After the Palace - Some of Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill Balsan's post-Blenheim homes
Nearly everyone is familiar with the story of Consuelo Vanderbilt. The epitome of the American “Dollar Princess”, forced into a loveless marriage with Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough in 1895 by her ruthless mother in a “cash for title” exchange. Not surprisingly, the marriage didn’t last, with the couple formally separating in 1906 (followed by a legal divorce around 1920 freeing them to remarry, and an annulment some years later for good measure! One immediate effect of Consuelo’s freedom was her no longer being tied to Blenheim Palace, the massive seat of the Dukes of Marlborough family that her dowry helped restore and maintain.
To follow is a look at some (but not all) of the places she called home after vacating the palace in England, France and America.
England
At the time of their separation, Consuelo and Sunny’s two sons were aged 8 and 9. While they agreed to share custody according to the terms of the separation, she could not bring the children to visit the United States until they reached their majorities (age 21). That meant that Consuelo would still be spending a good deal of her time in England over the next decade or so. Being popular in society and deeply involved in a number of charitable endeavors there, it was not a challenge.
Sunderland House
While not a palace, Sunderland House, Consuelo’s London home was palatial, at the very least.
Built as a gift from her father (after his attempts to purchase Marlborough House for her and Sunny from the Crown were rebuffed )she kept it after the separation. Its ballroom, reputed modeled after the Galerie de glace at Versailles, was so long that two orchestras had to be placed at either end of the space during parties in order for music to fill the room.
After the massive building was requisitioned by the British government in 1918 to house various agencies, Consuelo moved into a smaller townhouse on Portland place with her younger son Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill, never to move back in. After the war, papers announced its sale on several occasions, to an Automobile club in one instance and Viscount Furness in another (who would later figure tangentially in a other Vanderbilt family scandal after his marriage to the former Thelma Morgan, onetime mistress of the Prince of Wales, and Gloria Vanderbilts maternal aunt) in the early 1920s. Whoever the eventual purchaser was, by the 1930s it had ceased to function as a private residence. Severely damaged by bombing during World War 2, it was demolished afterward.
Crowhurst Place, Surrey
While happy to leave Blenheim, Consuelo was in need of a new country place. She leased a small manor house a short distance from London named Crowhurst Place.
The previous tenant had been amateur architect George Crawley (remembered today for designing Old Westbury Gardens, the Phipps former country seat on Long Island) transformed the previously semi-derelict manor house surrounding a fifteenth-century great hall into a rambling moated, half-timber Tudor fantasy.
Consuelo called him back to enlarge the house on two occasions, first with a new service wing followed by a new sitting room and garden room several years later. (she developed a passion for gardening while there, greatly embellishing the grounds).
The Dutch Garden added by Consuelo
She entertained frequently, mixing intellectuals, artists and reformers with aristocrats, and politicians in a gracious yet relaxed manner, free from the rigorous protocol of formal ducal dinners and house parties dictated by her previous role as chatelaine of Blenheim Place.
The relatively cozy great hall of Crowhurst (left) compared to the Baroque formality of Blenheim’s great hall (right)
Leaving Crowhurst when she moved to France, the house is still standing today.
photo: Carl Ayling
France
Consuelo and her father William K Vanderbilt at the races in France
Consuelo’s attention soon began to turn towards France, where her mother Alva Belmont wintered on the Riviera and her father had essentially moved, building a Louis XII style manor at Carrieres-sous-Poissy in 1907 and establishing a famed racing stable and stud farm in Normandy with his second wife, the former Anne Harriman Sands Rutherfurd. Consuelo would soon join them with a home of her own there. In addition, a certain French aviator had caught her eye and eventually her heart, in the form of one Colonel Jacques Balsan.
9 Rue Charles-Floquette
Consuelo had a house built at 9 Rue Charles Floquet in 1912, paid for out of her father’s endless coffers. Designed by architect Rene Sergent, it was a faithful reproduction of an 18th-century hôtel particulier, combined with the latest modern amenities.
The mansion was surrounded by similar haute bourgeoisie residences, and had a garden that backed onto the Champ de Mars. Named the hôtel de Marlborough, it would become the Paris base for the Balsan’s after they wed in June 1921. It was sold to the Indian Government after Word War 2, and today functions as the official residence of the Indian Ambassador to France
Villa Lou Seuil
The Balsans began building a villa at Eze sur Mer in early 1921, before they officially wed. Collaborating with Achille Duchêne, a landscape architect who had designed the water gardens at Blenheim Palace, Consuelo and Jacques both took an active role in the design. Inspired by the eleventh-century Convent of Le Thoronet the building a monastery, with a cloister used as winter garden, bell-tower, and a chapel.
Furniture was shipped from Crowhurst to help furnish the home. which Consuelo later described in her memoir The Glitter and the Gold “Deep sofas heaped with cushions abounded, lamps placed near easy chairs made pleasant seats for reading, and there were writing tables in every room.
Sitting Room
There were petit point chairs fit for kings, but one sat in them unmolested; beautiful Isphahan rugs covered the floors, and the house was gay with flowers. The scent of tuberoses, lilac and lilies filled the air. When one entered the cloisters, a succession of flame-coloured azaleas was a lovely sight."
Consuelo's mother Alva Belmont soon purchased the neighboring Villa Isoletta for herself. As the south of France (then as now) was a popular spot for the rich and renowned and the Balsans entertained a stream of famous guests there, from assorted royalty, to Charlie Chaplin, to her former cousin by marriage Winston Churchill. Sold after the war, the villa was recently known as the home of Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, a daughter of Italy’s last king.
aerial contemporary view of the villa - some of the garden terrace has been replaced by a swimming pool
Château St Georges Motel
For many a gilded age socialite, possessing a luxurious Parisian mansion and a villa on the Riveria might be more than sufficient. As a former duchess and a Vanderbilt heiress, Consuelo was not your garden variety gilded age socialite however. Having relocated to France, she was in need of a country place within easy reach of Paris as well.
To that end, in 1922 Jacques and Consuelo purchased and restored Chateau st Georges Motel, an early 17th-century manor near Dreux in Normandy. Consuelo continued her charitable endeavors there, establishing a sanitorium for children and founding a hospital nearby. Winston and Clementine Churchill were regular guests.
Winston Churchill Painting the chateau in the summer of 1939, shortly before War was declared.
The painting of St Georges Motel by Winston Churchill
It was from St Georges Motel that Jacques and Consuelo joined a flood of refugees and began a treacherous journey across France after Paris fell in June 1940. Reaching Spain, they were able to secure visas and book passage on a PanAm Clipper from Lisbon to New York and Safety. Still a private residence, the chateau was recently on the market for a little over eight million dollars.
The chateau today
Contemporary interior photograph from the real estate listing
The United States
Consuelo at the Vanderbilt Cup Races
“America’s Duchess, as she had once been known, had finally come home (more or less) permanently in 1940, 45 years after her marriage to the Duke. She and Jacques initially settled into an apartment at the Waldorf Towers upon their arrival, but would soon enough have several more permanent homes stateside.
Casa Alva
There was already one residence waiting for her. In 1934, Consuelo had purchased a homestead on the southern end of Florida’s Hypoluxo Island. The property lay across the Intracoastal waterway from Eastover, her younger brother Harold Stirling Vanderbilt’s splendid villa designed by Maurice Fatio in 1930. She hired Fatio to design a home for her as well.
Casa Alva
The result Casa Alva, was a rambling mansion Consuelo would refer to as “the cottage” While the exterior appeared typically Floridian,
its interiors were very French. A granddaughter later recounted how she would occasionally call on Fatio to add another room to the mansion to accommodate some antique French paneling or boiserie she had recently bought from one of Palm Beach’s antique dealers.
Consuelo sold the estate to William Benjamin for $568,000 in 1957. who developed portions of the property. Casa Alva became the clubhouse of the exclusive Manalapan Club. In the 1980s Benjamin and his wife converted it back to a private residence for their own use,
Contemporary view of Casa Alva
later selling it in 2012 for $6,800,000, with much of the antique paneling, mantels and boiseries installed by Consuelo was still intact.
View of the drawing room in the Balsans day
the same room under the Benjamin’s ownership with paneling and wall sconces intact
Old Fields
In December 1940 the Balsans bought a thirty-room neo-Georgian mansion in East Norwich on the North Shore of Long Island from Dorothy Schiff Backer.
Inspired by early tidewater plantation homes, the house had been designed by Maurice Fatio in 1934, the same year he designed Casa Alva for the Balsans. Whether this was a factor in the Balsan’s purchase, or merely an interesting coincidence is not known. The estate included 128 acres, a separate garage building with servants quarters above, a swimming pool and a tennis court. Sold after Jacque’s death, it became the Pine Hollow Country Club,
Arnold Palmer winning the Pepsi Challenge Golf Tournament held at Pine Hollow just a few years after Consuelo left - presenting the trophy are Pepsi Chairman Al Steele and his wife Joan Crawford
with the mansion converted into the clubhouse.
1 Sutton Place South, New York City
The Balsans eventually also acquired an apartment in an exclusive building designed by Rosario Candela and built by the Phipps family at 1 Sutton Place South.
The duplex featured an elegant curved staircase, large living room, dining room, library and three maids rooms, which allowed for living in style and entertaining when they were in New York without the maintenance headaches and tax burden of owning a townhouse there. It was here that Jacques Balsan passed away in 1956. Bereaved, Consuelo kept the apartment until her own death in 1964. It was eventually purchased by Patricia Kennedy Lawford in 1966, and sold by her estate in 2007 for a little north of twelve million dollars.
Floor plan and photos from Mrs. Kennedy Lawfrod’s residency
319 East Vedado Road, Palm Beach
The Balsans bought a villa at 319 E Vedado Road in Palm Beach from heiress Audrey Emory in early 1956 to use as a new winter home.
Although Jacques died before their first season there, it became Consuelo’s winter headquarters.
Consuelo photographed by Tony Frissel in early 1964 at 319 East Vedado Road
While smaller than Casa Alva, the white neoclassical mansion built in 1940 was sufficiently impressive.
The place was sold, and its contents auctioned off after her death in 1964. Still standing, it recently sold for 5.2 million in 2012, marketed as a tear down.
View of the pool
Fortunately according to all accounts, it is being restored by its current owner.
Cara Mia, Southampton
Selling Old Fields, Consuelo bought one last home. a seven bedroom shingle-style cottage built around 1900 on Ox Pasture Road in Southampton named “Cara Mia”.
Consuelo immediately threw herself into improving the grounds and decorating the house. The fact that as an 80 year old recently widowed woman, she had the energy to tackle not one, but two new home projects (Southampton and Palm Beach) makes me believet hat despite the differences in their outward appearance and temperament, Consuelo inherited more than just a soupcon of her mother Alva’s energy and love of buildings. She even had a new drawing room added onto the house to accommodate some of antique French paneling she so loved (it might also be said that Madame Balsan “never met a boiserie she didn’t like, or buy”).
Consuelo photographed in the drawing room in 1964 by Horst for Vogue
She owned the house until her death in 1964, entertaining and maintaining her gilded age standards til the end
Conseulo’s table in Southampton, set for lunch a deux, 1964
Later named Gardenside,the house is still standing, though much of the mansion’s interior fabric dating from Consuelos time there was ripped out during later renovations.
It went on the market not too long ago for $28,000,000.
