A Host's History Lesson

The guy doing the John Travolta impression was the host of the wedding of the year. No, that's not his sexy goomah that he's dancing with, but his wife. In the midst of toasting the bride and groom he gave his guests (many of them from out of town) a brief history lesson of the area. He even gave a plug to David McCullough's book "1776." I was impressed. The tobacco warehouse that provided the dramatic setting for the wedding once belonged to the Lorillard Co. I did a little googling of Lorillard and turned up some interesting stuff.The Brooklyn Public Library's archive of the Brooklyn Eagle had an article about Pierre Lorillard's death in 1901 (I added pics) He was a very interesting guy. From Wikipedia:"Born in Westchester, New York, he was the son of Peter (Pierre) Lorillard (1796-1867) and Catherine Griswold. In 1760, his great-grandfather, and namesake, founded P. Lorillard and Company in New York City to process tobacco, cigars, and snuff. Today, P. Lorillard is the oldest tobacco company in the U.S. Pierre Lorillard married Emily Taylor with whom he had four children. In the early 1880's he helped make Newport, Rhode Island a yachting center with his schooner "Vesta" and a steam yacht named "Radha." He owned a summer estate in Newport called "The Breakers" which he sold to Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1885 in order to use his newly developed estate, the Tuxedo Club, at what became known as Tuxedo Park in Orange County, New York. Lorillard had inherited 13,000 acres around Tuxedo Lake which he developed in conjunction with William Waldorf Astor and other wealthy associates into a luxury retreat. Lorillard is reported to be the person who introduced the English dinner jacket to the United States in 1886 at one of his formal parties held at the resort on Tuxedo Lake. The "new" look was given the name, tuxedo. There was also an article in the Eagle (1891) about Pierre's son