John Shaffer Phipps

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Shaffer Phipps, (1874-1958), the heir to the Phipps fortune and owner of Grace Shipping.

Known as "Jay", he was the son of Pittsburgh steel magnate and major philanthropist, Henry Phipps. Jay Phipps was a director of the Hanover Bank, U.S. Steel Corp. and W. R. Grace & Co.

In 1897 he married Margarita Grace, the daughter of Michael Grace of Kilkenny, Ireland, who, with his brother William, founded the Grace Shipping Lines in South America. John and Margarita had four children: John Henry Howard, Peggy, Michael, and Hubert Phipps.

John amassed almost 2,500 acres (10 km²) of rolling Virginia farm lands in The Plains, Virginia including Brenton, an 1889 stone manor house. A polo player and Thoroughbred racehorse owner, the property assembled from 1928 onwards would be the site of his Rockburn Stud farm. Upon his death in 1957 it passed to son Hubert B. Phipps.

Phipps purchased an old 160-acre (0.65 km²) Quaker farm on Long Island where he built a large mansion with magnificent gardens that following his death was became a non-profit organization that today is known as Westbury House & Gardens and is open to the public.

John Shaffer Phipps died in May of 1958 in Palm Beach, Florida.