The
Grand
Ballroom
of the
Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
The Park Hyatt Philadelphia crowns the top eight floors of the landmark Bellevue Building, located in the heart of Center City - poised among premiere
historical,
cultural, culinary, theatre and music destinations along “The Avenue of The
Arts.
Listed in the National Historic Register as a National Landmark, The Bellevue
architectural style is French Renaissance with limestone and terracotta
features. The exclusive hotel complex features 172 suites and guestrooms, an award-winning European day spa, world-class restaurants, gourmet food
court,
upscale boutiques, an unsurpassed jazz club and a 93,000 square-foot fitness centre,
The Sporting Club.
A majestic marble staircase leads to the two-tiered Grand Ballroom,
characterized by superlative architectural detail with ornate ceiling
scrollwork,
breathtaking crystal chandeliers and delicate lighting designed by Thomas Alva Edison. The Grand Ballroom, one floor above the retail level, is one of
the only existing balconied ballrooms in the US. It is adjacent to The State Drawing Room, The Red Room and The Clover Room.
Sunday Telegraph, April 16, 1995 page 1
Helen Hope Montgomery Scott died, aged 90, on January 9 this year at her estate, Ardrossan, near Philadelphia. Her obituaries were long and respectful, as befitted someone who had been prominent in wealthy Philadelphia society for more than 70 years. They emphasised her career as a highly eligible heiress and party girl in the Twenties, and as a lavish hostess after her marriage. They mentioned her doing the Charleston with Josephine Baker in Paris, dancing a foxtrot with the Duke of Windsor at El Morocco ("He was pretty good") and lunching with Sir Winston Churchill on Aristotle Onassis's yacht. But all the obituaries opened with the element in her life which had had some curious consequences far from the ordinary life of a wealthy socialite - and which made her indirectly responsible for James Stewart's only Oscar, the establishment of Katharine Hepburn as a major film star and, later, the popularity of the Christian name Tracy. For Hope Montgomery Scott was the inspiration for Tracy Lord, heroine of The Philadelphia Story.
In more traditional Boston and Philadelphia, however, society turned almost feudal, almost English in its attitudes - "old" money and
"old" families counted for
everything. The very term WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) was coined to
describe members of
Philadelphia society - its most characteristic institution was the Philadelphia Assemblies Ball. This is the oldest and most exclusive
social gathering in the United States. Held every year since 1748, it is strictly reserved for members of the city's Social Register -
no amount of money will allow entry; blood is everything.
It was here, down the staircase to the great ballroom of the
Bellevue-Stratford Hotel,
that Hope Montgomery, in a white ball gown and elbow-length white kid gloves,
made her entrance as a debutante in 1922.
**(c) Charles Cushing **
The daughter of Colonel Robert
Montgomery, head of a wealthy and ancient Philadelphia family, she immediately
made an impact. That evening she received four marriage proposals - none of which she accepted. The following
year
she met "an older man" at a Main Line dinner party, the 24-year-old Edgar Scott,
heir to the
Pennsylvania Railroad fortune (and an old classmate of Philip Barry). After a dozen dates they
decided to marry, but her parents insisted they wait nine months. "I always knew what I wanted,
and so did Edgar. We both had the idea from the start that marriage should be something that
lasts forever. And it did." It was inevitably described as the Society Wedding of the Year, and
exhaustively chronicled by the press down to the orange blossoms that banked the church.
**Charles Cushing 's home page**
**The
Weekly Press Painting the Bellevue: **
Artist Charles Cushing
Paintings of the Bellevue Stratford hotel through the eyes of Charles Cushing
Artist and Painter
TRIBUTE TO HOPE MONTGOMERY SCOTT -- HON. CURT WELDON (Extension of Remarks - January 18, 1995)
Page: E125] GPO's PDF
HON. CURT WELDON
in the House of Representatives
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1995
-
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a preeminent symbol of Philadelphia's main line society. The recent passing of Hope Montgomery Scott at age 90, earlier this week marks the end of an era. As the darling of high society, Mrs. Scott was both an honoured dairy farmer and for the last 30 years the principal organizer for the nationally known Devon Horse Show and Country Fair.
-
Scott, best known as the high society girl was the inspiration for the making of `The Philadelphia Story,' written in 1939 by playwright Philip Barry, a college classmate of Mrs. Scott's husband, Edgar, at Harvard Drama School. The play, was then made into a 1940 movie starring local Bryn Mawr College graduate actress Katherine Hepburn. In 1956, after great demand, `The Philadelphia Story' was remade into a musical called `High Society,' starring Philadelphia native Grace Kelley.
-
Mrs. Scott had a dairy farm, a trade she learned from her father while growing up. Her dairy farm was the top producing Ayrshire herd in the Nation. In 1990 the farm received an award for an average annual output of 20,000 pounds of milk per cow.
-
Mrs. Scott married an heir to the Pennsylvania Railroad fortune, threw the best parties, and became the finest American horsewoman of her day. Mrs. Scott began riding at the age of 4 and won many awards at the Devon Horse Show.
-
Today, Mrs. Scott's contributions to the community can be best attributed to her role as chairwoman and executive director of the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, Inc., where last year alone proceeds of over $400,000 benefited Bryn Mawr Hospital.
-
But Mrs. Scott's charity work was not limited to the Devon Horse Show. Earlier this year, Mrs. Scott coordinated a 90th birthday bash for herself which alone raised another $100,000 for Bryn Mawr Hospital, her favorite charity.
-
Mr. Speaker, at this time, I ask my colleagues to pay tribute to the late Hope Montgomery Scott. She will be greatly missed by her family, friends, and admirers.
Copyright (c)
Author Denis Green
legion@q-net.net.au