Why a Booktrail?
1875 to 1896 : Alva Smith marries into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties
A Well-Behaved Woman: a novel of the Vanderbilts
What you need to know before your trail
Alva Smith, her Southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built nine mansions, hosted grand balls, and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women’s suffrage movement.
With a nod to Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, Therese Anne Fowler paints a glittering world of enormous wealth contrasted with desperate poverty, of social ambition and social scorn, of friendship and betrayal, and an unforgettable story of a remarkable woman
Travel Guide
Travel to the Vandcrbilt version of New York City
Petit Chateau – 660 Fifth Avenue
The William K. Vanderbilt House was a Châteauesque mansion at 660 Fifth Avenue in Midtown in New York City. It was next door to the Triple Palace of William Henry Vanderbilt, which occupied the entire block between 51st and 52nd streets on the west side of Fifth Avenue.
New York Mansion
Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont House was a mansion located on 477 Madison Avenue and the northeast corner of 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan. The building was demolished in 1951.
Beacon Towers
A Gilded Age mansion on Sands Point on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. It was built from 1917 to 1918 for Alva Belmont, the ex-wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt and the widow, since 1908, of Oliver Belmont.
Metropolitan House
Unable to get an opera box at the Academy of Music, due to a snobbery over ‘ new money’ Ava was among those people instrumental in 1883 in founding the Metropolitan Opera, then based at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Marble House is a Gilded Age mansion. It was designed as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892.(Its temple-front portico, which also serves as a porte-cochère, resembles that of the White House.) Now a museum and well worth a visit!
BookTrail Boarding Pass: A Well-Behaved Woman: a novel of the Vanderbilts
Destination: New York City, Rhode Island Author/guide: Therese Anne Fowler Departure Time: 1875 to 1896
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