January, 1914 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
with residences in the graceful and usually unaffected style 
which the name of Georgian immediately calls to mind. It 
is therefore something more than a mere suggestion of Bel- 
gravia, Mayfair, Hyde Park or some other of the many 
fashionable localities of old-world London which one re- 
ceives at the sight of the New York residence of Mrs. 
O. H. P. Belmont, at Fifty-first Street and Madison Avenue. 
Its correctly Georgian facade of white stone, with its tall 
pilasters extending from the lower Hoor through the height 
of the two upper stories and supporting a balustrade of 
stone are true to precedent and suggest English reserve 
and reticence, hinting only vaguely at the richness and mag- 
nificence which one feels sure must be hidden behind an 
exterior so dignified. 
The residence covers the area of two city lots. The 
greater dimension is therefore upon the Madison Avenue 
side of the property, and upon this side is placed the en- 
trance to the house, the main doorway being within a vesti- 
bule the opening into which corresponds with the other door- 
ways and the windows of the lower or entrance floor, the 
main floor being just above. At the very threshold one 
may realize the possibilities of the Georgian architecture, 
in which many of the rooms, as well as the exterior, are 
carried out, for the vestibule opens directly into a large 
and lofty entrance-hall, paved with stone and walled with 
beautifully veined marble. Tall columns and pilasters with 
Corinthian capitals support a ceiling of plaster in geomet- 
rical design, and upon one side a marble stairway leads to 
the drawing-room floor above. Upon the right as one 
enters the residence is a small reception-room, which is aLo 
an informal drawing-room. The walls are adorned with 
panels and frieze in high relief, and bookcases are built 
into the embrasures formed by the chimney-piece, while, as 
an overmantel, two columns support a broken pediment 
wherein an eagle stands with wings extended. Several of 
the windows of the reception-room are placed within the 
slightly curved or "bowed” extension, which is characteris- 
tically Georgian. 
At the north end of the lofty marble entrance-hall wide 
doorways lead into the great dining-room. The walls are 
faced with cream-colored marble upon which is applied 
decoration in high relief, wrought of bronze and colored 
verde antique. In this very rich combination of materials 
and color is the overmantel with its columns supporting an 
entablature over the chimney-piece. I he ceiling is covered 
with a great circular allegorical painting framed by a wide 
band of relief in dull gold. The furniture is of old Italian 
design and the chairs are covered with velvet, while deep 
Italian lace is used to adorn the sideboard and various small 
buffets. 
A large part of the lower floor is taken up by the most 
beautiful and sumptuous of libraries. The room is of un- 
usual size, being fifty-four feet in length, and is ceiled and 
paneled with richly carved wood with cases for books re- 
cessed within the panels upon both sides of the room. At 
one end of the library are doors opening into a stair-hall 
which repeats the elaborate Gothic architecture of the library 
and which is lighted by stained-glass windows. 
Upon the floor just above are arranged the drawing- 
room and the other apartments of a formal nature required 
This view of the Gothic room well exhibits the possibility of producing graceful interiors in this style 
