Marble House c 1892 Newport RI Tour the Vanderbilt Cottage History Bites New England

While the massive Corinthian columns suggest ancient Rome, the setting is in fact southern Rhode Island and the circa 1892 Marble House. William Vanderbilt built Marble House as a 39th birthday present for his wife, Alva. It was, according to the House Museum, a social and architectural landmark that set the pace for Newport's subsequent transformation from a quiet summer colony of wooden houses to the legendary resort of opulent Gilded Age mansions. With 50 rooms and over 500,000 cubic feet of marble, Marble House was once considered the most lavish house in America, though in true Newport fashion it was still called a cottage. Marble House, according to Trudy Cox, Executive Director of the Preservation was the vision of Alva Vanderbilt, a woman of great ambition and strong opinions, determined to make her mark on society. Alva considered herself a member of a new American aristocracy, Cox notes, and the house she built was nothing less than her royal palace. Wed to Alva Erskine Smith in 1875, he was heir to over 60 million dollars of the Vanderbilt Railroad fortune. William was equally famous for his world-class racing horses and as a yachting enthusiast who financed contenders for the America's Cup. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt and decorated by Jules Allard, Marble House quickly became a symbol of Alva's influence and a foundation for the powerful role she would later play on the national stage as a champion of women's rights. This room is lined in rose-colored marble imported from Algeria in North Africa. The Vanderbilt's daughter Consuelo wrote about the dining room in her memoirs. Every day she and her two young brothers sat down in this palatial room to have lunch, surrounded by images of European royalty. The heavy chairs, Consuelo recalls, required a footman's help to get them near the table. Note the crease marks at the center of the canvas, caused by its rather hasty departure from France. The chairs, notes the house museum, were inspired by those used by King Louis XIV. Each weighs 75 pounds, with the armchairs at either end 100 pounds. King Louis had solid silver furniture in his palace. Alva Vanderbilt's designer, Jules Allard, ordered her chairs in bronze covered in gold. An ally of King Louis XIV, the duke married twice, had a number of mistresses, and was known, according to Preservation Society curator Paul Miller, for his prowess in salon life as much as on the battlefield. The duke decided that he needed a new young wife with ties to the royal family. She was a member of an aristocratic family and was 32 years younger than the duke. After two years of marriage, she and the duke separated in 1706. Alva always ate lunch with her children. Conversation was in French, the children's first language. There was always wine on the table, said Alva. I did not feel I ought to forbid them anything I had. I found my whole expression in satisfaction for the heart's hunger in art and in my children, Alva continues. I therefore dedicated the best years of my life to rearing, influencing, and developing those three little beans who are my links with the future. Like many girls of her class at this time, Consuelo's childhood was much more restricted. Sitting up straight was one of the crucial tests of ladylike behavior, she recalled. A horrible instrument was devised, which I had to wear when doing my lessons, she continued. It was a steel rod which ran down my spine and strapped to my waist and over my shoulders. Another strap went around my forehead to the rod, Consuelo said. However, I probably owe my straight back to those many hours of discomfort. This room served as a small private museum featuring Emile Gavet's collection of gothic art. Gavet collected religious statuary, illuminated manuscripts, chalices, gold watches, and an unusual series of portraits done in wax. The room, according to the house museum, held a special significance for Alva Vanderbilt, as America at this time did not yet have the large public museums that we do today. If you wanted to learn about gothic art, you had to arrange a private visit to Marble House. According to Alva, the various parts of the room were designed in Paris and executed here. The ceiling, stone mantelpiece, and even the wood for the floor was imported. It was all shipped to Newport in huge crates and put back together at Marble House, piece by piece. It was also in the gothic room where Consuelo Vanderbilt reluctantly accepted a marriage proposal from the English Duke of Marlborough. It was Alva Vanderbilt who had chosen the man to marry her 18-year-old daughter, Consuelo. By marrying her, the duke gained a much-needed 10 million dollars to help save his family's ancestral home, and Alva gained a duchess for a daughter. Unfortunately, notes the house museum, Consuelo was in love with someone else and secretly engaged. Reflecting on her secret engagement, Consuelo wrote, I had no chance of getting any word to my fiancee. My mother declared that she would not hesitate to shoot him should I decide to run away with him. Depicted with the duke and duchess are their two sons, John, the 10th Duke of Marlborough, and Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill. Consuelo wasn't the only one reluctant about the marriage. The duke had someone else he wanted to marry as well. Alva wanted to secure for her daughter the one thing that money couldn't buy, a title, said Caitlin Emery, research and interpretation coordinator with the Preservation Society of Newport County. It was at a time, she continues, when the European aristocracy was falling down and you saw a lot of the great houses, especially in England, falling into disrepair and families needing more money. Consuelo's husband was a close friend of his first cousin, Churchill. They were people of their station, says Emery. They had to think about the good of the family. It was indeed a little bit of a business deal. What better setting for gilded age entertaining than a completely gilded room? It's entirely covered in 22 carat gold. On the night of August 25th, 1895, this room was the setting for a ball in honor of the Duke of Marlborough. Consuelo Vanderbilt, his future bride, led the cotillion in a magnificent white gown. 300 guests filled Marble House and spilled out onto the lawns outside. While the rest of Newport was sunk in darkness, lit only by flickering gaslight, Marble House, according to the house museum, was ablaze with the latest invention, electric lights. It was a perfect night, Alpha Vanderbilt recalled, and the house and grounds, lovely in the moonlight, provided a setting of almost unreal beauty for one of the most beautiful balls I've ever given. Marble House's superintendent, William Gilmore, was also at the ball, and the next morning he wrote in his work diary, everything went off okay. Three bands kept playing constantly. It was over at 5 a.m. Some had to be taken home as their navigation was somewhat uncertain, especially the gentler sex. I got to bed about six o'clock, tired out. Architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the hall of Marble House as a perfect cube, the house museum notes, and here the visitor is right in the center, the perfect place to take it all in. This is one of seven bedrooms and six bathrooms on the second floor. William K. Vanderbilt became head of the Vanderbilt family when his older brother, Cornelius, died in 1899. He oversaw building the present-day New York Grand Central Terminal, but the life of a railroad tycoon was not for him. Slowly, he handed direct control of the Vanderbilt financial empire over to professional managers. He once told a reporter, my life was never destined to be happy. Inherited wealth is a real handicap to happiness. It is as certain a death to ambition as cocaine is to morality. Alva Vanderbilt created a lilac fantasy bedroom for herself, that is, in the words of the house museum, nothing less than a setting for a fairy tale princess. Her room is flounced and festooned with garlands, nymphs, and cherubs. Her throne-like bed sits on a raised platform. I was the first of my set to marry a Vanderbilt, said Alva, and the first to divorce one. Up to that time, divorce had been the prerogative solely of actresses. For a woman of my social standing, Alva continued, to apply for a divorce from one of the richest men in the United States, for any cause, was an unheard of and glaring defiance of custom. Mr. Vanderbilt begged me to consent instead to a separation, but this I refused to do, she said. I longed to be a pioneer in my class. I wanted to be a sort of female knight rescuing other women. I wanted women to have the courage of an example. My divorce was the first, but was the first of many in New York society. She chose her first husband's close friend, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, a banker, socialite, and politician, who served one term as a U.S. representative from New York. After her divorce, Alva moved one block down from Marble House to Belcourt, her new husband's home. Marble House now became a very elaborate spare closet, a place to store extra gowns, family silver, and linens. The room was austere, Consuelo writes. My mother had chosen every piece of furniture, had placed every ornament according to her tastes, and had forbidden the infusion of my personal possessions. Often as I lay on the bed, she continues, I reflected that there wasn't my mother's love of me, something of the creative spirit of an artist, that it was her wish to produce me as a finished specimen, framed in a perfect setting. As the Duchess of Marlborough, Consuelo was an international figure and a member of one of the premier families of the British Empire. Consuelo became lifelong friends with her husband's cousin, Winston Churchill, who went on to become prime minister. But after 26 years, Consuelo finally ended her loveless marriage. When the Duke asked for an annulment, Alva testified on her daughter's behalf, admitting that she had forced Consuelo to marry. Her ex-husband, the Duke, still received a private income of two and a half million dollars each year for the rest of his life. In 1921, Consuelo married French aviator and industrialist Jacques Belsan. Life with him, Consuelo wrote, has brought me the profound happiness, companionship, with one equally loved and honored means. Once back-to-back dressing rooms, today the Preservation Society of Newport County displays its collection of Harold Vanderbilt's yarding trophies. In addition to this portrait, Vanderbilt was the little boy holding kittens in the portrait downstairs. Mariners know him as a three-time defender of America's Cup. He also served for many years as the president of the board of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where in the 1950s he successfully fought to desegregate the school. His way of giving back, said Laurie Osman of the Preservation Society, was to take a very controversial position that divided the board of Vanderbilt University, and that he was willing to take this on and make sure that the university that was named after his great-grandfather was associated with positive, progressive thinking. This is Marble House's only guest bedroom. The 18th century state bed still has its original lace and hand-embroidered canopy. The most famous guest who slept here was probably the 9th Duke of Marlborough, the future husband of Consuelo Vanderbilt. My brother Willie had inherited my father's charm and sweet temper, wrote Consuelo. The wistful look of his big green eyes was appealing, but he was mischievous and recklessly daring. Fast cars were Willie's passion. In fact, he set several early speed records. In 1904, he established the Vanderbilt Cup races on Long Island, the first official motorsport contest in the United States. Willie also loved natural history and anthropology, and traveled the world on his yacht to collect marine specimens and artifacts. Today, the home he built on Long Island is a museum that exhibits his treasures.