Alva was born Alva Smith in 1853 in Mobile, Alabama. In her youth, she became a very feisty child, beating up any boy that picked on her. Alva also tyrannized slaves because she thought them people who didn't complain or try to get out of their poor life. Alva had an upbringing more like today, instead of the traditional "Be seen and not heard" attitude. Her later education was completed in Paris at a boarding school for girls. Just 10 years later she would be a Vanderbilt. In 1875 Alva married William (Willie) K. Vanderbilt, grandson of the Commodore, patriarch of the family. As a child her family had been rich and poor, and she had decided rich was for her. Alva and Willie had 3 children together: Consuelo, William II, and Harold.
Alva now had money, so she decided to build a grand house in New York. She commissioned Richard Morris Hunt, a prominent beaux-arts architect, to build a house on 5th Avenue. She wanted it to be an elegant and beautiful residence, unlike the brownstones lining New York streets at the time. The grandiose interior was praised by the press, from the grand staircase to the huge ballroom.
With her new mansion, Alva proceeded to enter society; something the Vanderbilts had never been able to do. They had always been shunned by the old rich because their money was too new. One woman, Mrs. Astor, the undisputed queen of society, stood in the way. Alva planned a costume ball to rival Mrs. Astor's famous Monday ball by placing it on the same day. When the day came, Alva's anticipation built. Would "the" Mrs. Astor come? Yes. And so it happened that the Vanderbilts entered society.
Alva soon had another reason to be worried: her father-in-law's will. William H. died in 1885 form an apoplectic stroke with an estate of $200 million. She feared he would give most of the money to his oldest son, Cornelius. Everyone, however, was in for a surprise. The will stated that $130 million should be split between Cornelius and Willie. Alva was overjoyed. Now she could do anything.
Her next project was a half-million dollar yacht. At 285 feet, The Alva was the largest and most extravagant private yacht ever constructed. Alva and her family would go on long cruises to many famous destinations. Her children, however, thought the trips were incredibly boring given all the homework they had to do. When The Alva sunk off Cape Cod with Willie and some friends barely escaping, a new yacht was immediately constructed. Although 27 feet longer, Willie named it the Valiant, not the Alva II, which said quite a lot about their crumbling marriage.
Despite the new yacht, Alva needed something new to fill her time, so she set her sights on a "cottage" in fashionable Newport, Rhode Island. So, Willie gave her an $11 million birthday present: Marble House. He got Richard Morris Hunt, who had become the family architect, to model the house after the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Alva soon took over construction, and made every room marble except for Willie's study, which was painted to look like marble. All in all, the cottage had a half-million cubic feet of marble spread amongst its 20 rooms and exterior. 36 servants manned the house form its completion in 1892. Alva held great balls here that outshone those at her New York abode. It wasn't the biggest home in Newport for long, though. Cornelius' wife, Alice, fought back with The Breakers, finished in 1895 at a cost of $7 million without furnishing.
Not long after, Alva decided to get away from it all by taking the yacht on a several-month voyage to India with her husband and children. When they reached India, the bad food and poor living conditions there disgusted the group. Alva, however, was fascinated by Hinduism and its high treatment of women. The Taj Mahal, built by a devoted husband for his dead wife, appealed to her feminism.
Time spent in India, however, may have been anticlimactic compared to romances that began on the voyage to India and during the subsequent trip to Paris. Alva fell in love with O.H.P. Belmont, a friend of her husband's. Her daughter, Consuelo, became infatuated with Winthrop "Winty" Rutherford, 15 years her senior. Willie gave his affections to a Parisian woman. Despite Alva's own new love interest, she sued Willie for adultery and they divorced promptly.
Before arranging a new marriage for herself, Alva turned her controlling attentions to 17 year old Consuelo. She had always been fascinated by royalty and decided her daughter would be a duchess. She took her daughter to meet the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace in England, a huge financial burden that Consuelo's dowry would pay for. Unbeknownst to Consuelo, Alva knew about her secret romance with Winty, who had recently proposed. In Marble House, Consuelo waited for letters from her fianc�. She was not allowed to go out alone, and Alva intercepted letters, phone calls, and visitors. She finally decided to do something no one had ever done: stand up to Alva. She explained that she would never marry the duke, but instead marry Winty, the man she loved. Alva went into a rage, and told Consuelo the marriage to the duke was final. The girl was later told her mother suffered a heart attack (it was really fake) and she would die if Consuelo defied her wishes again.
Alva then forced her daughter into the marriage with the duke. In 1895, at St. Thomas's church in New York, 4,000 guests and many more onlookers witnessed the marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt to the Duke of Marlborough. They later informed each other they had to give up their true loves to be married. Alva, looking back, realized the wrong she had done. Years later, her daughter's marriage would dissolve.
Shortly thereafter, Alva married O.H.P. Belmont at a tiny civil ceremony in 1896. She boarded up Marble House and moved to Belcourt Castle, his Newport mansion. She continued to do laundry at her old house because of its superior laundry facilities. Belmont loved horses, so he devoted the first floor of his home to high-quality lodgings for his prize horses. Alva and Harry's 12-year marriage was happy. They gave numerous balls and held the first automobile race in the U.S. on the grounds of Belcourt. He died in 1908 at age 50, and gave everything he owned to Alva. She ordered a chapel modeled after St. Hubert's Chapel of Amboise in France for him to be buried in. Artisans made the interior weather-stained and old in appearance on Alva's orders. After his death Alva put 'her life, her interests, her all' into the Women's Suffrage Movement. When she attended her first meeting in 1909, she was dismayed that they discussed things so quietly. She quickly went to the more radical group, The National Woman's Party. Alva took command, organizing pickets and co-writing a suffragist operetta. She led the Political Equality Division of the Women's Vote Parade in 1912 while spectators booed and hissed. But, in typical Alva style, she got what she wanted: the 19th amendment passed in 1920, finally allowing women to vote.
In 1923 at the age of 70, Alva moved to France. There, she went about remodeling and rearranging several homes she owned. In 1932, Alva suffered two strokes and was confined to a wheelchair. She died in 1933 with only $1 million left, most of which she gave to her daughter Consuelo. She wanted a statue to be erected in honor of she and the suffragettes, but it was never done. Marble House is the only reminder of her life. In death, she was no longer able to use the control which had been both her strength and her weakness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
America's Castles [videorecording]
Stasz, Clarice. The Vanderbilt Women. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.
Vanderbilt, Arthur T. II. Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1989.