She looked like a homeless bag lady and lived in a cheap flat at 1203 Washington St. in Hoboken. But she had a fortune estimated at more than $100 million – and this was 100 years ago.
She was Hetty Green, better known as “The Witch of Wall Street.” Hetty could have bought Hoboken and probably most of Weehawken, too, by just writing a check.
But she lived in poverty, refusing to spend a penny if she could avoid it.
Hetty lived in Hoboken off and on for more than 20 years around the turn of the century, moving from one flat to another if she could find one cheaper. Hetty was such a compulsive miser that she allowed her son to lose part of a leg by refusing to pay for medical treatment.
Hetty’s life
She was born Nov. 21, 1835 in New Bedford, Mass. to Abby Slocum Howland and Edward Mott Robinson, who were Quakers. Her father left her $4 million when he died. She added to it by marrying a millionaire, Edward Henry Green of Bellow Falls, Vt., in 1867.
After her marriage, Hetty and her husband lived in London for five years, and her children Ned and Sylvia were born there.
About this time, money became the most important thing in the world to Hetty. Biographers write that Hetty Green’s mania for making money and inability to spend any stemmed from her religious upbringing. To Hetty, spending anything on herself or on anything for comfort or pleasure was sinful.
She dressed in old clothes to look poor so that merchants would charge her less for food and clothing. And when she came to Hoboken from London, she rented a three-room flat for $19 a month at 1203 Washington St. in the “Yellow Flats.”
Later she moved to 1309 Bloomfield St., and at one time or another she lived in almost every “Yellow Flat” she could find for less than the original $19, when her annual income was more than $5 million (no income tax in those days).
That $2 dog fee was steep
Hetty did not like anyone to know where she was, so her apartment’s doorbell was labeled with the name “C. Dewey.” Dewey was her dog, a little Skye terrier. Dewey got Hetty into trouble with Hoboken’s dog license fee of $2. She wouldn’t pay it. So, Hetty left Hoboken and moved in with a friend in New York.
Hoboken didn’t miss her. But finally her grown daughter Sylvia paid the two dollars, and Hetty came back to Hoboken.
When Hetty came home to Hoboken from her daily trip to New York’s Chemical Bank (where she had free desk space) she usually came by way of the Hoboken Ferry from Barclay Street and took the Washington Street trolley car to 12th Street.
One day in January, 1906, she happened to get on the trolley with no money in her purse. She asked the conductor to trust her for the fare, saying that she would pay it in a day or two. True to her word, Hetty appeared at the offices of the trolley company a few days later and paid them the nickel she owed them.
However, she wouldn’t give them the nickel without getting a written receipt for the five cents.
The next day, she loaned the City of New York $4.5 million at 4 percent interest.
Quite a reputation
There are many anecdotes about Hetty Green. One fascinating glimpse we have of the miser who was the richest woman in America appeared in a book by Beatrice Fairfax:
“[T]here were generous things about her, despite her reputation. For instance, she had the cheapest room in the hotel. It was common knowledge that she paid only $11 a week for it. But her husband, who never appeared in the dining room, had one of the best suites, and her daughter, Miss Sylvia Green, was equally well-housed.
“She had other economies, unappetizing ones. We saw her one night in the dining room pour cream and coffee into a half-pint pitcher, drop in a couple of lumps of sugar, break and butter a hot roll, and jam it into the pitcher with a slice of bacon. With this she corked the pitcher, slipped the mixture under her skirt and left the room. ‘For her dog?’ we asked. The waiter told us it was for Hetty’s daughter. She wasn’t coming down that day.
“Once I put the question to the old lady: ‘Why do you love your little dog so much, Mrs. Green?’ She looked at me out of her curiously puckered eyelids, and answered, ‘He doesn’t know how rich I am.’ ”
To and from Hoboken
After Sylvia’s marriage, Ned refused to live in a cold-water flat in Hoboken, so Hetty gave up the four-room flat at 1309 Bloomfield St. and rented two rooms on the fifth floor of the walk-up apartment house next door (probably 1313 Bloomfield St., long since replaced by a newer one-family house). This was at a time when her annual income was more than $10 million and when she had $10 to $20 million in cash ready for short-term loans.
After refusing to live with his mother, Ned moved into a house at Five West 90th St. in New York. Some time later, Hetty was persuaded to move into the house next door, but soon she returned to Hoboken and took up residence with the caretaker of 1211 Washington St., whose family was friendly to her. (“Friendly” to Hetty Green was probably allowing her to live there free.)
After suffering several strokes, Hetty Green died on July 3, 1916, in a small brownstone house on 90th Street in New York. Ned died in 1936 and Sylvia is reported to have died in 1951.
Editor’s note: A full version of this column was originally printed in Hoboken History Issue No. 11, published by the Hoboken Historical Museum. Please visit the museum at 1301 Hudson St. for more information. To read past columns from this year-long series, visit www.hobokenreporter.com.