Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor (September 22, 1830–October 30, 1908) preferred to be known simply as Mrs. Astor, which after 1887 was all she had printed on her visiting cards. She was the wife of real estate heir William Backhouse Astor Jr. Pre 1923 image not subject to copyright. ... September 22 is the 265th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (266th in leap years). ... 1830 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... William Backhouse Astor, Jr. ...

Her desire to be unchallenged grande dame of New York Society was aided by the social arbiter Ward McAllister whose life's work was the codifcation and maintenance of the rules of social intercourse. McAllister once stated that amongst the vastly wealthy families of Gilded Age New York, there were only four hundred people who could be counted as members of Fashionable Society. He did not, as is commonly written, arrive at this number based on the limitations of Mrs. Astor's New York City ballroom. (McAllister, her distant cousin, referred to her as the "Mystic Rose.") That her husband didn't care for the social whirl did not deflect her one iota and she spent years freezing out people she considered her social inferior. In 1883, however, she was reluctantly moved to admit Alva Vanderbilt, the first wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, to her social circle after Alva threatened to block the Astors' daughter from participating in a much-awaited costume ball. The blackmail worked. Samuel Ward McAllister (1827-1895) was the self-appointed arbiter of New York society from the 1860s to the late 1880s. ... Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont (January 26, 1933 - January 26, American socialite and a major funder of the womens suffrage movement. ... William Kissam Vanderbilt (December 12, 1849 – July 22, 1920) was a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family. ...

On the death of her brother-in-law John Jacob Astor III in 1890, his son William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919) attempted to challenge Caroline's right to be THE "Mrs. Astor" and insist that he was now the head of the family. He demanded that his aunt become "Mrs. William Astor" and his wife be known as the "Mrs. Astor." It didn't work. That September, William Waldorf Astor and his wife emigrated to Great Britain, where he later became a viscount. John Jacob Astor III (June 10, 1822-February 22, 1890) was the elder son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. ... William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (March 31, 1848–October 18, 1919) was a financier and statesman and a member of the prominent Astor family. ...

In retaliation for his aunt's intransigence, William Waldorf Astor then had his father's house, 350 Fifth Avenue, torn down and replaced by the first Waldorf Hotel. Caroline, not willing to live next to a hotel, moved uptown to an opulent mansion at 840 Fifth Avenue. (Her son John Jacob Astor IV built the Astoria hotel at 340 and the two later merged before moving to the present location of the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel). Street sign at Fifth Avenue and East 57th street Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New York City. ... John Astor IV and Madeleine Astor Colonel John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 - April 15, 1912) was a businessman, inventor, writer and a member of the prominent Astor family. ... This article is about the hotel. ...

By the time she moved to the new house her husband had died; she died there herself at age 78 and was interred in the Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan. Trinity Church Cemetery consists of three separate burial grounds associated with Trinity Church in Manhattan, New York, USA. The first was established in the Churchyard located at 74 Trinity Place at Wall Street and Broadway. ... Manhattan Borough,highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ...