http://www.cooganresearchgroup.com/crg/index.htm 16 October 2010 Obituary of Harriet Gardiner (Lynch) Coogan __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "New York Times" [NY], 19 DEC 1947, PAGE 26): MRS. COOGAN DIES; LARGE LANDHOLDER Widow of Manhattan's First Borough President Lived in Seclusion 32 Years Mrs. Harriet Gardiner Lynch Coogan, one of the most important landholders on Manhattan Island, widow of Manhattan's first Borough President, died early yesterday in her suite in the Hotel Biltmore, where she had lived in seclusion the last thirty- two years. She was 86 years old. Mrs. Coogan was one of the Gardiners of Gardiner's Island, a descendant of John Lion Gardiner, a grandaughter of Mrs. Sarah Gardiner. Her realty holdings include Coogan's Bluff and Coogan's Hollow on which the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, are situated. The Gardiners owned a great farm there, next to the Jumel property. In her lifetime Mrs. Coogan yielded only such property as the city condemned for parkways, subways or other public construction. She rented, or leased, the rest. During her latter years in the Hotel Biltmore, where her first- born child, Miss Jessie Coogan lived with her, Mrs. Coogan rarely left the suite. Hotel waiters who served her meals, never saw her, though she was extremely generous with her tips. In the last seven years, she read avidly and retained a sharp interest in national and local events, but only close kin and physicians visited her. MARRIED BOWERY MERCHANT.. She was born in New York City. She was educated in schools in Manhasset, L. I., and in the school of the Convent of the Sacred Heart. In 1883, when she was 22 years old, she was married to James J. Coogan. He, too, was a native of the city and finished his schooling at New York University School of Law. He was a merchant on the Bowery and went into city politics in his early twenties. He ran for Mayor on the Labor ticket in 1888, but lost out. After the Consolidation Act here in 1898 he was chosen as the first President of the Borough of Manhattan, through his friendship with the Tammany chief Richard Croker. The Coogan children, all still living, are Miss Jessie Coogan; Jay Coogan 2d of Gladstone, N.J., who served with the Royal Horse Guards in World War I; W. Gordon Coogan of Madison, N.J.; and Gardiner Coogan, formerly with the State Department in Washington. In 1900, the Coogans moved into Whitehall, a mansion in Newport, R.I., designed by Stanford White. At that time, the reigning set in Newport included the Dowager Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Mrs. William Watts Sherman. According to one version, the family left Newport after futile attempts to establish friendly relationship with social leaders. Jay Coogan said yesterday that there was no basis for this; that Whitehall was abandoned in 1911 after a fire there. MANAGED FAMILY'S HOLDINGS After her husband's death in 1915, Mrs. Coogan handled the family's extensive realty holdings with rare business instinct and sound judgement. She maintained offices at 55-57 West Twenty-Sixth Street, one of her own buildings. She owned the Coogan mansion at 599 Fifth Avenue, hard by the old Goulet, Vanderbilt and Russell Sage houses. Mrs. Coogan fell into a coma three days before she died. All her children were at the bedside at her death. "Mother was not a recluse," Gardiner Coogan said yesterday. "She withdrew because of her age and infirmity. She was a gracious person who handled everything with perfect amicability." Tentative funeral plans call for a funeral service in St. Patrick's Cathedral, where the Coogans have held a pew the last half-century. This will be held at 11 A.M. tomorrow. Burial will be private. __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "St. Petersburg Evening Independent" [FL], 20 DEC 1947): MRS. COOGAN, SNUB VICTIM, DIES IN HIDING NEW YORK - (AP) - Mrs. Harriet G. Coogan, 86, whose New York real estate holdings were valued at an estimated $20,000,000, died yesterday in her hotel suite where she had lived a virtual recluse for the last 40 years. Mrs. Coogan's property included the Polo Grounds which she leased to the New York National league baseball team. The wealthy widow of James Jay Coogan, prominent Tammany politician at the turn of the century, shut herself in her hotel retreat a generation ago after being snubbed. It was said at the time, by social leaders of fashionable Newport, R.I. The legend of the social snub grew out of a dinner party which Mrs. Coogan gave in Newport in celebration of her daughter's debut. She invited the leaders of the swank resorts social set but not one guest appeared, it was said. The story was that Mrs. Coogan then walked out of the mansion and never set foot in Newport again. In 1945, 35 years after the snub, the house was sold and torn down. She is survived by four children, all at her bedside when she died; Miss Jessie Coogan; Jay Coogan 2nd of Gladstone, N.J.; W. Gordon Coogan of Madison, N.J.; and Gardiner Coogan, formerly with the state department in Washington. Jay Coogan said there was no basis for the story that his mother was snubbed by Newport society leaders. He said the Coogan Newport home was abandoned in 1911 after a fire there. Gardiner Coogan asserted his mother "was not a recluse. She withdrew because of her age and infirmity. She was a gracious person who handled everything with perfect amicability." __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "Time" (magazine), 29 DEC 1947, PAGE 1): DIED Mrs. Harriet Gardiner Lynch Coogan, 86, wealthy recluse with a monumental grudge against High Society, longtime owner of "Whitehall," aristocratic Newport's most tumbledown eyesore: in Manhattan. Owner of a vast real-estate fortune, which she managed in a cubbyhole office from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., Mrs. Coogan had sulked in seclusion for 32 years. She walked out of Whitehall in 1910 (in a huff, according to Society legend, after giving a big party which Society boycotted), never returned, refused to sell the place, just let it stand there rotting for 30-odd years. __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "Newsweek" (magazine), 29 DEC 1947, PAGE ?): DIED MRS. HARRIET COOGAN, 86, widowed owner of the Polo Grounds, New York Giants' ballpark; in New York, Dec. 18. In 1910 Newport society snubbed her by refusing to attend her daughter's debut. She walked out of her mansion muttering: "It can rot to its roots." It did, and Mrs. Coogan became a recluse, unseen even by her servants who carried meals to her hotel room. __________________________________________________________________ (extracted from "Tonawanda News" [NY], 05 FEB 1948): [IN PROGRESS] __________________________________________________________________