Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (November 12, 1858, — June 10 1908) was a wealthy American socialite and Congressman.

Biography

Born in New York City to August and Caroline Belmont. Oliver's father was August Belmont, a Prussian Jew who came to the United States in 1837 as an agent for the Rothschilds, and accumulated enormous personal wealth. (The oldest race in the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, is named for August Belmont).

In 1882 Oliver married Sara Swan Whiting, who was pregnant with his child, in Newport, but they divorced the very same year.

Oliver received a huge inheritance when his father died in 1890. Oliver was a bachelor at the time of his father's death and decided to build a summer house in Newport. Richard Morris Hunt was the architect for Oliver's Newport mansion, Belcourt Castle. Belmont designed Belcourt as he pleased. Hunt was hesitant with the design of Belcourt, but he concentrated on his guiding principle that it was his client's money he was spending. If his client wanted him to build a house upside down standing on its chimney, it was up to him to do it, and still get the best possible results. The entire first floor was composed of a multitude of stables for Belmont's prized horses. The monumental Gothic rooms with their huge stained-glass windows were emblazoned with the coat of arms of Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans.

In the 1880s Belmont began a long affair with Alva Vanderbilt, the wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt. On January 11, 1896 he married Alva, five years his senior.

Belmont served as United States Congressman from New York's 13th District from 1901 to 1903.

Oliver Belmont died on June 10, 1908.

External link

• Biography at Belcourt Castle website