Alva Vanderbilt Belmont: Unlikely Champion of Women's Rights

2. Every Inch a General (Including Images)

21 2 • Every Inch a General Becoming a Vanderbilt provided Alva the opportunity to engage both literally and figuratively in a wide variety of construction projects . The most tangible of them were the houses that the fortune she now had access to made it possible for her to build on Long Island, in New York City, and in Newport, Rhode Island.1 But she also defined motherhood as a kind of “constructive work” that demanded that she devote herself to building her children’s characters and providing them with the “equipment” she thought they would need to succeed in the life she planned for them.2 She spent an astonishing amount of time quite self-consciously exploiting the press in an effort to make herself into a social celebrity. And she attributed her desire to build a strong woman’s rights movement both at home and abroad to her constructive instincts.3 Alva traced her passion for architecture and engineering to her childhood. She claimed that one of her first memories was of lying on the floor of her father’s library building houses out of his books. “I can remember the sustained absorption with which I planned the passage ways, doors, windows and rooms of my book houses,” she said.4 During her sojourn in Paris in the 1860s, she recalled the pleasure she derived from sitting on park benches sketching the outlines of the buildings she saw before her.5 And during a summer spent in Newport, she remembered recruiting her friends to help build a stone bridge from the shoreline of the Yzanga house to a small rock island jutting out from the shallow water nearby. She had fond memories of 22 | Alva Vanderbilt Belmont patiently tugging and pulling huge boulders so that they could serve as the building materials for the structure. She and her construction team did not just line up the stones to serve as a pathway across the water. Instead, they took what they knew of engineering into account so that their bridge “had a base and was built up with supports.” When they were finished, they could easily make their way across to the island without getting wet. She was immensely proud of that bridge and credited its construction with teaching her to appreciate the value of good workmanship. She was heartbroken when, as a summer storm lashed the coastline, she had to watch the stone structure give way before the fury of the thundering waves.6 After Alva married, she and Willie K. lived comfortably in the 44th Street brownstone his father had given them. But they were wealthy only by association. All of that changed when the Commodore died in January 1877 and left Alva’s husband $3 million.7 With part of the money, they purchased 900 acres on Long Island near the town of Islip and hired Richard Morris Hunt to design and supervise the building of an English Tudor-style country house intended to serve as a hunting lodge. They named it Idlehour.8 It was Alva’s first opportunity to indulge her passion for construction to build something permanent. Desperate to find an outlet for her creative instincts, Alva found in Hunt a perfect partner. Living and traveling in Europe had provided her with an appreciation of art and architecture. And an adventuresome spirit and desire for attention encouraged her to experiment with both architectural style and interior design. She now had the money to pay for the very best materials and workmanship. And Hunt had both the technical training to take her ideas and give them physical form as well as the patience to put up with her volatile temperament. As they worked together, Alva developed enormous respect for Hunt, who became both her teacher and her friend. They did not always get along. Their “word battles,” as she called them, were legendary . They argued over both design and construction. But her affection and respect for him never wavered. The hours they spent together in his office pouring over house plans were some of the most enjoyable in her life. In Hunt, she found a creative mind, a gifted technician, an engaging companion, and an intellectual equal.9 Every Inch a General | 23 Hunt had barely turned over the keys to Idlehour when Alva began planning a new city residence to be built on Fifth Avenue.10 She was unhappy living in a...