Hoagland Gates Childhood

Hoagland Gates grew up ensconced in the insular and privileged world of New York society. His parents were Charles Otis Gates and Elizabeth K. Hoagland Gates. Elizabeth’s father, Cornelius Neven Hoagland, had amassed a family fortune by cofounding the Royal Baking Powder Company and her husband, Charles, served as the company’s President. Young Hoagland’s early years were divided between time spent in the family mansion on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and summers at his father’s palatial country estate on the Long Island Sound in Glenn Cove, N.Y. When he was old enough, Hoagland was enrolled in the prestigious Hill School, a preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, PA. This was followed by two years at Yale University, though he apparently left in 1911 while still a sophomore.

Hoagland Gates’ father, Charles Otis Gates, was the President of the Royal Baking Soda Company. The company had been cofounded by Hoagland’s grandfather, Cornelius Nevens Hoagland in 1866 and was the source of the family’s fortune.

Photograph of Hoagland Gates, taken around the time that he enrolled at Yale University.

Dated July 17, 1897, this photograph shows an almost five year old Hoagland Gates summering at Shelter Island, New York. While perusing the morning’s paper, young Hoagland is seated on the front lawn in what appears to be a mid-18th century Hudson River Valley side chair. Shelter Island was an exclusive escape destination for New York’s most privileged families and both the Hoagland and the Gates families owned properties there. The waterfront location and impressive architecture of the houses visible in the image as well as Hoagland’s clean and dapper clothing and his family’s interest in expensive Colonial period antiques (or at least quality reproductions of them) all point to affluence and social pretentions. This photograph appears to show the houses along Summerfield Place and the walk overlooking Shelter Island Sound. Hoagland’s grandfather owned an impressive cottage on Summerfield Place but apparently sold it the year before this photograph was taken.

A 1905 advertisement for the Lorillard Refrigerator Company featured Peacock Point, the country estate of Hoagland Gates’ father, Charles Otis Gates. Constructed in 1902, the expansive Tudor Revival style residence was designed by the New York architect Charles A. Rich. The home and its landscaped grounds featured magnificent views of Long Island Sound.