Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont House - New York City
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Alva E. Belmont Residence

477 Madison Avenue, northeast corner of 51st Street
New York, N.Y. 10022









Alva E. Belmont  
Alva E. Belmont (c.1919)  
Alva E. Belmont was born on January 17, 1853, in Mobile, Alabama, the daughter of Murray Smith, a cotton merchant. As a child, Alva summered with her parents in Newport, R.I., and accompanied them on European vacations. In 1857 the Smiths moved to New York City, where they briefly settled in Madison Square. Her father later went to Liverpool, England, to conduct business, and Alva and her mother moved to Paris, where Alva attended a private boarding school in Neuilly-sur-Seine. After the Civil War, the Smiths returned to New York, where Alva's best childhood friend, Consuelo Yznaga, introduced her to William K. Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. On April 20, 1875, he and Alva were married at Calvary Church in New York City.

As a young newlywed, Alva worked from 1877 to 1881 with architect Richard Morris Hunt to create a French Renaissance style château for her family at 660 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Determined to bring the Vanderbilt family the social status that she felt they deserved, and after being snubbed by Mrs. WIlliam B. Astor, queen of the "400" elite of New York society, Alva held a masquerade ball that cost $3 million to open the Fifth Avenue château. This forced Mrs. Astor to come calling, in order to secure an invitation to the ball for her daughter, Caroline.

William and Alva Vanderbilt purchased a Bellevue Avenue estate in Newport, Rhode Island, next door to Beechwood, the summer home of Mrs. Astor. In 1891, Richard Morris Hunt was again hired to design an oppulent Neoclassical style palace as Alva's 39th birthday present and the family's summer "cottage" retreat. Marble House cost an estimated $11 million.

In 1895, Alva shocked society when she divorced William K. Vanderbilt on grounds of his infidelities. Alva was awarded a large financial settlement, said to be in excess of $10 million, plus several of their estates, including Marble House. Not long after her sensational divorce, Alva married Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858-1908), the son of August Belmont, a banker. Oliver Belmont had been one of Willam K. Vanderbilt's best friends and often joined the Vanderbilts on cruises aboard their yachts. Alva left Marble House and moved to Belcourt Castle, Belmont's 60-room mansion at the end of Bellevue Avenue in Newport.

In 1899, Oliver H. P. Belmont purchased a large lot on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 51st Street, and hired two sons of Richard Morris Hunt, Alva's favored architect, to design a townhouse that would hold his growing collections and accomodate his wife's large-scale social events. Oliver Belmont died suddenly in 1908, following complications from an appendectomy, leaving Alva to complete the unfinished townhouse. The three-story townhouse had a pilastered limestone facade reminiscent of London's Lindsey House, and the interior rooms were an electice mix of styles decorated by leading firms of the day. While construction was underway, Alva announced that she would build an addition known as "The Armory," an exact reproduction of the Gothic Room in Belcourt Castle, to house her late huband's large collection of medieval and early Renaissance armor. The Armory, which measured 85 by 24 feet, was the largest room in the house and would also be used as a lecture hall for women's suffragists. A branching marble staircase led from the large library on the main floor to the two visible entrances of the Armory. On the north wall of the stair hall was set a stained glass window 23 feet by 18 that depicted Joan of Arc with crusader figures about her. Alva and her youngest son, Harold, took possession of the townhouse in 1909. The Armory was never used as a meeting place, however, for soon after it was finished Mrs. Belmont established a women's clubhouse at a location nearby.

Alva E. Belmont ((Stadler Photographing Company. 1911)  
Alva E. Belmont (1911)  
   
Following her husband's death, Mrs. Belmont put herself and fortune at the service of the struggle for women's suffrage and rights. Often referred to as “Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont” in suffrage literature, Alva opened Marble House to feminist groups, published articles, founded a new suffrage organization, and sponsored the 1914 tour of the English suffragist Christabel Pankhurst. From 1921 to 1933, she served as president of the National Woman's Party, during which time she lived mainly in France. Although her intrusive and aristocratic manner antagonized some of the women's rights leaders of the time, she was sincere about gaining equality for women.

In 1923, Alva sold her New York townhouse, and the next year she moved to France to be near her daughter, Consuelo. Alva would purchase and restore three elaborate villas and châteaus, the first of which was known as Villa Isoletta, located at Eze-sur-Mer and overlooking the Mediterranean along the coast of the Alpes Maritimes.

Alva Belmont suffered a stroke in the spring of 1932 that left her partially paralyzed, and she died in her Paris home on January 26, 1933. Her funeral at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City featured all female pallbearers and a large contingent of suffragists. She is interred next to Oliver H.P. Belmont in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.
           
 

Aeolian Organ, Op. 747 (1894) in the Alva E. Belmont Residence - New York City (Aeolian Company brochure)
  Tone Exits under the stairway
Aeolian Company
New York City – Opus 747 (1894)
Built by Farrand & Votey, Detroit, Mich.
Electro-pneumatic action
2 manuals, 29 stops, 30 ranks





Aeolian's Opus 747, built in 1894 at a cost of $9,750, was originally installed the next year in the Gothic Room of "Belcourt," the 52-room Louis XIII-style castle of Oliver H. P. Belmont and his wife, Alva. This was the second pipe organ to have an Aeolian nameplate—the first (Opus 728) was in the Aeolian showroom at 18 West 23rd Street in New York City—but the organ was actually built by the Farrand & Votey Company of Detroit. At Mr. Belmont's request, the Aeolian Company connected a 58-note Aeolian roll player to the organ.

After Oliver Belmont died in 1908, Mrs. Belmont had the organ moved to her New York City townhouse on Madison Avenue, where Aeolian reinstalled the organ at a cost of $10,750. The photo at right shows the opened doors for the "Tone Exits" under the stairway.
               
Great Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes, enclosed with Swell
8
   Open Diapason *
61
4
   Flauto Dolce
61
8
   Viola di Gamba
61
2 2/3
   Nazard
61
8
   Dolce
61
2
   Piccolo Harmonique
61
8
   Concert Flute
61
8
   Trumpet
61
8
   Doppel Flöte
61
8
   Clarinet
61
4
   Octave
61
    
* unenclosed
               
Swell Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed
16
   Bourdon
61
4
   Gemshorn
61
8
   Open Diapason
61
4
   Flute Harmonique
61
8
   Salicional
61
2
   Flageolet
61
8
   Aeoline
61
     Dolce Cornet III ranks
183
8
   Vox Celestis [TC]
49
8
   Oboe
61
8
   Lieblich Gedeckt
61
8
   Vox Humana
61
8
   Quintadena
61
     Tremulant  
               
Pedal Organ – 30 notes
16
   Violone
30
8
   Violoncello
30
16
   Bourdon
30
16
   Contra Bassoon
30
16
   Lieblich Gedeckt
SW
        
               
Couplers
    Great to Pedal   Great to Great 4'
    Swell to Pedal   Swell to Swell 4'
    Swell to Great 16', 8', 4'    
         
Pedal Movements
    Three affecting Great and Pedal stops
    Three affecting Swell and Pedal stops
    Crescendo and Full Organ Pedal
    Great to Pedal Reversible Coupler
    Balanced Great and Swell Pedal
           
Sources:
     "Belmont Home, Just Sold, One of the City's Palaces," The New York Times (Aug. 19, 1923).
     Kathrens, Michael C. Great Houses of New York 1880-1930. New York: Acanthus Press, 2005.
     "Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont Dies at Paris Home," The New York Times (Jan. 26, 1933).
     Smith, Rollin. The Aeolian Pipe Organ and its Music. Richmond: The Organ Historical Society, 1998.
     "Suffragist Armory at Mrs. Belmont's, The New York Times (Aug. 13, 1909).
     Trupiano, Larry. Factory Specifications for Aeolian Organ, Op. 747 (1894).

Illustrations:
     Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Portraits of Alva E. Belmont in 1911 and c.1919.
     "Views of Aeolian Pipe Organs," brochure published by the Aeolian Company: facade of Aeolian Organ, Op. 901 (1905). Courtesy James Lewis.