Seymour Bernard Durst (September 7, 1913 – May 15, 1995) was an American

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

investor and developer. He was the creator of the National Debt Clock.

Early life and education

Durst was born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City,Oser, Alan S. (May 20, 1995)
"Seymour B. Durst, Real-Estate Developer Who Led Growth on West Side, Dies at 81"
''The New York Times''. a son of

Joseph Durst Joseph Durst (January 15, 1882 – December 31, 1973) was an American real estate developer, founder of the Durst Organization, and patriarch of the Durst family. Early life Born to a Jewish family, Durst immigrated to the US from Gorlice, Gal ...

, a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

immigrant from

Gorlice Gorlice ( uk, Горлиці, translit=''Horlytsi'') is a city and an urban municipality ("gmina") in south eastern Poland with around 29,500 inhabitants (2008). It is situated south east of Kraków and south of Tarnów between Jasło and Nowy S� ...

, Galicia,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(present-day

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

), and Rose Friedwald. His father was a tailor who arrived penniless to the United States, eventually becoming a successful dress manufacturer and then expanding into real estate management and development. His father was also active in the Jewish community, serving on the executive committee of the Jewish Education Association and serving as president of the Hebrew Free Loan Society for 27 years. He had four siblings: Roy, Alma, Edwin and David. In 1931, Durst graduated from the

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , countr ...

Riverdale, the Bronx Riverdale is a residential neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of the Bronx. Riverdale, which had a population of 47,850 as of the 2000 United States Census, contains the city's northernmost point, at the College ...

. In 1935, he graduated from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, where he majored in accounting.

Career

In 1940, Durst joined the real estate firm, The Durst Organization, which had been founded by his father. After his father's death in 1974, Seymour became more involved in the company. The company invested in Manhattan real estate, based upon Durst's belief that one should never buy anything one cannot walk to. While on holiday in

Paris, France Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

in the early 1960s, Durst noticed a book on the history of New York City by a German author in a

mom and pop ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestati ...

bookstore. He later remarked: "I figured if a German wrote a book about NYC that was available in Paris, that this was an interesting subject indeed." Gradually, over time, what started as a hobby resulted in a private collection that came to be known as The Old York Library. Originally housed in a brownstone on East 48th street in midtown Manhattan in the 1970s, the library later moved to another brownstone at 120 East 61st Street. After Durst's death in May 1995, the library was first relocated to the City University of New York in the B. Altman Building across from the Empire State Building. Currently it resides at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Avery Architectural And Fine Arts Library where it is open to the public. Seymour Durst was vocal about his beliefs that the government should not interfere in real estate transactions. However, his son and successor, Douglas Durst, received interest-free, government-issued

Liberty Bond A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financi ...

s under Governor

George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...

, and also successfully used

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

to facilitate the family's growing real estate interests. The former subsidized the cost of building massive projects in both midtown and downtown Manhattan, and the latter enabled the Durst family to take holdout properties on West 42nd Street, where 4 Times Square and 1 Bryant Park were built. Durst was also concerned with the national debt. In 1989, Durst created and installed the National Debt Clock on a Durst Organization property in order to draw attention to the then $2.7 trillion debt. For a time, the clock had to be temporarily shut down in order to add another digit as the debt continued to climb.

Personal life

In 1940, he married Bernice Herstein. They had four children: * Robert Durst (19432022) – accused of three separate murders (acquitted in one on the grounds that the killing was

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force ...

but convicted of tampering with evidence by dismembering the corpse), which are fictionalized in the 2010 movie '' All Good Things'', and the subject of a 2015 HBO series ('' The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst'') As well as an episode of '' Law & Order'' and two episodes of '' Law and order SVU''. Robert Durst was arrested in 2015 for the alleged murder of Susan Berman and was convicted on September 17, 2021. * Douglas Durst (born 1944) – the present chairman of The Durst Organization * Wendy Durst Kreeger – philanthropist and writer * Thomas Durst – philanthropist and writer Bernice Herstein Durst (1918–1950) died in 1950 at the age of 32 as a result of falling or jumping off the roof of their family home in Scarsdale. It was never determined if the death was an accident or a suicide. Their son Robert has said that he witnessed the event; his brother, Douglas, has stated that none of the children witnessed the accident. Durst never remarried.

Legacy

After Durst's death, his son Douglas and nephew Jonathan (the son of his brother David) became more involved in the family business, The Durst Organization.

References

External links