THE BELMONT BOYS AND GIRLS PART 2: Their 3 Sons, (and a Daughter!)

With the passing of August Belmont in 1890 and Caroline’s retirement from society, all eyes turned towards their children. The press above all was curious to see they would carry on their parents’ legacies. Flush with their inheritances, they did not disappoint.

The Belmont Siblings (clockwise from top left) August Belmont Jr., Perry Belmont, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, Fredericka Belmont Howland

August Belmont Jr. took over the helm of family firm. He continued another tradition of his father’s when the press revealed he had bought eight brood mares at the sale of his father’s Nursery Stud in 1891. Named President of the Jockey Club in 1895, and the New York Athletic Club president in 1893, he took over the operations at his parents’ Nursery Farm estate in Babylon. He and Bessie continued to live most of the time at Blemton Manor, riding with the Meadowbrook hunt, playing polo, and breeding fox terriers.

August Belmont Jr and his polo team

They were leasing Mrs. Heywood Cutting’s Mansion at 101 Fifth Avenue in 1891 for use in town, when a devastating fire broke out with Bessie and the children in residence. Fortunately, they all got out safely, and sheltered with Caroline up the block at 109 Fifth. When William Astor’s death in 1892 forced Caroline Astor into social hiatus, a few papers speculated that Caroline Belmont would naturally reassume her throne.

Despite the wishful thinking, Caroline had no interest. Her health began to decline and she died in November 1892 surrounded by her children. The papers fondly remembered her as society’s queen of a gentler, kinder era. When the sale of 109 Fifth avenue was announced not long after her death, few were surprised. The neighborhood surrounding it had become increasingly commercial and August and Caroline’s legendary mansion had also become a relic of another time.

The former Belmont mansion, covered with advertisement posters shortly before demolition

In 1893 August paid $275,000 for a large building lot uptown at Fifth Avenue and 81st street to build on, leasing a home owned by the Astor Estate at 190 Madison Avenue in fashionable Murray Hill in the interim.

August and Bessie’s NYC Home at 190 Madison was on the left end of this block of homes

Perry was residing nearby at 220 Madison Ave at the time. 

220 Madison would be at the left end of this row of houses, which were razed in the 1920s

After his service as Minister to Spain, he continued to remain an active force in the Democratic Party. A dashing man about town, he bought By-The-Sea from his parents’ estate, updating the house and gardens and becoming a popular host during the Newport seasons.

Fredericka and Samuel had given up their West 18th Street townhouse years before, first living in Philadelphia before moving to Washington DC where they took up residence in William Collins Whitney’s former mansion at 1731 Avenue I. They continued to raise horses at Belwood, their estate in upstate New York and Samuel brought a pack of fox hounds down to Maryland from there to establish a new hunt closer to Washington.

In 1895, newspapers carried a feature about the Belmont Brothers and the roles they had each assumed in fields dominated by their parents. While August Jr. was credited with carrying on the family firm and dominating the world of horse racing and Perry continued the family involvement in politics, Oliver Hazard Perry had taken over its role as a social leader. 

 Less than a decade after his messy divorce from Sallie, Oliver had become one of society’s leading bon vivants as the rigid rules that governed acceptable behavior during the 1880s were increasingly falling by the wayside. In 1891 he purchased property on Bellevue Avenue in Newport and commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design a cottage for him.

One of the many sketches Hunt prepared for Belmont Photo: Library of Congress

Inspired by a Louis XIII Hunting Lodge, it promised to be one of the more unique cottages ever built at the resort. The ground floor was to be devoted to luxurious stables for Oliver’s horses and a large carriage house separated by a courtyard. Atop them on the second floor would be a dining room, ball room, and Oliver’s bachelor apartments.

On either side of the courtyard (above) were the state-of-the-art stables and carriage house photo: Library of Congress

The Oval Dining room at Belcourt

He also owned a property in nearby Middletown named Gray Craig. In 1894 he imported dozens of exotic animals including sacred cows from India, monkeys from Hong Kong, exotic birds and other beasts in order to establish a menagerie there . He acquired many of them earlier that year while a guest on the yacht of the William K Vanderbilts as it sailed around the world. By September 1894 the Vanderbilts had separated and were headed for divorce. While the uncontested suit filed by Alva cited Willie’s infidelity as the cause of the marital break-up, it was no secret to society and the press that Alva was involved with another man, named Oliver Belmont.

Whomever did this illustration was probably were not looking to portray Alva in a flattering light

• The divorce granted in March 1895 gave Alva custody of their three children, their recently completed Newport cottage Marble House, a townhouse on East 72nd Street, and a financial settlement estimated to be worth a whopping $10,000,000. Any associated notoriety from the Vanderbilt divorce didn’t seem to dim Oliver’s popularity in the slightest. In August he hosted a large coaching party and picnic at Gray Craig, where 150 guests admired his menagerie while entertained by a Hungarian band and strolling singers. Two weeks later he officially opened Belcourt with a “bachelors’ ball”.

Monkeys and birds were brought down from Gray Craig and displayed in the villa’s courtyard, decorated with tropical plants and electric lights for the occasion. Guests danced in the second-floor gothic ballroom, which held Oliver’s collection of suits of armor and mail, some displayed astride life-sized statues of horses.

The gothic ballroom

The first supper was served at midnight in the carriage house, followed by a cotillion which featured hobby horse races, elaborate parlor games to determine dancing partners, and balls tossed by ladies from the balcony to the gentlemen below.  The favors, estimated to have set Oliver back $7,000 (the equivalent of over $200,000 today) included riding whips with silver handles, satin jockey caps, miniature horse blankets for the men, satin bags, fans, and bouquets for the women, were distributed by Oliver’s English “tiger”( a 3-foot tall las dressed as a modern cupid), assisted by “two Egyptian servants in native costume with drawn swords”.  A second supper at 2:30am concluded the festivities. On September 14th he hosted another party at Belcourt, to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie (won by his grand uncle Oliver Hazard Perry), an event he would repeat  annually.

 Oliver and Alva officially tied the knot in January 1896 (she was probably too preoccupied orchestrating her daughter Consuelo’s November 1895 marriage to the Duke of Marlborough in to do it any earlier). It was a small affair at Alva’s Seventy-second street townhouse, officiated by the Mayor of New York City. The newlyweds began their honeymoon at Belcourt before departing for Paris for an extended stay. The press snidely noted that the couple seemed to have a much better time of it than Mr. Belmont’s first honeymoon there.

 Years later Alva would famously claim she was “the first society woman to ask for a divorce”. While no doubt a trailblazer in that regard, she seemed to conveniently forget that a previous Mrs. O H P Belmont had done the same thing, over a decade earlier. Still, divorce was not yet widely accepted within the ranks of the 400. Others finding themselves in a similar situation would probably opt to maintain a low profile for several seasons or year, until things settled down. Alva, never one to back down from a fight, decided to do just the opposite. The Oliver Hazard Perry Belmonts made it known they would head from Paris to Newport in July, at the height of the season, forcing society’s hand. With two popular ex-spouses, the press eagerly looked forward to the impending awkward encounters and social snubs bound to ensue.  Whetting their pencils, they drew up lists of competing camps (real or imagined). The Vanderbilts and their circle would naturally be against the new couple, while Alva had formidable allies in her corner, including Mrs. James P Kernochan (not so well known today but a grand dame of first rank at the time) and the Oelrichs family. A series of social skirmishes in Newport left Alva bruised, some went as far as to prematurely declare her defeated.

It was far from over however. The battlefield next moved to New York and its all-important winter social season. After Alva appeared to sail through her initial public appearances without opposition, attention turned to the series of splendid private balls hosted by society’s heaviest hitters in January and February 1897. Ironically Mrs. Astor, whose daughter Carrie’s friendship with Oliver’s first wife brought about the legendary feud between their two houses a decade before, reversed course and favored the new Mrs. Oliver Belmont with a prominent place at her annual ball. Her daughter Carrie again the cause, sister in-law to Grace Wilson, whose marriage to Cornelius Vanderbilt jr had caused his family to disinherit him. By favoring Alva, Mrs. Astor publicly telegraphed her displeasure to the Vanderbilts of the treatment of her connection through marriage, at least according to the press.

 Another potential, seldom discussed reason may have stemmed from Mrs. Astor’s insistence on her daughter Charlotte Drayton’s social acceptance after her own particularly scandalous divorce. Having made several high-profile exceptions to her own rules against divorced women, perhaps she thought the time had come to normalize their position in society, lest she be seen as a hypocrite.

The Vanderbilt clan, in mourning for their matriarch Mrs. William Henry Vanderbilt found themselves in no position to retaliate socially. Instead, their prominent allies rallied around them. Heading the list was Mrs. Ogden Mills. Known as a snob amongst snobs and eager to take Alva down a peg, she had a courier sent to the city newspaper offices to ensure they knew the Belmonts omission from the guest list to her ball was no accident. The beautiful and popular Mrs. Henry Sloane whose husband’s brother was married to Emily Vanderbilt, similarly, excluded them from the housewarming ball at her stunning new townhouse on 72nd street the following week. Perhaps the most stinging snub of all came from within the Belmont family itself, when Perry left them off of the guest list for the eagerly anticipated dance at 855 Fifth Avenue.

Perry leased 855 Fifth Avenue (first house in from the left) from the family of Mme. De Barrios

Oliver’s brothers Perry and August had not been opposed to his marrying Alva in and of itself. Their issue with the union stemmed from the fact that Alva would continue receiving alimony from Willie K after she and Oliver were wed. Whether male ego or family pride, they could neither accept the principle of a man being supported by his wife’s ex-husband nor the optics of a Belmont receiving financial assistance from anyone. As Alva’s alimony easily surpassed the money generated from Oliver’s fortune each year, he had no such qualms and was quite happy to live on their combined incomes (on his part, he gifted Gray Craig and Belcourt to Alva as wedding presents). Outraged, Perry and August, joined by their sister Frederika in a show of family solidarity, publicly shunned their brother and his new wife, 

Alva and Oliver were nonplussed. They added to their collection of homes, commissioning Richard Howland Hunt to design a new mansion for them on Long Island in 1897. Named Brookholt, the pillar-laden colonial revival extravaganza was not far from August and Bessie’s Blemton.

Brookholt

That same year Oliver also bought a lot on the corner of Fifth and 77th to build a new townhouse on. They decided to keep Marble House (it was said, to use its superior laundry facilities)

For the years that Alva and Oliver occupied BElcourt, Marble House because arguably the worlds most expensive laundry!

but reside at Belcourt during the Newport season, and Oliver’s bachelor quarters were remodeled to accommodate Alva and her younger son Harold. They did divest themselves of Gray Craig, donating the menagerie to the zoo in Providence. Despite a bumpy season tor two, through Alva’s pugnaciousness and Oliver’s bonhomie, they ultimately prevailed over their social foes.

One of the highlights of the 1899 Newport season was an automobile parade at Belcourt- here is Alva, sitting in a horseless carriage decorated in a butterfly theme.

The family breach wasn’t healed so easily. Both August and Perry, would soon be preoccupied with more important issues in their own lives however.Bessie Belmont died in September 1898 in Paris. Although she had been unwell and under a doctor’s care, her death came as a shock.

August, who had returned to the States to settle their sons in at school, rushed back to Paris to bring her body home. Though she had been more interested in the sporting life of the Meadowbrook Hunt set and raising her family than vying to be one of society’s queen bees, she was one of its popular members and universally mourned.

In December 1898 Henry Sloane and his wife Jessie (one of the Oliver Belmonts high-profile opponents) separated. While friends were hopeful of a reconciliation, on April 28th, 1899 at four in the afternoon Henry Sloane was granted a divorce from his wife. Five hours later, in Greenwich Connecticut Jessie wed Perry Belmont (the terms of the divorce prohibited her from remarrying in the State of New York). The new couple caught a train to Washington DC later that night, staying with Fredericka and Samuel Howland for several days before traveling on to Lexington Kentucky to inspect Perry’s racehorses. In order to avoid the remotest associations with the same issues Perry had taken umbrage to in Oliver’s marriage, Jessie gave the title to her 72nd street mansion back to her former husband, along with all the gifts he had given her over the course of their marriage.

The Sloane townhouse on East 72nd street

As a punitive measure, Henry Sloane also insisted on sole custody of their two daughters, denying Jessie visitation rights until the girls reached 21.

Three years after the headlines surrounding Alva and Oliver’s marriage, society reporters once again openly speculated as to how a new Mrs. Belmont would be received in august social circles. High on the list of opponents was Alva Belmont herself. In the ever-shifting world of social alliances, members of the Vanderbilt clan, with whom Perry had previously been very close would have to be opposed to them, given their family’s martial connection to Henry Sloane.

Their absence at a May 27th dinner hosted by the Bradley Martins, despite being on the guest list, was taken by some as ominous sign. However, while they were in Newport the previous week to attend the dedication of a memorial window for Bessie at the Belmont Chapel, they met with architects to ensure renovations to By-The Sea would ready when they returned from Europe. They also leased the former William Cullen Bryant estate on Long Island, fueling speculation that they would build a new mansion there as well.

Like Alva and Oliver before them, Jessie and Perry weren’t planning on going anywhere, socially speaking.

Next Installment - Part 3: On Top of the World at the Dawn of a New Century