Powerhouse

In late April of 1875, Alva married into one of the wealthiest and well-known families in the nation, at the time. Alva married, and had three children with, William Kissam Vanderbilt, grandson of the well-known Cornelius Vanderbilt. William’s father gifted the newlyweds a house on 44th Street in New York, a popular street of wealthy individuals and extravagant homes. Alva then began pursuing a lifelong passion of architecture and decorative art. She designed most of the interior of their home. Alva once spoke of a childhood memory of her and her friends building a bridge as children one summer. She said, “they took what they knew of engineering into account so that their bridge had a base and was built up with supports.” This story shows how architecture and design have always been a passion in Alva’s life. After designing the interior of their house, Alva decided to throw a socialite costume ball. Many people said this ball was “the most ornate party in American social history.” Alva used this ball to prove “establish herself as a social equal” since others in the New York social elite did not consider the Vanderbilt family socially elite.

Even though Alva and William were living quite lavishly in their gifted house, they were only wealthy by association. However, that drastically changed after Alva’s father died and left her with $3 million. With this money, Alva and William bought a 900-acre lot on Long Island where they built a country house, intended on being a hunting lodge, under the design and supervision of Richard Morris Hunt. This house was named Idlehour and was Alva’s “first opportunity to indulge her passion for construction to build something permanent.”

Barely after finishing Idlehour, Alva and her now friend, Hunt began one of Alva’s most proud and dedicated projects. In 1881, Alva commissioned the construction of an elaborate French Chateau on Fifth Avenue in New York, costing about $3 million.

Then in 1885, after William’s father died and left Alva and William $65 million, Alva and Hunt began, yet again, another project, Marble House. This third house was built in Rhode Island, and, surprisingly, was one of the smallest houses on Bellevue Avenue.

Soon after finishing Marble House, Alva divorced William in 1895, and sued him for Marble House because he was cheating her with a mistress from England. After the divorce, which in those times, a woman divorcing her husband was unheard of, she kept Marble House and Idlehour plus a significant amount of money from William. Alva went on to marry Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont in 1896. Their marriage was happy and lasted until Oliver’s death in 1908.

After his death, Alva began working in suffrage. “Woman suffrage became another attainable goal for Alva to pursue with all her considerable wit and wealth, just as one of her male contemporaries might pursue a railroad acquisition.” Alva “brought vital financial support, publicity, and, most of all, bold ideas to her cause.” National American Women’s Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA) headquarters were in Warren, Ohio, far from the public eye, so Alva decided to bring them closer to the public eye and herself. Hence, Alva rented the seventeenth floor of a Fifth Avenue office building for NAWSA to move their headquarters to because she believed moving to New York would “increase opportunities for suffragists to share resources and collaborate on strategy.”

Alva Belmont is a major part of American history, specifically suffragist history, even if textbooks so not mention her. She was a woman who fought for suffrage, and a woman who pursued her childhood passions. Alva is known for her work in suffrage, however, her work in architecture, at the time, was so rare and inspiring. Alva is the American Dream; she made a difference in the public while pursuing passions that society declared unfit for a woman, but most importantly, doing so while not caring what other people thought.