Alva Vanderbilt and the Gilded Age

Nothing represented the Gilded Age better than the Gold Room of Marble House, the "cottage" Alva Vanderbilt opened in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1892. William K. Vanderbilt, Alva's husband, was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the founder of the New York Central Railway and the richest man of his era. His sons doubled his wealth, and his grandsons spent it lavishly. Alva, who modeled Marble House after Marie Antoinette's retreat Petit Trianon at the palace of Versailles, liked to describe her architectural triumph as "Versailles improved." Why might Alva have chosen to model her Newport home after a French queen's château?

The Gold Room, Alva's miniature version of Versailles's Hall of Mirrors, is a riot of neoclassical exuberance, with panels of Greek gods and goddesses adorning the walls and cavorting cupids and cherubs blowing trumpets on the walls and ceilings. Why do you think Alva chose classical figures for decoration?

The enormous chandeliers and wood panels painted in red, green, and gold are multiplied in their dazzling glory in the mirrors hung over each of the four doors, above the mantelpiece, and on the south wall. Critics charged that Marble House, with its Gold Room, was "a symbol of the heartless, glittering emptiness of the Gilded Age." What did they mean by this criticism?

The Vanderbilt wealth and Alva's lavish spending made it hard for old-money New Yorkers, living in their staid brownstones, to compete. Alva and William's Fifth Avenue mansion in New York City boasted a ballroom that accommodated 1,600 guests. At their legendary costume ball in 1883, Alva, pictured here dressed as a Venetian princess, released live doves — perhaps representing her success in breaking down the social barriers designed to keep out the nouveau riche (vulgar newly rich). She had clearly arrived and taken her place in New York society. Defying convention, Alva divorced Vanderbilt but kept Marble House, and later married Newport neighbor August Belmont. Her indomitable will, her quest for recognition, and her fearless defiance of convention led her to the woman's rights cause. She would become a principal supporter of the National Woman's Party and serve as its president. On two occasions, she held fund-raisers at Marble House. In 1932, shortly before she died, Alva sold Marble House with the assurance that it would be kept as she had designed it. Today it is a National Historic Landmark open to the public. Alva Vanderbilt once described Marble House as "like a fourth child." How might she feel about paying visitors wandering the rooms of Marble House today?

SOURCE: Marble House: © Dave G. Houser/Corbis; Gold Room: © Kelly-Mooney Photography/Corbis; Alva Vanderbilt: Photo courtesy of The Preservation Society of Newport County.

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What economic changes took place in the Gilded Age that allowed for lavish personal wealth?