Southern Pacific Railroads, control that allowed him to block Collis' nephew Henry from the presidency of the Southern Pacific following Collis' death and ultimately to force the younger Huntington to sell his interests in the SP to E. H. Harriman. Speyer also worked alongside J. P. Morgan (Burlington Northern Railroad) and William K. Vanderbilt (New York Central Railroad), and worked with rail interests in Mexico, London, and the Philippines. Speyer also helped to found the Economic Club of New York in 1907 and the American Museum of Safety in 1911. He was one of the founders of the University Settlement Society of New York, the first settlement house in the United States. As treasurer he raised funds for the Society's building which was erected in 1895 and he later served as the Society's president. During World War I, Speyer and his wife formed the Aqueduct Guard Citizen's Committee to aid the troops guarding the Croton Aqueduct from the Catskills to New York City. Much of this activity was centered at Waldheim, their country home at Scarborough-on-Hudson, along which property ran a portion of that aqueduct. (The estate was sold in 1947, and subdivided into building lots for modest-priced single-family homes; while the original buildings no longer exist, a large part of the original property was home to the US headquarters of Philips Research, from 1965 to 2015.) Speyer was also the initiator and founder of the Museum of the City of New York. Among the other philanthropic and civic organizations served by Speyer were the Ellin Prince Speyer Hospital for Animals (founded in 1910 by Mrs. Speyer), the United Hospital Fund and the New York World's Fair Finance Committee. In 1937, Speyer received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Speyer was an active opponent of prohibition, and was an officer in the Association Against Prohibition. This interest interfered with his work on behalf of the Salvation Army, which was unalterably opposed to liquor in any form. See also James Speyer House Waldheim (Scarborough) their country home References Further reading Liebmann, George W. The Fall of the House of Speyer: The Story of a Banking Dynasty (I.B. Tauris, 2015) xii + 244 pp. . online review External links Time, June 13, 1938, pp. 64 and 66, and June 26, 1939, p. 73. 1861 births 1941 deaths