William Rhinelander Stewart

William Rhinelander Stewart was a notable example of the man of inherited wealth who, exempt from private business responsibilities, chooses to apply his time and energies to arduous work for the public welfare rather than to spend it in luxurious idleness. During half a century he had been occupied with the activities of organized New York charities and State reform, in behalf of which he was a constant and successful applicant for wise legislation.

Stewart was really the originator of one of the most pleasing artistic decorations of this city, the Washington Arch. That monument had been planned to celebrate in 1889 the centenary of our first president’s inauguration. The project long seemed doubtful of success; subscriptions to such undertakings came slowly in the Eighties. For the successful outcome, Stewart divided honors with the famous pedestrian Edward Payson Weston, who clinched the subscription fund by marching on foot from one to another of all the well-to-do households in New York and applying to each his cheerful personal solicitation.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1930 Century Association Yearbook