Designed by architects Sanson & Trumbauer for Perry Belmont, Congressman from New York, Ambassador to Spain, and lawyer and financier. He was a member of the family that built the Belmont race track in New York. The Belmonts' main home was a Newport, Rhode Island, mansion known as The Elms; this house, with 54 rooms including a grand ballroom and chapel, was used for Washington entertaining. It cost $1.5 million dollars to build in 1909.