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Alva Erskine Belmont (née Smith; January 17, 1853 – January 26, 1933), known as Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896, was an American multi-millionaire socialite and women's suffrage activist. She was noted for her energy, intelligence, strong opinions, and willingness to challenge convention.
The Duchess of Marlborough, c. 1903, by Paul César Helleu Determined to secure the highest-ranking mate possible for her only daughter, a union that would emphasize the preeminence of the Vanderbilt family, Alva engineered a meeting between Consuelo and the indebted, titled Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, chatelain of Blenheim Palace.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the founder of the Vanderbilt business dynasty. The progenitor of the Vanderbilt family was Jan Aertszoon or Aertson (1620–1705), a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht, Netherlands, who emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland as an indentured servant to the Van Kouwenhoven family in 1650.
Alva Vanderbilt at her official opening of the chateau in March 1883, held with a masquerade ball for 1000 guests and reportedly costing $3 million. The mansion was built for William Kissam Vanderbilt , second son of William H. Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam from 1878 to 1882. [ 4 ]
Photograph of Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt, wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, at Alva's 1883 Ball as 'Electric Light'. Gown by Charles Frederick Worth. Photographed by José Maria Mora. Portrait of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, husband of Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt, by John Singer Sargent, 1890.
The Wilsons' residence at 3 East 64th Street.. In 1883, wealthy socialite Alva Vanderbilt, the then wife of railroad tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt, planned an elaborate masquerade ball for 1,000 guests (reportedly costing $3 million) to celebrate the opening of her new home at 660 Fifth Avenue, known as the William K. Vanderbilt House.
Construction was still underway when Oliver Belmont died, and Alva announced that she would build an addition that was an exact reproduction of the Gothic Room in Belcourt Castle, to house her late husband's collection of medieval and early Renaissance armor. The room, dubbed The Armory, measured 85 by 24 feet (25.9 by 7.3 m) and was the ...
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style.