Mary Duke Biddle
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Mary Duke Biddle (November 16, 1887-June 14, 1960) was an American philanthropist, the daughter of Benjamin Newton Duke, a co-founder with his brother of the American Tobacco Company. Born in Durham, North Carolina, Biddle went on to attend Durham's Trinity College, the institutional predecessor of Duke University, which was named in honor of her family. She graduated in 1907 with a degree in English. In 1918 she was given her father's brick-and-limestone Beaux-Arts townhouse on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, built in 1901;[1] it is one of only nine surviving mansions on Fifth Avenue.
Her marriage to Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. in 1915 ended in divorce in 1931.
She established the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation in 1956. Since then the Foundation has donated more than $28 million in grants to non-profit organizations.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The house was one of a group of four built by the speculative builders William and Thomas Hall to designs by Welch, Smith and Provot; 1009 Fifth Avenue was purchased by Mr Biddle. It was granted landmark status in 1974, and was sold in 2005 by Mrs Biddle's daughter, Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans; the purchaser was Tamir Sapir.
