Growing up, Kip lived with his parents, his sister Margaret (who died young), and the family's servants in a house overlooking Washington Square in Manhattan.

[6] In the 1880s, Kip moved his family and servants to Ruremont, an 11-acre country estate on Madison Avenue in Morristown, New Jersey, a street then known as "Millionaires Row."

[8] He also maintained an extensive correspondence with preservationist John Muir, of whom he was a friend and financial supporter.

She was also the niece of three-term New York City mayor William Frederick Havemeyer.

[14] Together, George and Anna were the parents of three children: His wife died suddenly of heart failure on April 5, 1893,[10] and in 1898 Kip funded the construction of the Anna Margaret Home for Convalescents, the main building of the new Morristown Memorial Hospital, in her honor.