C.K.G. Billings

Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings (September 17, 1861 in Saratoga, New York – May 6, 1937 in Santa Barbara, California) was a wealthy industrialist, a noted horseman and tycoon. When he retired in 1901 at age 40 he was president of the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company in Chicago, Illinois.

A notable eccentric, Billings invested much of his time and money promoting the sport of matinee driving (trotting), a sport that is still popular today in the United States.

Billings grew up in Chicago, where his entrepreneurial father was a principal in the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company during the time when Chicago was largely lit by gaslight. After college he joined his father’s firm, eventually inheriting controlling interest in the company and, at the age of 40, retired from business to devote his time to his growing stable of horses. In 1901 he moved his family and his horses to New York City, and acquired acreage on the largely undeveloped north end of Manhattan. It was near the newly opened and very fashionable Harlem Speedway, an exclusive dirt track along the Harlem River between 155th and Dyckman Streets.

On March 28, 1903, Billings, who had recently opened a private 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m²), $200,000 trotting stable near 196th Street in what is now Fort Tryon Park, was going to celebrate the opening by hosting an exclusive dinner at the stable, catered by fashionable restaurateur Louis Sherry. Word leaked out however, and crowds of reporters gathered by his gates, hoping to see the fabulous stable and glamorous visitors. Billings decided to quietly move the party, and instead rented the grand ballroom of Sherry's, at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street. He had the floor covered with turf so that he and his 36 guests could sit on their horses, (which had been taken up to the fourth-floor ballroom by elevator) while having dinner. The diners ate from trays attached to their saddles and sipped champagne through rubber tubes from iced bottles in their saddlebags. The $50,000 bill included a photographer from the celebrated Byron Company to document the event.

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