page_title: W. Wheeler Smith
section_title: Private life
hierarchical_section_title: W. Wheeler Smith / Private life
caption_attribution_description: English: William J. Syms Operating Theater of Charles McBurney (surgeon) at Roosevelt Hospital, 59th Street &amp; Ninth Avenue, New York
context_page_description: William Wheeler Smith, AIA, professionally known as "W. Wheeler Smith," was an American architect and developer active in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century New York City. His home office was located at 17 East 77th Street, New York City. He previously occupied 971 Madison Avenue.
  Smith was a self-made millionaire and noted philanthropist. "He started as an apprentice in an architect's office and worked his way to the front rank of New York architects."
  The most valuable properties he owned were 3, 5, and 7 Wall Street, 84 Broadway, "which were valued by Mr. Smith at $3,500,000 and on which is a mortgage of $1,400,000, and 71 Wall Street, valued at $550,000. A few years before Mr. Smith's death he decided to bequeath the revenue from the building at 71 Wall Street to the Association of the Relief of Respectable, Aged, and Indigent Females, at Amsterdam Avenue and 104th Street, and he made such a provision in his will, ."
context_section_description: He was married to Catherine Hever Brewer (d.Mar 16, 1916). He married his wife in the Dutch Reformed church that he designed. He frequently appeared in the society pages and was a member of several boards and councils, including the Council of New York University.
  At the time of his death at age 70, he had no children nor relatives apart from his wife. As a condition of his will, Smith "left a fortune to St. Luke's Hospital." He had a "three-million-dollar estate" through his real estate investments that his wife decided she would not challenge provided she was left with $700 a month instead of $200,000 a year. An additional collection of small bequests to servants and distant relatives did not exceed $20,000. Her decision allowed the hospital to build a sanitarium for poor convalescents. Smith had wanted to design the memorial he would enable but was too ill to do so.
caption: William J. Syms Operating Theater of Charles McBurney (surgeon) at Roosevelt Hospital
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