He Tore Down His Own Childhood Home to Punish His Aunt
hold a grudge: to stay angry at someone for a long time because of something they did in the past
When William Waldorf Astor lost an argument with his Aunt Caroline, he built a hotel to punish her. The petty squabble within this high-society New York family was over two words. In the 1890s, it was customary for just one Astor woman to sign her name as “Mrs. Astor,” with no first name. The shorter name meant you led New York society. Caroline Astor had used it for years. When William’s father died in 1890, he became head of the family and claimed the title for his wife, Mary. By the customs of the day, both women had a fair claim, but people deferred to the elder Caroline.
William held a grudge, and he had the money to act on it. He tore down the mansion where he grew up and built a hotel thirteen floors high towering over his aunt’s house. Then he added the cruel part. On the side of the hotel facing Caroline, he ordered no windows, so she looked at a blank wall. It was a “spite house,” built expressly to hurt the person next door.
The Waldorf Hotel opened in March 1893. Caroline called it “a glorified tavern,” but she lost. She moved uptown, and William left for England and never came back.
Caroline’s son, John Jacob Astor IV, was not finished with the feud. He tore his mother’s old house down, and in November 1897 built a taller hotel on the site. His Astoria Hotel now towered over his cousin’s Waldorf Hotel.
In the end, money mattered more than the feud. The two hotels were joined by a marble corridor and a hyphen, and run as one business, the Waldorf-Astoria, the largest hotel in the world.
For years, when New Yorkers arranged to meet there, they said, “Meet me at the hyphen.”
Sample sentences
My brother still holds a grudge about a bicycle I broke when we were children.
She is not the kind of person to hold a grudge, so I am sure she has forgotten it.
He lost the promotion two years ago, and he still holds a grudge against his manager.
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The Original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Was Built Out of Spite (Neatorama)
