[AnAmericanMother]

I'd be suspicious of that article - it doesn't look quite right and I caught some errors right off the bat that no historian should have made. For example, "of course Vincent Astor represented the American branch of that famous English family." The Astor family was never English - they were German immigrants to the U.S. in the late 18th century whose progenitor, John Jacob, made a fortune in the fur trade. William Waldorf moved to England in a fit of pique after a quarrel with his aunt. His son Waldorf was pro-Nazi according to some. All his kids were born in the U.S. That branch of the family did snag a title for patriotic work in WWI, but they are considered a branch of the American family, not the other way around.

[Verginius Rufus]

I read something recently by William F. Buckley, Jr., about a Mrs. Astor who's now 104 years old--according to some news items I turned up on Google, this is Brooke Astor. Her grandson is claiming that his father (her son) is guilty of "elder abuse" in his treatment of her. Her fortune is $45 million. She is known for her philanthropies.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I can't vouch for that site, but I read similar articles from a dozen reputable sources when I first came across it. The one I posted was just the first-up on google. If you google the address and O.S.S. or Roosevelt, you'll get lots more substantiation.

In light of the building's terrible demise, it makes for interesting reading.