Olympe Hériot

Zacharie Olympe Hériot , known as “the commander Hériot”, is a business man and French philanthropist born with Essoyes (Aube) on June 5th 1833 and died in the Boissière-School (Yvelines) on July 22nd 1899.

Biography

Olympe Hériot is the second wire of Claude Hériot (1802-1855), merchant of wine, and his wife born Virginia Bertrand. It enters to the military special school of Saint-Cyr military school on May 16th 1853. Named second lieutenant on January 31st 1855, it is promoted lieutenant on May 21st 1859, then captain on August 10th 1868. During the war of 1870, it is made prisoner with Strasbourg then interned with Rastatt. After the war, it is affected with Foix (Ariège) as captain adjudant major (major).

October 26th 1875 with Ax-the-Thermal baths (Ariège), it marries in first weddings Malvina Boyé. This first union will remain without posterity. His wife dies on May 8th 1883.

In 1879, with died of his/her older brother Auguste, founder of the Department stores of Louvre, deceased without posterity, then their mother a few months later, it inherits its fortune and takes the direction of the company, initially associated with Alfred Chauchard, cofounder, then only starting from 1885. In June 1880, it obtains its change in Paris with the staff and resigns of the army in 1881.

In 1884, it founds a military orphanage close to Rambouillet (Yvelines), with Boissière, become the Boissière-School, in the park of its castle.

Obsessed by the desire to found a family, Olympe Hériot remarie on August 24th 1887 with a saleswoman of the Stores of Louvre, Cyprienne Dubernet, with which it already had two natural but recognized children. From this union are born in all four children of which three will survive until the adulthood:

Auguste-Olympe says Auguste II (1886-1951)
Olympe-Charles says Olympe II (1887-1953)
Virginia (1890-1932), celebrates navigatrice (Viscountess François Haincque de Saint-Senoch)
Jean (1897-1899), died in low age.

In 1888, the first signs of mental derangement, perhaps of syphilitic origin, force the commander Hériot to give up the direction of the Department stores of Louvre. In 1892, it stands as a candidate to the municipal elections in his birthplace of Essoyes and is elected mayor on May 15th 1892, then general adviser on February 12th 1893. He resigns of his mandate of mayor in 1893, represents himself and is re-elected, then resigns a few weeks again later, and also gives up his mandate of general adviser in the first quarter 1894.

He dies in 1899 with Boissière. He leaves a holographic will instituting his wife as sole legatee, made deduction of the share réservataire ghost to his children. He is buried with Boissière in an impressive mausoleum, built by his widow. The Monument with the Commander Olympe Hériot , marble of 1906, is a work of Antonin Carlès (1851-1919), Ecole Hériot. With the Field Of Honor out of stone of 1894 and the same artist is in the Castle of the Boissière-School.

Properties

With the difference of his/her older brother, who had with his death only few real goods, Olympe Hériot, reached by certain delusions of grandeur, was a compulsif builder.

End 1883, it buys to the heirs to the baron Gras of Boissière the Château of Boissière to Boissière (Yvelines), with a field of 780 hectares which it will increase to 1.200 hectares. It makes it transform by the architect Georges Tersling, who remakes in particular the near total of the interior decoration. It also makes transform the park, decorated with bronze or marble statues.

In 1882, Olympe Hériot makes shave the Villa Stoltz, acquired by his/her brother with the Vésinet (Yvelines) in 1874, it to replace by a new residence, itself demolished towards 1887 to build the Hériot Villa, which one said as vast as the town hall of Versailles and which was destroyed little before the First World War.

Olympe Hériot hardly uses this residence, preferring the castle to him which it makes build with Essoyes (Aube), cradle of its family, between 1890 and 1892. Work completed with Essoyes is immense, in particular the construction of spectacular stables and a gigantic castle.

In Paris, Olympe Hériot acquires in 1894 a private mansion 8 Rue Euler (VIIIe), near the Fields-Élysées.

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