the change over from line...
which led to the road being the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
' most electrified system.
Alexander Cassatt was succeeded as Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
president by James McCrea
James McCrea
James McCrea was the 8th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad . He completed the construction of Pennsylvania Station in 1910, bringing the PRR lines under the Hudson River and, for the first time, into New York City....
.
Family
Alexander Cassatt was born on December 8, 1839 in Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. His sister was the painter Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
. He married Lois Buchanan, daughter of the Rev. Edward Y. Buchanan and Ann Eliza Foster. Lois Buchanan was a niece of James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, 15th President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, and through her mother, a niece of songwriter Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
. The couple had two sons and two daughters.
Chesterbrook Farm
A. J. Cassatt was a horseHorse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
enthusiast and fox hunter
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
who owned Chesterbrook Farm in Berwyn, Pennsylvania where he bred
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
racehorses
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
. The 600 acres (242.8 ha) property is today the site of a subdivision
Subdivision (land)
Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known in the United States as a subdivision...
with office buildings and homes using the Chesterbrook Farm name. The original main barn designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness was an acclaimed American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan...
has been maintained and restored. (Furness also designed Cassatt's Rittenhouse Square
Rittenhouse Square
Rittenhouse Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century in central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park cuts off 19th Street at Walnut Street and also at a half block above Manning Street. Its boundaries are...
townhouse.)
Cassatt initially raced under the pseudonym, Mr. Kelso, and his horses as from the Kelso Stable.http://www.pennhighlands.edu/library/digital/Pittsburgh%20Post%20Gazette/1889-10-21/0006.pdf He owned the 1886 Preakness Stakes
Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...
winner, The Bard
The Bard (horse)
The Bard was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. He was the most popular horse of his day and one who raced and beat all the top horses. Bred by Charles Reed, owner of the Fairview Stud Farm in Gallatin, Tennessee, his dam was Bradamante and his sire was the U.S...
and the 1889 Belmont Stakes
Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...
1889 winner Eric. As well, he bred the winner of the 1875, 1876, 1878, and 1880 Preakness Stakes and Foxford who won the 1891 Belmont.
In addition to flat-racing
Flat racing
Flat racing is a form of Thoroughbred horse racing which is run over a level track at a predetermined distance. It differs from steeplechase racing which is run over hurdles...
his Thoroughbreds, in 1895 A. J. Cassatt helped found the National Steeplechase Association
National Steeplechase Association
The National Steeplechase Association is the official sanctioning body of American steeplechase horse racing.The National Steeplechase Association was founded on February 15, 1895 by August Belmont, Jr., the first president of The Jockey Club and chairman of the New York State Racing Commission,...
to organize competitive steeplechase racing
Steeplechase (horse racing)
The steeplechase is a form of horse racing and derives its name from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside...
. He was also responsible for the introduction of the Hackney pony
Hackney (horse)
The Hackney Horse is a recognized breed of horse that was developed in Great Britain. In recent decades, the breeding of the Hackney has been directed toward producing horses that are ideal for carriage driving. They are an elegant high stepping breed of carriage horse that is popular for showing...
to the United States. In 1878 he acquired 239 Stella in Britain and brought her to Philadelphia. In 1891, Cassatt and several fellow Hackney enthusiasts founded the American Hackney Horse Society. The organization and registry continues to this day with its headquarters now in Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
.
Death
Alexander Cassatt died in 1906 at his Rittenhouse SquareRittenhouse Square
Rittenhouse Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century in central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park cuts off 19th Street at Walnut Street and also at a half block above Manning Street. Its boundaries are...
townhouse in Philadelphia, after a six-month illness. He was interred in the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr from Welsh for "big hill") is a census-designated place in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia along Lancaster Avenue and the border with Delaware County...
. His widow died in 1920.
Legacy
Gramercy MansionGramercy Mansion
Gramercy Mansion is a historic mansion in Stevenson, Maryland, United States, located on Greenspring Valley Road near Stevenson University, formerly Villa Julie College. It was built in 1902 by Alexander J. Cassatt, owner of the Pennsylvania Railroad and brother of the American Impressionist...
in Baltimore, Maryland was built by Alexander Cassatt in 1902.
In 1910, the PRR erected a statue of Cassatt at Pennsylvania Station, New York, with the following inscription:
The statue is currently located at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is a railroad museum in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.The museum is located on the east side of Strasburg along Pennsylvania Route 741...
in Strasburg, Pennsylvania
Strasburg, Pennsylvania
Strasburg is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. It developed as a linear village along the Great Conestoga Road, stretching about two miles along path later known as the Strasburg Road...
.
Further reading
- Jacobs, Timothy. The History Of The Pennsylvania Railroad; Bison Books Group 1988; ISBN 0-517-63351-5, p. 78-88 The Cassatt years.
- Jonnes, Jill. Conquering Gotham: a Gilded Age epic: the construction of Penn Station and its tunnels; Penguin Books 2007; ISBN 0-670-03158-5.
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2005), RPI: Alumni hall of fame: Alexander J. Cassatt. Retrieved February 22, 2005.
- White, John H., Jr. America's most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History, Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, Spring 1986, 154, p. 9-15.
- Schmidt, David. "Chesterbrook retells the story of Wayne for the 20th century." Lower Merion Historical Society, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
- American Hackney Horse Society.