|
Belcourt Castle was designed by Richard Morris
Hunt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, who inherited a fortune from his
father August Belmont, the Rothschild Banking representative in America.
His summer "cottage" incorporated his love for horses and armor,
medieval and renaissance architecture within 60-rooms. In 1894, a bachelor
at age 36, he had 30 servants.
In 1896, Mr. Belmont married Mrs. William
Kissam Vanderbilt, wife of his best friend and business partner in several
sporting ventures. Alva E. Smith, daughter of an Alabama cotton merchant,
was educated in France, married the second son of William H. Vanderbilt
and had three children before she divorced Vanderbilt in 1895 to marry
Oliver Belmont.
After Belmont's death at 50 in 1908, Mrs.
Belmont became involved in the Women's movement and actively supported
votes for women. She died in 1933, still the owner of Belcourt Castle.
|