John Shaffer Phipps (August 11, 1874 – May 12, 1958) was an American lawyer and businessman who was an heir to the Phipps family fortune and a shareholder of his father-in-law's Grace Shipping Lines. He was a director of the Hanover Bank, U.S. Steel Corp. and W. R. Grace & Co.
His father was the son of English born parents who emigrated to Philadelphia in the early part of the 19th century before settling in Pittsburgh in 1845.[4][5] His father became an entrepreneur known for his business relationship with Andrew Carnegie and involvement with the Carnegie Steel Company.[5]
John Phipps amassed almost 2,500 acres (10 km2) of rolling Virginia farm lands in The Plains, Virginia, including Brenton, an 1889 stone manor house. He was a polo player and Thoroughbred racehorse owner, and the property assembled from 1928 onwards would be the site of his Rockburn Stud farm. Upon his death it passed to his son Hubert.
Phipps purchased an old 160-acre (0.65 km2) Quaker farm on Long Island where he built a large mansion with magnificent gardens that,[9] following his death, became a non-profit organization that today is known as Old Westbury Gardens and is open to the public.
In the 1920s he purchased several large properties in West Palm Beach, Florida, including one that was once used as a pineapple plantation.[10] He subdivided the property and turned it into the three largest subdivisions containing luxury residential homes in what is now the El Cid Historic District.[11] John Phipps built a home for himself he called "Casa Bendita." A large oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, it was designed in 1921 by architect Addison Mizner. Today, the property is occupied by his granddaughter, Susan Phipps Cochran, and her husband.[12]
Halcyon Days: An American Family Through Three Generations by Peggie Phipps Boegner (daughter of John Shaffer Phipps), Richard Gachot (1987) Harry N. Abrams, Inc.ISBN0-8109-1064-0