by Nancy Moser
That background explains my interest in dressmakers of the Gilded Age. Yet sewing a dress nowadays is nothing compared to creating one of the intricate dresses of that era. It’s the difference between making a cake from a boxed mix and adding a canister of ready-made frosting, and creating a four-tier wedding cake from scratch, with fondant frosting, lacework, marzipan flowers, and edible pearls and beads.
Yet the seamstresses of 1895 were not that different from seamstresses today. Both learned from experience and were taught by doing—my preferred way of learning anything. I admire the Scarpelli women for their work ethic, and I reveled in being able to move them from a dingy sweatshop, to a fancy dress Emporium, to the halls of Newport’s finest homes, where they were set free to fully use their talents.
I love stories about immigrants to America. Their pluck, courage, and determination inspire me. Where did your ancestors come from? What made them leave their homeland behind, to take a chance, to start over? What are their stories of failure and success? Of dreams abandoned and achieved?
Fortunes were made in America, lost, and made again. Some were huge and boggled the mind. Consider the “cottages” of the rich in Newport. The Breakers, which is the location for the climax of this book, has 65,000 square feet of living space. The average size of an American home today is 2,300 square feet, which means twenty-eight houses could fit into this single-family “cottage.”
What an exciting place for two poor seamstresses and a crippled heiress to find love. And friendship. And purpose. And yet, the grand mansions in Newport weren’t the real setting for Lucy, Sofia, and Rowena to experience their revelations and growth. The Cliff Walk and the spectacle of God’s sea, sky, and sun inspired like no creation of man could ever do. Go ask the sunrise . . .
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Psalm 139:7–10 NIV
Today I urge you to take a few minutes from your busy life and go outside. Seek a place of the Creator’s design, where His hand will hold you fast and guide you toward love, friendship, and your unique purpose.
Blessings,
Nancy Moser
Fact or Fiction in An Unlikely Suitor
Chapter 1
Throughout the book I used Italian proverbs as Lucy lives out her father’s wisdom. Some are familiar; some are not. I have to wonder which came first, the English or the Italian version. Here’s a wonderful source: http://italian.about.com/library/proverbio/blproverbiov.htm.
The tenements on Mulberry Street were torn down and Columbus Park (which is still a vibrant park) was built in their place. The park opened in the summer of 1897, giving the people of the neighborhood benches, sidewalks, and much-appreciated grass.
St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral was—and is—at 263 Mulberry Street. It was the first Roman Catholic cathedral in New York City, and for seventy years was the only St. Patrick’s. It was a hub for incoming Irish and Italian families in the Five Points area (the area that became known as Little Italy, and now Soho). Its “St. Patrick’s Cathedral” designation was usurped in 1879 by the more grand (and now more widely known) St. Patrick’s built at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street. At that time the Old St. Patrick’s was demoted to a parish church. Two scenes from The Godfather movies were filmed there: the baptism scene in the original movie The Godfather, and the scene where Michael Corleone gets an honor from the church in the third movie in that series.
Chapter 2
Dime novels were the rage in the second half of the nineteenth century. Yet their format varied greatly, from “story papers,” newspapers that ran stories in serial form, to compilations of many stories, to full novels. To add to the confusion, they didn’t always cost a dime. But considering that working-class immigrants often made less than a dollar a day working ten to twelve hours, the price was comparable to the same person today buying a seven-dollar paperback. The content of the stories ran from romance to westerns, to crime/detective, and beyond. Dime novels filled the space now held by television, paperbacks, and comic books, and were often reprinted—and resold—in many forms (sounds like a “rerun” to me).
Laura Jean Libbey was one of the most prolific dime-novel authors. She wrote eighty-two romances with the common theme being a wayward girl falling in love with a man far above her station. In the end they always married. Ironically, Libbey’s mother forbade her to marry, and she held off until her mother died, marrying when she was thirty-six. She and her husband never had any children, and she kept her private life very private, but many doubt she lived the romantic life she wrote about. She was an astute businesswoman and made sixty thousand dollars a year from her romance writing. In today’s money that would be one and a half million dollars. The book Sofia is reading, Little Rosebud’s Lovers, is one of Libbey’s books, and the excerpts are real.
Chapter 3
Indoor plumbing. Most of the tenements around Mulberry Street did not have indoor toilets or baths. Outhouses were lined up in the alleys—with people living in ground-floor apartments just a few feet away. Sometimes there were communal water spigots in the hallway, but in 1895 a tenement with running water in each apartment was beyond rare. Most rich and many middle-class homes had bathrooms, and hotels would advertise if they had private baths. Public bathhouses were opened with signs encouraging use by saying “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” but immigrants had been brought up being wary of baths, so these establishments were mostly used in the summer months when even the most hardened nose noticed the stench. The truth was, people smelled bad and often wore the same clothes for weeks at a time. Would there have been a lavatory in Madame Moreau’s Dress Emporium? And a full bathroom in the Scarpellis’ new apartment? It’s hard to say. So I opted to give the characters this luxury. It was my gift to the ladies.
Chapter 4
Sewing machines were powered by a foot treadle. The machine was used for sewing the longer seams, but the fine work was still done by hand (as it still is today). A dress could easily take a dozen yards of fabric to create, and many dozens of yards of trims were applied. Petticoats and undergarments added more yardage upon the wearer, and corsets constricted easy movement and any chance of comfort. The complexity of the ensemble often meant a woman was burdened with carrying a dozen pounds upon her back—or more. Considering women were generally smaller than they are now, their garments could add an additional ten percent to their body weight.
Chapter 5
Although ready-made clothes were available in department stores and through store catalogs, the upper crust continued to use seamstresses to ensure that their clothes were one of a kind. By 1895 the bustles of the 1870s and 1880s had given way to a smoother, more body-conscious silhouette. Instead of the skirt providing the interest, the bodice and voluminous sleeves drew the eye. Because of the volume, the waist looked smaller. There were rules for dresses to wear for day visits, outings, bicycling, golfing, picnics, luncheons, dinners, balls, the theater, concerts, and the opera. The opera dress was the fanciest of all, for you went to the opera to be seen.
Delmonico’s was the restaurant to frequent for New York society. First opened in 1837, it was a pioneer in the business. Prior to Delmonico’s, people didn’t eat out often, or if they did, it was at a hotel or an inn. There, they ate whatever was being served, at a set price, at a set time. There were no options. Delmonico’s was the first restaurant in the States that allowed people to come at their convenience, choose their food items from an extensive menu, and know the cost. It also offered private dining rooms, and allowed women to dine. This family-run business was known for its first-quality ingredients, impeccable service, and unique dishes. Lobster à la Newburg
was premiered there in 1876. Delmonico’s eventually had four locations, and it closed in 1923. (Any restaurants that now use the Delmonico’s name are not affiliated with the original.)
Chapter 7
Bonwitter’s address at 89 Bowery is a real address. I found a picture of the old four-story redbrick building that was there, but it has been torn down. Its most recent use (in 2007) was as an Asian video store.
The Central Park Reservoir covers 106 acres. It was created in 1858 to hold the water that came from the Croton Aqueduct, which was then distributed throughout Manhattan. It was used for this purpose until 1993. In 1994 it was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. She lived nearby, often jogged in the area, and contributed much to the city. She died in May 1994.
Chapter 9
The quote “I’ve heard it said that a working professional woman will be satisfied with six dresses in her wardrobe, but a fashionable lady will feel destitute with less than sixty” was from Demorest’s, a magazine about style and etiquette. Comments like this helped keep seamstresses very busy.
Chapter 10
The derogatory name of “Tony” for Italians didn’t come about because a lot of Italian men were named Anthony. It started because much of the Italian immigrants’ luggage was marked “TO NY”—“To New York.” Tony.
The distance from Grand Central Station, New York City, to Wickford Junction, Rhode Island, is 162 miles. Many wealthy families traveled from New York to Newport via luxurious steamships. But you could also go by rail to Wickford Junction, then take a short trip by steamer to Newport. There were no bridges from the island of Newport to the mainland until the twentieth century.
Toilet paper on a roll was manufactured in 1877 but probably wasn’t in use in the places Lucy frequented. Before rolls, toilet paper was distributed in flat sheets with the company’s name printed on each sheet. Also in use were newspapers, pages from the Sears catalog, and corncobs.
Chapter 11
Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough got engaged in late August 1895 and were married in November. They were not in love; in fact Consuelo was secretly engaged to someone else. But her domineering mother paid to gain her daughter a title (duchess), which also allowed the duke to have the funds to refurbish Blenheim Castle. He signed a prenuptial agreement that provided him with life interest in a trust fund based on Mr. Vanderbilt’s holdings: 2.5 million dollars in 50,000 shares of Beach Creek Railway—a guarantee of 4 percent per year. Plus, he had access to other Vanderbilt money. Their marriage was not happy, though Consuelo provided her husband with “an heir and a spare,” a term used one hundred years later with Princess Diana and her children, William and Harry. Consuelo dove into charity work, eventually divorced her husband due to his infidelity, and remarried. During the Gilded Age many wealthy American girls married for a title and became known as “dollar princesses.”
Chapter 12
The décor and style of the Langdon home is based on the Chateau-sur-Mer in Newport. The stained glass in the skylight corresponds to the beautiful entry of the Chateau, the drawing room is inspired by the French Salon, and Rowena’s bedroom looks like the Butternut Room. The Chateau-sur-Mer was recently renovated and can be toured. It was originally built in 1851 and was extensively remodeled in 1876. It was the most luxurious mansion in Newport until the rash of mega-mansions were built in the 1890s.
The song “The Sidewalks of New York” was written by Blake and Lawlor in 1894. It’s often known as “East Side, West Side,” which is the first line of the chorus. The names of people in the song were real people from Blake’s boyhood.
Chapter 13
In 1895, Gertrude Vanderbilt said, “Alas, when a girl is twenty she is on the road to being an old maid.” Gertrude grew up spending her summers at the Breakers, and married Harry Payne Whitney—at age twenty-one. She became a patron of art and formed the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1931. She was also a sculptor and designed the Titanic monument in Washington, D.C., honoring the men who gave their lives so women and children could be saved.
All the attendees at the dinner are real people—except the Langdons and the Garmins. George and Edith Wetmore owned Chateau-sur-Mer, the house that was my inspiration for the Langdon house in this book. Mr. Wetmore was a two-term governor of Rhode Island, and then a U.S. senator. Theodore and Emily Havemeyer gained their fortune through sugar refining. He was the Austrian Consul-General in New York City for twenty-five years. You can find pictures of these people in historical photographs of Newport.
The first Breakers burned to the ground in 1892. Its replacement was finished the year of this story, 1895. But Mr. Vanderbilt suffered a bad stroke the following year, so this was the only year the Breakers was fully enjoyed by Alice and Cornelius. Its 65,000 square feet of living space cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today’s dollars). Although the Vanderbilt family sold it to the Newport Preservation Society in 1972, all the furnishings belong to the family, and they still have access to the private third floor. Over 300,000 people visit the Breakers every year.
Chapter 14
The verse “Love me with thine azure eyes . . .” is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “A Man’s Requirements.” To read about Browning’s life and her poignant love story, read my bio-novel called How Do I Love Thee? All of Elizabeth’s Sonnets From the Portuguese are included in the back of the book.
In 1884 a book on the meaning of flowers was published: The Language of Flowers, by Jean Marsh, illustrated by Kate Greenaway. It became the bible for Victorian flower giving and receiving, allowing people to send messages without speaking. It was cross-referenced by flowers and by emotions. Yet problems arose when new books came out, giving conflicting meanings. For instance, a dahlia could mean “good taste” or “instability.” Ivy was especially confusing, for it could mean “fidelity,” “friendship,” “affection,” or “marriage.” Quite a range there. And woe the hemlock, for it meant, “You will be my death.”
Costume balls were popular, the more elaborate the better. Masks were seldom worn. What’s the good of being all dressed up if no one knows it’s you?
Chapter 18
According to The Language of Flowers, pink roses signified grace and beauty.
By 1893, the Hires family sold bottled versions of root beer. Root beer had been around a long time, and some versions included alcohol or were used medicinally. But the kind Hires bottled was made from twenty-five berries, roots, and herbs. It was introduced at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. In the 1960s, one of the ingredients, sassafras root, was banned as a carcinogen. But brewers discovered it was safe to use if the sassafras oil was removed first.
Chapter 20
The Breakers had a ladies’ reception room off the main entrance, where women could put their wraps and make finishing touches to their ensemble.
In spite of his family’s vociferous objections, “Neily” Vanderbilt (Cornelius Vanderbilt III) married Grace Wilson the next year (1896) and thereby lost a prominent place in his father’s will. Neily’s mother did not reconcile with him until 1926.
Epilogue
Frank Lloyd Wright broke away from his mentor, Louis Sullivan, in 1893 and opened his own architectural offices in the Steinway Hall building in Chicago. He expanded upon Sullivan’s “form follows function” philosophy and believed that architecture should evolve organically from its function and location, and not be stifled by precedent, by what’s been done before.
The Fashion of An Unlikely Suitor
Chapter 6: The skirt was a pale beige, settling somewhere between cream and tan. The bodice was a light yellow, accordion-pleated mousseline de soie, bisected with pearl buttons. The sleeves were of the current leg-o’-mutton fashion—voluminous from shoulder to elbow, padded with eiderdown, yet tight to the wrist. Just as the bustles of the eighties had grown ridiculous, these sleeves and the overt attention to the upper torso often went too far with layers of lace, festoons, and flounces threatening to chok
e.
Chapter 8: Rowena stood very still while Lucy arranged a lace flourish on her blouse and attached a blue ribbon choker with flat bows that marked the back of her neck.
“The blue of the ocean sky,” Lucy said. . . . The pink satin in the oversized puffed sleeves was tucked into elbow ruffles of scalloped lace. A flat lace collar dipped low in a V, and the bodice was covered with a sheer lace overlay that flounced over a blue satin waistband. The skirt wasn’t gathered at the waist but folded in deep pleats, and the fabric was a floral sateen of blue and pink flowers.
Chapter 17: Rowena began riffling through the rows of dresses. “What are you going to wear to see your Dante?” With a glance over her shoulder, she added, “For you are going to see him.” . . . Rowena pulled a pale olive pinstripe from the pack. “This one, I think.”
Chapter 18: Rowena slipped her arms into the lavender satin dressing sacque that Lucy held for her. She pulled the lace-edged neck ties to the front and made a knot.[1]
[1]Illustrations from Victorian Fashions & Costumes from Harper’s Bazar 1867–1898 (Dover Publications, 1974), and Victorian Fashions: A Pictorial Archive (Dover Publications, 1999).
Discussion Questions for An Unlikely Suitor
The Scarpellis need a new apartment. Lucy goes to find one, leaving Mamma to do the praying for her. There’s a fine line between doing our part because we shouldn’t remain idle and doing our part because we don’t trust God to do it. Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord” (niv). What does this verse mean? How did Lucy fare in following the instruction in this verse?
