The Vanerbilt Family is a significant American-Anglo family with Dutch origins, who were highly prominent during the 1800s because of the family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, the tenth wealthiest person in history, who created railroad and shipping empires. His descendants went on to build great Fifth Avenue mansions, Newport, Rhode Island summer cottages, and various other exclusive homes. The family members were the leaders of the high society scene and the Gilded Age, until the early 1900's, when the ten great Fifth Avenue mansions were torn down and fellow Vanderbilt homes were sold as museums and the like. The family suffered from a major downfall in prominence by the mid-1900's, known as the Fall of the House of Vanderbilt . Despite the family's downfall and major loss of fortunes, the Vanderbilts remain the seventh wealthiest family in history.