{{Short description|1st Mayor of consolidated New York City (1898–1901)}} {{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Robert Anderson Van Wyck | image = Robert A. Van Wyck, Mayor-Elect of Greater New York.jpg | caption = Van Wyck in 1897 | order = 92nd | office = Mayor of New York City | term_start = January 1, 1898 | term_end = December 31, 1901 | predecessor = William L. Strong | successor = Seth Low | birth_date = {{Birth date|1849|7|20|mf=y}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1918|11|14|1849|7|20}} | death_place = Paris, France | resting_place = Woodlawn Cemetery | alma_mater = | party = Democratic | profession = | spouse = | education = Columbia University (BA) | signature = Signature of Robert Anderson Van Wyck (1849–1918).png }}
'''Robert Anderson Van Wyck''' ({{IPAc-en|v|æ|n|_|ˈ|w|aɪ|k}} {{respell|van|_|WYKE}};<ref name=NYer>Paumgarten, Nick. [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/06/11/010611ta_TALK_DEPT_OF_ONCE "The Van Wyck Question"], ''The New Yorker'', June 11, 2001. Accessed May 10, 2023.</ref><ref name=NYTa>{{cite news|last1=Bilefsky|first1=Dan|title=In Jam on Van Wyck? Try to Say It Right (published the next day in print on page A28 as Stuck on the Van Wyck Expressway? Just Try to Pronounce It|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/nyregion/van-wyck-expressway-also-snarls-pronunciation.html?_r=0|access-date=May 10, 2023|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 25, 2011|page=A28}}</ref> July 20, 1849 – November 14, 1918) was an American politician who was the first mayor of New York City after the consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of Greater New York in 1898.<ref name=NYer/><ref name=NYTa/>
==Early life and education== Robert Anderson Van Wyck was the son of William Van Wyck and Lydia Ann Maverick. He was one of seven children, including two brothers Augustus and Samuel Maverick, a Confederate Regimental Surgeon.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fitch |first=Charles Elliott |date=1916 |title=Encyclopedia of Biography of New York |volume=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSoEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA80 |location=New York, NY |publisher=American Historical Society |page=88}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanstampdealer.com/SubMenu/Regimental_Surgeon_Samuel_Van_Wyck.aspx?id=322 |title=Regimental Surgeon Samuel Van Wyck |last=Kaufmann |first=Patricia A. |date=2017 |website=americanstampdealer.com |publisher=American Stamp Dealers Association |location=Centre Hall PA |access-date=May 12, 2018}}</ref> He studied at the Wilson Academy in North Carolina, and later graduated from Columbia University, where he was valedictorian of his class.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Mayors of Columbia |url=https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/mayors-columbia |access-date=May 6, 2022 |website=Columbia Magazine |language=en}}</ref> His sister Lydia married Robert Hoke of North Carolina, a Confederate general during the American Civil War and businessman.
==Career== Van Wyck began working in business, then studied law and became an attorney. He enjoyed a large practice for many years before entering politics.
His business life depended on his social connections as well. Van Wyck was a member of the Holland Society, of which he became president. He belonged to many of the social clubs of the city and was prominent in Masonic circles, being a member of The Ancient Lodge, New York City.
==Political career== For many years Van Wyck took an active interest in Democratic Party matters, attending many conventions, state and national. Later, Van Wyck was elected Judge of the City Court of New York. He advanced to chief justice.
Van Wyck resigned as justice to accept the Democratic Party nomination for Mayor of New York City. He was elected in 1897 by a very large majority. He served as mayor of New York City between 1898 and 1901, as the first mayor to govern New York City after its five boroughs had been consolidated into a single city.
As Mayor, he brought together the innumerable municipal corporations comprising the greater city. He directed construction of the Interborough Rapid Transit's first subway in Manhattan.
Van Wyck is generally regarded as selected by the leaders of Tammany Hall as a man who would do little to interfere with their running of the city. Initially highly popular as a result of his reversal of the various reforms introduced by the preceding Fusion administration, Van Wyck's administration foundered on the so-called "Ice Trust" scandal of 1900. The ''New York World'' reported that the American Ice Company of Charles W. Morse planned to double the price of ice, from 30 to 60 cents per hundred pounds (45.4 kilograms). In the era before refrigeration, this had potentially fatal effects, as the ice was the only preservative available to keep food, milk, and medicines fresh. The high price would have put ice beyond the reach of many of the city's poor—Tammany's main power base in the years of waves of immigration.
American Ice was forced to reverse its decision due to the public outcry. Van Wyck's political rivals forced an investigation into the issue. It revealed that American Ice had secured an effective monopoly over the supply of its product to the city—it was the only company with rights to land ice at New York piers—and would have dramatically increased its profits at the new price. In addition, Van Wyck, whose salary as mayor was only $15,000, owned and had apparently not paid for, $680,000 worth of American Ice stock.
The Ice Trust Scandal destroyed Van Wyck's political career and was generally reckoned to have cost Tammany the elections of 1901, which was won by the Fusion reformist slate led by Seth Low. Two years later, ''The New York Times'' characterized the Van Wyck administration as one mired in "black ooze and slime".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-the-triumph-of-tamman/124374064/ |title=The Triumph of Tammany |newspaper=The New York Times |page=8 |date=November 4, 1903 |access-date=May 10, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Governor Theodore Roosevelt initiated an investigation, which determined that Van Wyck had not been personally implicated in the Ice Trust Scandal.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Mooney | first = James E. | editor = Kenneth T. Jackson | editor-link = Kenneth T. Jackson | title = Van Wyck, Robert A(nderson) | encyclopedia = The Encyclopedia of New York City | pages = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300055368/page/1225 1225] | publisher = Yale University Press & The New-York Historical Society | location = New Haven, CT & London & New York | year = 1995 | isbn = 0-300-05536-6 | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300055368/page/1225 }}</ref>
==Later years== Van Wyck and his wife enjoyed traveling. In 1906, they moved to Paris, France. He died there at the age of 69 on November 14, 1918. The funeral was held at American Holy Trinity Church. His body was returned to New York and he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.<ref>{{cite news |title=Robert A. Van Wyck Dies in Paris Home. First Mayor of Greater New York Had Lived Abroad for 12 Years. His Administration Marked by So-Called Ice Trust, Ramapo WaterSteal, and Police Scandals. In Administrative Scandals. Police Department Accused. Effort Made to Remove Him. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-robert-a-van-wyck-di/124373695/ |quote=Robert A. Van Wyck, former Mayor of New York City, is dead here. Funeral services will be held Saturday morning in the American Holy Trinity Church. |newspaper=The New York Times |place=Paris |page=13 |date=November 15, 1918 |publication-date= November 16, 1918 |access-date=May 10, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Legacy== * In 1898 the FDNY launched a fireboat named ''Robert Van Wyck''. * MS 217 in Queens is the Robert A. Van Wyck Middle School * The Van Wyck Expressway runs in a north–south direction through Queens from John F. Kennedy International Airport in the south to the Whitestone Expressway in the north.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Anne Van Wyck, ''Descendants of Cornelius Barentse Van Wyck and Anna Polhemus,'' New York: Tobias A. Wright Printer and Publisher, 1912, pp. 207–208. * Oliver Allen (1993). ''The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall,'' New York: Addison Wesley. * {{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-ex-mayor-van-wyck-lef/124374590/ |title=Ex-Mayor Van Wyck Left $2,000,000 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=4 |date=January 4, 1919 |access-date=May 10, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}}
==External links== * {{Find a Grave|53042238}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = William Lafayette Strong |title=Mayor of New York City | years = 1898—1901 | after = Seth Low}} {{s-end}}
{{Mayors of New York City}} {{Democratic NYC mayoral nominees}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Wyck, Robert Anderson}} Category:1849 births Category:1918 deaths Category:19th-century New York state court judges Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:19th-century mayors of places in New York (state) Category:20th-century mayors of places in New York (state) Category:American expatriates in France Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Ice trade Category:Mayors of New York City Category:New York (state) Democrats Category:New York (state) lawyers Robert Anderson