Henry Phipps

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Henry Phipps, Jr. (September 27, 1839 - September 22, 1930) was an American entrepreneur and major philanthropist. He was the son of an English shoemaker who emigrated in the early part of the 19th century to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before settling in Pittsburgh.

Henry Phipps grew up in poverty, a friend and neighbor to Andrew Carnegie. As a young man, he went to work as an office boy and bookkeeper. He proved a capable financier and became Carnegie's business partner in Carnegie Steel Company which would make him a very wealthy man as the company's second largest shareholder. He was also a successful real estate investot but after selling his stock in Carnegie Steel, Phipps devoted a great dal of his time and money to philanthropic works.

In 1872, Henry Phipps married Anne Childs Shaffer, the daughter of a Pittsburgh manufacturer. The couple had two daughters, Amy (Mrs. Frederick Guest) and Helen (Mrs. Bradley Martin), plus three sons, John Shaffer, Henry Carnegie, and Howard Phipps. In 1905 daughter Amy Phipps (1876-1959), married Capt. Frederick E. Guest (1875-1937), the grandson of the seventh Duke of Marlborough and Winston Churchill's first cousin.

Henry Phipps believed that those who have achieved great wealth should give back for the public good and create institutions dedicated to that purpose. As such he was involved with a number of philanthropic causes, the best known of which is the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Schenley Park, an 1893 gift to the city of Pittsburgh. Among his many benevolent works, he also funded the Phipps Institute for the Study, Treatment and Prevention of Tuberculosis at the University of Pennsylvania and the the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital which in 1912 made possible the first inpatient facility in the United States for the mentally ill constructed as part of an acute care hospital. An advocate of decent housing for the poor, in 1905 he funded the non-profit Phipps Houses to build affordable housing in New York City. [1] Still operating to this day, his great-grandson, Stuart Symington Janney III, sits on the Board of Trustees of Phipps Houses.

Henry Phipps was one of the pioneer investors in Florida real estate. At one time, he and his family owned one-third of the town of Palm Beach, 45 kilometres of oceanfront between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, prime bayfront property in downtown Miami, and 12,000 hectares of land in Martin County. The Phipps family donated to the town of Palm Beach one of the most significant gifts in county history: an ocean-to-lake frontage property that is now known as Phipps Park.[2]

[edit] See also:

• Phipps family

[edit] References

• Halcyon Days: An American Family Through Three Generations by Peggie Phipps Boegner (daughter of John Shaffer Phipps), Richard Gachot (1987) Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0810910640

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