Donaldson was born on June 15, 1800 in Fayetteville, North Carolina where he also grew up. He was the eldest of six children born to Sarah Donaldson and Robert Donaldson Sr., a Scottish born merchant who had consolidated his business at the trading center on Cape Fear River. Among his siblings was brother James Donaldson, and sister, Joanna Donaldson, was married to Dr. Oliver Bronson, "heir to a wealthy Connecticut financier, banker, and real estate speculator." His sisters attended Mordecai Female Academy in Fayetteville. Young Donaldson was orphaned at the age of eight and was sent, along with his younger siblings, to live with family members nearby. In 1818, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After his graduation, he traveled for five months through the mid-Atlantic and in 1820, he traveled to England, Scotland, and France. While in London, he received an inheritance of $300,000 from the estate of Samuel Donaldson, his bachelor uncle who had owned a prosperous commission house. In 1821, he had his portrait painted by Charles Robert Leslie.
Career
After returning to Fayetteville, he built the Lafayette Hotel, in anticipation of the March 4 and 5, 1825 visit by General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette to the town named in his honor on during Lafayette's grand tour of the United States. In the early 1820s, he relocated to New York City and began working as a banker. He returned to North Carolina in 1828 where he married, and with his wife and younger brother, James, and two sisters, they all moved to New York City. Once in New York, he became a patron of young artists and writers of the Romantic movement. In his 1837 book, Rural Residences, Donaldson's friend and architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, acknowledged Donaldson's support by describing him as "an ardent amateur of the rural arts." Downing also dedicated his 1847 book, Cottage Residences: Or, A Series of Designs for Rural Cottages and Cottage Villas, and their Gardens and Grounds adapted to North America. to Donaldson. He was friends with many prominent painters of the Hudson River School, including Asher Brown Durand, owned several important artworks including Gypsying Party by Leslie, The School of Athens, a copy of Raphael's fresco made by Morse for Donaldson in 1831, some Italian paintings, portraits, and several Dutch landscapes.
Personal life
In 1828, Donaldson was married to Susan Jane Gaston. She was the daughter of William Gaston, a judge and U.S. Representative from North Carolina, and his second wife, Hannah Gaston. Donaldson wanted to collect and publish his father-in-law's correspondence and writings while Gaston was living, but he declined. Together, they were the parents of:
Robert Donaldson III, who died in Pueblo, Colorado in February 1872.
William Gaston Donaldson
Eliza Donaldson, who did not marry.
Isabel Donaldson, who married her cousin, Robert Donaldson Bronson.
Mary Susan Donaldson
In 1845, Donaldson was stated to be worth $200,000. Donaldson died at Edgewater on June 18, 1872 in Barrytown, New York.
Residences
In 1827, Donaldson purchased 15 State Street in Manhattan that overlooked the Battery. The home was previously owned by Archibald Gracie and was the site of Herman Melville's birth in 1819. Donaldson hired his friend, architect Alexander Jackson Davis to remodel the home and included decorative sculptures by John Frazee, paintings by Samuel F. B. Morse and Charles Robert Leslie and furniture by Duncan Phyfe. He owned the house until 1842 when he decided to live at Blithewood year-round.
Blithewood
In the 1835, he left Manhattan and purchased Annandale, a estate on the Hudson River from John Church Cruger. Cruger was the son-in-law of Stephen Van Rensselaer) and father of Stephen Van Rensselaer Cruger. Donaldson renamed the estate "Blithewood". The property was originally part of the Schuyler patent. In 1795 John Armstrong Jr. purchased a part of the Van Bentheusen farm, and converted the existing barn into a two-story twelve-room Federal style home. Donaldson hired his friend Alexander Jackson Davis to turn the home into the rural Gothic style, and hired friend and horticulturist and landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing to build an English garden with winding roads, waterfalls, and bridges. In 1853, he sold part of Blithewood to John Bard, who maintained the home and landscape and donated a portion of the estate to found St. Stephen's College. In 1899, after Bard's death, Andrew C. Zabriskie purchased the remaining estate, and hired the architect Francis L. V. Hoppin to raze Blithewood and build a new mansion, also known as Blithewood, which stands to this date.
Edgewater
In 1853, he purchased the Edgewater estate in Barrytown, New York after the death of its original owner, Rawlins Lowndes Brown, from Brown's widow, Margaretta Brown. In 1902, the executor of the Donaldson estate sold the house to Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler. Years later, it was owned by writer Gore Vidal and financier Richard Jenrette.
