Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt

Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard (New Dorp, July 23, 1845– Manhattan, March 3, 1924) was an American heiress and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family. As a philanthropist, she funded the YMCA, helping create a hotel for guests of the organization. She was married to prominent New York City lawyer, banker, and newspaper editor Elliott Fitch Shepard.

Born 1845 in Staten Island, New York, the eldest daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt and granddaughter of the Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Her older brother was Cornelius Vanderbilt II and younger siblings William Kissam Vanderbilt, Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly, Frederick William Vanderbilt, Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb and George Washington Vanderbilt II.

On February 18, 1868 Margaret Louisa married Elliot Fitch Shepard in the Church of the Incarnation in New York. They had five daughters and one son: Florence (1869–1869), Maria Louise (1870–1948), Edith (1872–1954), Margaret (1873–1895), Alice Louise (1874–1950) and Elliot Fitch Shepard, Jr. (1877–1927).

An ardent supporter of the YWCA, she built, in 1891, the Margaret Louisa, a YWCA hotel strictly for transient guests at 14 E. 16th Street in New York City. Mrs. Shepard fully financed and furnished the building.

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