Narcissa Cox Vanderlip (1880-1966), born Mabel Narcissa Cox in Quincy, IL, dropped out of the University of Chicago in 1903 to wed millionaire Frank A. Vanderlip (1864-1937). He was a blacksmith’s son whose financial genius made him an editor at the Chicago Tribune, then assistant secretary at the U.S. Treasury, then head of the National City Bank of New York – today’s Citibank. After their marriage, Narcissa became a noted suffragist, social progressive, and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. She and Frank founded the country’s first Montessori school in 1913, shortly before Frank led a team of investors to purchase around 16,000 acres of the Palos Verdes peninsula from Jotham Bixby‘s son George in 1913. Their son Kelvin Cox Vanderlip (1912-1956) grew up to preside over the Palos Verdes Corporation, which developed Rolling Hills and Portuguese Bend. He named Narcissa Drive in 1948; Vanderlip Drive was christened a few years later. Narcissa Cox Vanderlip kept her primary residence in New York but donated 3.5 acres of land for PV’s landmark Wayfarers Chapel, designed by Lloyd Wright and dedicated in 1951. Vanderlip heirs finally sold the family’s 1926 estate on Vanderlip Drive in 2020.
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