This in-depth, full-length documentary explores the complete rise and fall of the Gould dynasty from Jay Gould's ruthless robber baron empire worth $84 million to his six children's extravagant spending spree across two continents. From Gothic castles repurposed as $100,000-square-foot stables to pink marble palaces in Paris, the Goulds built and lost spectacular mansions that epitomized Gilded Age excess before family dysfunction, poor investments, and generational wealth transfer destroyed one of America's most scandalous fortunes.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
1:10 The Rise and Fall of The Gould Family
30:40 Inside The Gould Family's "Old Money" Mansions
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Jay Gould died December 2, 1892, leaving an estate worth $84 million—equivalent to roughly $71 billion today—making him one of the wealthiest men in American history.
Newspapers called him the "Mephistopheles of Wall Street" and the "Robbingest of the Robber Barons" after he controlled 15% of all American railroad track plus Western Union Telegraph.
His attempt to corner the entire U.S. gold market in 1869 nearly destroyed the American economy, earning September 24 the name Black Friday.
The son of a struggling Catskill dairy farmer became the most hated man in America through financial manipulation, stock watering, and schemes that ruined countless investors.
He left six children who inherited massive trust funds and immediately began building mansions that announced their presence to a society that never fully accepted them.
George Jay Gould inherited $15 million plus control of the family's railroad empire, building a 50-room Victorian mansion at 857 Fifth Avenue before demolishing it for a $1.25 million limestone palace.
His masterpiece was Georgian Court in Lakewood, New Jersey—a 30-room mansion spanning 150-200 acres with costs spiraling from $70,000 to over $500,000 as he and Broadway actress wife Edith Kingdon indulged every luxury.
Howard Gould purchased 300 acres at Sands Point on Long Island's Gold Coast and built Castle Gould—a staggering 100,000-square-foot limestone behemoth modeled after Kilkenny Castle.
When wife Katherine pronounced it unsuitable, the entire castle was repurposed as a stable, carriage house, and servants' quarters—perhaps the most expensive stable complex in American history.
After 19 rejected mansion designs and spending $1.7 million with no suitable home built, their marriage collapsed amid spectacular accusations involving Buffalo Bill Cody.
Anna Gould took the family wealth to Europe, marrying impoverished French aristocrat Count Boni de Castellane who built the Palais Rose—a pink marble monument in Paris styled after Louis XIV's Grand Trianon.
In under a decade, Boni spent approximately $10 million of Anna's fortune on construction, art collecting, entertaining, and other women before she threw him out.
Helen Miller Gould became "America's Sweetheart" through philanthropy, donating $100,000 to the federal government during the Spanish-American War while converting the family mansion into a welfare office.
Frank Jay Gould moved to France and built the Hôtel Provençal on the Riviera—a magnificent Art Deco palace that hosted Picasso, Hemingway, and Winston Churchill.
The family's spectacular wealth began evaporating through poor investments, family feuds, and the inability of subsequent generations to match Jay's ruthless business acumen.
The Gould dynasty left behind 11 major properties across two continents, with many demolished including the pink marble Palais Rose in 1969.
But several survive today: Lyndhurst as a National Trust museum, Georgian Court as a university, Castle Gould as the Sands Point Preserve, and the restored Hôtel Provençal as luxury residences.
The rise and fall of the Goulds epitomizes the Gilded Age cycle where robber baron fortunes built through manipulation and corruption were squandered by heirs who confused wealth with wisdom.
Jay Gould's empire, built on railroad manipulation and gold corner schemes that nearly destroyed the American economy, could not survive the transition from its ruthless founder to children who spent rather than earned.
The family that once controlled America's transportation and communication infrastructure ended up as museum curiosities and cautionary tales about generational wealth destruction.
From a struggling dairy farm in the Catskills to marble palaces in Paris, the Gould story traces the complete arc of American wealth from accumulation through excess to ultimate dissolution.
The mansions remain as monuments to an era when extreme wealth met unlimited ego, creating architectural wonders that outlasted the fortunes that built them.
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