Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings (September 17, 1861 – May 6, 1937) was an American industrialist tycoon,[1] philanthropist, art collector, and a noted horseman and horse breeder.

When he finished college at 17 in 1879, he joined the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company – of which his father was a principal investor and president – beginning as a laborer.

[3] In 1901, at the age of 40, Billings, who had inherited a controlling interest in Peoples Gas but had retired from the day-to-day running of the company,[5] moved to Manhattan, New York City, where he and his family lived in a townhouse on Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street.

He later owned an extensive estate in Upper Manhattan, on the site of what is now Fort Tryon Park, and first built a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) stable there, at the cost of $200,000.

It also had a gymnasium, a blacksmith shop with forge, a trophy room to display Billings' awards from the amateur races he won, and two five-room suites of living quarters.

Billings and his guests ate mounted in a circle on 32 docile horses that were rented from nearby riding academies and brought to the fourth-floor ballroom via the freight elevator; specially built silver trays were attached to their saddles and diners drank through rubber tubes connected to iced bottles of champagne in their saddlebags.

[15][16] Two days later, Billings officially opened his new stable with a luncheon for members of the Equestrian Club and other wealthy horsemen and dignitaries from around the country.

Some rode there on horseback, but most traveled by elevated train to the 155th Street station located at the Harlem Speedway, and were conveyed to the stable by automobiles.

[18] The Billings' mansion at West 196th Street and Fort Washington Road[17] was a Louis XIV-style chateau designed by Guy Lowell, who enlarged the lodge that had been built as part of the stables.

[7][19] The mansion stood on one of the highest points in Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River to the west and the Broadway Valley to the east, and had an observatory tower topped by an octagonal room with a 360-degree unobstructed view.

The estate included a casino with a swimming pool, squash court and bowling alley for entertaining, as well as Billings' extensive stables and an area to exercise his horses.

[22] The entrance to the 25-acre (10 ha) estate[20] was originally at the top of the hill, approached via Riverside Drive and West 181st Street to Fort Washington Road, but the upper part of Riverside Drive was completed at about the same time as Billings' mansion, and he wanted a driveway connecting the mansion directly to that section of the roadway.

[7][19][24][25] After leaving Tryon Hall, Billings moved to another grand estate he had built, this one called "Farnsworth" for his mother's family[2] and located in Locust Valley, New York, on Long Island.

It was again designed by Guy Lowell, this time in the Georgian Revival style, with the extensive grounds landscaped by Andrew Robeson Sargent of Boston.

With World War 1 raging and his health failing, he began to sell off his East Coast properties in preparation for moving to California.

[29][30][31] At various times, Billings also owned a 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) estate on the James River in Virginia called Curles Neck Farm, which he bought in 1913 and developed into one of the country's prime horse-breeding facilities, an estate in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a summer home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

[3] Around 1915, Billings – a member of the Turf and Field Club at Belmont Park[3] – was said to be the owner of the fastest stallion, mare, and gelding in the world.

[2] He was the principal investor in the Billings Parks race track in Memphis, Tennessee, which eventually closed because of anti-betting laws passed by that state.

[3] In 1926, Billings sold his art collection, which included works by Jean-Charles Cazin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, John Crome, Charles-François Daubigny, Jules Dupré, Charles Jacque, Jean-François Millet, Théodore Rousseau, Constant Troyon, and Félix Ziem for $401,300.

In all social relations he was the reverse of pompous, arrogant or domineering, was democratic and genial and, that rarest of all things—always the same admirable and wonderful character in every spot and place, at all times and seasons and under all circumstances.