Edward Howland Robinson Green

Edward Howland Robinson "Ned" Green (August 22, 1868 – June 8, 1936), also known as Colonel Green, was an American businessman, the only son of the miser Hetty Green (the "Witch of Wall Street"). In the late 19th century, he became a political ally in the Republican Party of William Madison McDonald, a prominent African-American politician.

After his mother's death in 1916 and his inheritance of half her fortune, Green built a mansion in Round Hill, Massachusetts. He was noted for his stamp and coin collections.

Edward H. Green with his wife.

Edward Green was the first of two children of Hetty and Edward Henry Green. His sister Harriet Sylvia Ann Howland Green Wilks, called Sylvia, was born in 1871. Their mother amassed a fortune through her business dealings and was known as a miser.

Ned broke his leg as a child, and Hetty first tried to have him admitted to a free clinic for the poor. Charles Slack, her biographer, said that she was recognized, and she agreed to pay for the medical services. She also sought other doctors for help for Ned, while trying home remedies. The boy's leg did not heal properly and, after years of unsuccessful treatment, had to be amputated. Ned had to use a cork prosthesis. He grew to 6'4" (1.93 m) and 300 lb. (136 kg) as an adult.

Green attended private schools, and then graduated from Fordham College. He later studied real estate law.

In 1893, Green was assigned by his mother to manage the Texas Midland Railroad, which she had acquired by foreclosure. He went to Terrell, Texas and turned the ailing enterprise into "a model railroad boasting the first electrically-lighted coaches in the State." This was only one of many business ventures in which Green succeeded.

Green was also active in state politics. In 1896, he began a long-lasting political partnership with William Madison McDonald, an African-American leader of the Black and Tan faction of the Republican Party from Fort Worth. In 1910, though a Republican, Green was made "a Colonel on the staff of a Democratic Governor of Texas".

In contrast to his mother, Green spent lavishly and partied. He surrounded himself with attractive young women, who were well paid for their services. As Hetty strongly opposed his marrying, he waited until after her death in 1916 to wed his longtime companion Mabel E. Harlow, a prostitute.

Colonel Green's mansion at Round Hill with Buzzards Bay in the foreground.

He and his sister Sylvia each inherited half of their mother's fortune of $150 million or more. In addition to the various other homes he already owned, after his mother's death, Green built a mansion in Massachusetts, Round Hill, and another on Star Island. The Round Hill mansion was designed by the Anglo-American architect Alfred C. Bossom and completed in 1921 at a cost of $1.5 million.

After his death in 1936, Green's widow and his sister fought over his estate, estimated at the time as $44,384,500. Green had persuaded Mabel to sign a prenuptial agreement, which limited her to a $1500 monthly stipend, but she challenged it in court. She eventually settled for $500,000.

Green is known to philatelists for forming one of the great collections of postage stamps of the early 20th century, exceeded in size and value only by that of King George V. In 1918, he purchased the sheet of Inverted Jenny stamps from the dealer Eugene Klein for $20,000. On Klein's advice, he broke the sheet up into blocks. He put one stamp in a locket he gave to his wife.

To numismatists, Green is known for his extensive coin collection. Most notably, he was one of the original owners of all five of the 1913 Liberty Head Nickels known to exist.

He brought one of the first automobiles into Texas, "a two-cylinder St. Louis Gas Car surrey, designed by George Norris [sic - the correct name is Dorris]", and is reputed to have been involved in the first car accident in the state, when the car was forced off the road into a ditch by a farm wagon in October 1899 in Forney, Texas. He eventually owned a large fleet of cars, many modified with special transmissions on account of his prosthetic leg.

In 1924, Green rescued the last American wooden whaling vessel of the 19th century, the bark Charles W. Morgan, and exhibited her, embedded in sand, at Round Hill. Green was the grandson of Edward Mott Robinson, one of the ship's earlier owners. The Marine Historical Association bought her in 1941, when she became a showpiece of Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut.

In 1927, he opened an airfield on his property, and kept the field well-maintained according to people who flew there. Following his son's kidnapping, Charles Lindbergh landed on the property in order to investigate a lead about his whereabouts.

Radio WMAF

Photo of Green's house, with the WMAF antenna in the foreground

In 1923, (as continuous-wave broadcasting became available), Col. Green founded WMAF, a radio station with the tag, "The Voice from Way Down East". MIT's President, Samuel W. Stratton and the Department of Electrical Engineering's new Communications Division were invited to experiment with the new technology, and the department was initially financed by Green.

In 1923, Green paid AT&T $60,000 for a permanent hookup between WEAF New York and WMAF, creating the first radio network.

Professor Edward L. Bowles set out to determine the signal strength and radiation patterns of different antenna arrays in 1926. Round Hill's radio station (which included an early radio telescope, built on the foundation of a lighthouse) followed Donald B. MacMillan's and Admiral Richard E. Byrd's polar expeditions, tracked the Graf Zeppelin dirigible during its maiden transatlantic flight, and was the sole communication link for areas devastated by the Vermont floods in 1927.

Van de Graaff

In 1933, Round Hill was the site of Robert J. Van de Graaff's electrical experiments. Van de Graff had been brought to MIT from Princeton in 1931 to develop a high voltage research facility. He built a 40-foot (12 m) tall Van de Graaff generator in an abandoned airship hangar on Round Hill. The purpose was to provide the energy to accelerate subatomic particles to bombard atomic nuclei. The machine became operational in December 1933. It was capable of operating at 5,000,000 volts. After it became obsolete, the generator was donated in 1956 to the Museum of Science, Boston, and circa 2011 the generator continues to function as a major exhibit.