Iconic photos of a changing city, and commentary on our Collections & Exhibitions from the crew at MCNY.org
Byron Company. Men on horseback eating dinner on special tables on each horse in the ballroom at Sherry’s at the C.K.G. Horseback Dinner. 1903. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.3940
We have written about quite a few dinners and parties of the Gilded Age on this blog but I don’t think many top C.K.G. Billings’s Horseback Dinner held at Sherry’s Hotel and Restaurant on March 28, 1903. Just like any other Gilded Age dining experience, champagne flowed freely and guests were served an exquisitely prepared meal, but none in attendance sat at a table. Instead, each of the diners each sat atop a horse. The lavish dinner cost a grand total of $50,000, or the equivalent of $1.3 million dollars today – mere pennies for the millionaire industrialist.
Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings retired as president of the People’s Gas, Light and Coke Company of Chicago in 1901. He promptly moved to New York and participated in the usual pursuits of all millionaires: yachting, carriage driving, and horse racing. He was a frequent visitor to the Harlem River Speedway, now known as the Harlem River Drive, which stretched from 155th Street in Washington Heights to Dyckman Street in Inwood. The Speedway was originally reserved for equestrians and carriage drivers, and excluded bicycles so as not to “Mar the Horseman’s Sport on the Speedway,” according to an announcement in the New York Times published in advance of the Speedway’s opening.
Robert L. Bracklow. Harlem River Speedway. ca. 1900. Museum of the City of New York. 93.91.249
Robert L. Bracklow. Washington Bridge and Speedway. ca. 1870-1890. Museum of the City of New York. 93.91.444
In order to access the Harlem River Speedway with greater ease, Billings purchased 25 acres of land at 196th Street and Fort Washington Road, in what is now Fort Tryon Park, for the construction of a horse stable and lodge to house his string of matinee and Speedway horses. The two-story, 25,000 square-foot structure was completed in 1903 and boasted 31 horse stalls, a blacksmith forge, engine and dynamo room for electric light, steam heat and hot water, carriage room, and two suites of five rooms each for the family and their guests.
Wurts Bros. C.K. Billings Estate, Exterior. ca. 1913. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.11393
Charles Bayer. Entrance to the Billings Estate, Fort Tryon. June 5, 1914. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.1910
Irving Underhill. Sherry’s Hotel, 5th Ave. and 44th St. ca. 1905. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.28.476.
Sherry’s Rococo grand ballroom before the transformation into a woodland garden scene. McKim, Mead & White. Ballroom of Sherry’s Hotel. 1897-1898. Museum of the City of New York. 90.44.1.1114
Byron Company. Horse and attendant in the ballroom at Sherry’s at the C.K.G. Horseback Dinner. 1903. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.3941.
The New York Times described the dinner as “one of the most novel that has ever been given in the city.” In continuation of the celebration, friends of Mr. Billings were invited to a luncheon and tour of the new stable and lodge two days later. Some guests even arrived on horseback – a common form of transportation at all of Billings’s many estates.
Byron Company. Horses, Billings Estate, Mr. R.H. Halstead. ca. 1902. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.4682
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