in
Biography & Personal Stories
—
The Strange Saga of the Wendel Family: New York's Millionaire Recluses and a Dog Named Toby
The Wendels were a Gilded Age real estate dynasty who lived as recluses in their Fifth Avenue mansion, shunning modernity. The last heir, Ella, became famous for her isolated life and her long line of poodles, all of whom were named Toby.
In the heart of Gilded Age New York, where titans of industry like the Astors and Vanderbilts built opulent palaces to showcase their staggering wealth, one mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 39th Street stood as a peculiar, silent rebuke. Behind a high fence and unwashed windows lived the Wendel family, a real estate dynasty worth over $100 million (the equivalent of billions today) who chose to live as if time had stopped decades earlier, becoming the city's most enduring mystery.
A Simple Rule: Buy, Never Sell
The family's fortune began with John D. Wendel, a fur merchant who invested his profits in New York real estate with a single, unbending rule: never sell. He bought up land across Manhattan when it was still farmland and frontier, accumulating a portfolio that would become the bedrock of an empire. This philosophy was inherited by his son, John G. Wendel II, and his seven sisters. While the city grew into a modern metropolis around them, the Wendels held onto their properties, their wealth compounding silently with each passing year.
A Mansion Frozen in Time
John G. Wendel II was the patriarch and enforcer of the family's bizarre lifestyle. After his father's death, he moved with his six unmarried sisters into the Fifth Avenue mansion, a four-story brick house that became their fortress against the 20th century. The Wendels famously refused to install electricity, a telephone, or even modern plumbing long after these became common household utilities. They wore old-fashioned Victorian dresses and were rarely seen outside their walled garden. While their neighbors embraced the automobile, the Wendels kept a horse and carriage. Their refusal to modernize was absolute, turning their prime Manhattan real estate into a living relic of a bygone era.
The New York Times noted upon Ella Wendel's passing that the home had become legendary for its isolation, stating, 'For more than twenty years she lived in complete seclusion, surrounded by the high board fence which made the old house a subject for comment by thousands who passed daily.'
The Brother's Iron Grip
John G. Wendel II's control over his sisters was total. Believing that any marriage would dilute the family fortune, he forbade them from courting or wedding. One sister, Rebecca, secretly married a professor, but was disinherited for her defiance. The other sisters remained spinsters, living out their lives under their brother's strict and isolating rule. They were prisoners in their own gilded cage, surrounded by immense wealth but denied the basic freedoms of life and love. After John died in 1914, the sisters continued to live in seclusion, bound by habit and a lifetime of conditioning.
The Last Wendel and Her Loyal Toby
One by one, the sisters passed away, until only one remained: Ella Virginia Wendel. By the 1920s, she was the sole heir to the entire Wendel fortune, living alone in the decaying mansion. Her only companion was her beloved French poodle, Toby. But this was not just one Toby. As each poodle passed away, Ella would immediately replace it with a new one, giving it the same name. This line of succession of Tobys became her most famous eccentricity. The dog slept in a custom-made bed and ate steak prepared by servants. A famous photograph captured Ella, an elderly woman in antiquated clothes, sitting on her front steps with the final Toby, a poignant image of her profound loneliness.
The Great Wendel Will Case
When Ella died in 1931, she left the vast majority of the family fortune to various charities, having no direct heirs. Her death triggered a legal spectacle known as the Great Wendel Will Case. Over 2,300 claimants from around the world came forward, each insisting they were a long-lost Wendel relative. The courts spent years untangling the fraudulent and fantastical claims before ultimately upholding Ella's will. The last act of the Wendel dynasty was not a quiet fade, but a chaotic public scramble for their forsaken riches. The family mansion was soon demolished, replaced by a modern storefront, erasing the last physical trace of the city's strangest family.