in 1909
Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont decided to take an active part in the work
for woman suffrage and inquired of the leaders what was the most
important thing to be done. They answered quickly: "Establish State
headquarters in New York City and also bring the National headquarters
here." With the executive ability for which she was noted Mrs. Belmont
at once rented the entire floor of a big new office building at 505
Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street, and invited both associations to
take headquarters there for two years. They did so and the movement
received a strong impulse not only in New York but in the country at
large. The State association paid no rent and the national press
bureau was maintained by Mrs. Belmont.

While in New York City women of the highest character and ability had
sponsored the suffrage work it had not attracted the women who could
give it financial support. When Mrs. Mackay and Mrs. Belmont
identified themselves with it, opened their homes for lectures and
interested their friends public attention was aroused. The meetings
given in August by Mrs. Belmont at Marble House, Newport, which never
before had been opened to the public, received an immense amount of
space in the New York papers and those outside. The big headquarters
soon were thronged with women; magazines, syndicates and the daily
press had articles and pictures; mass meetings and parades followed
and thousands of women entered the suffrage ranks. At the end of two
years the State association was sufficiently well financed to maintain
its headquarters, which remained in New York until its work was
finished. Mrs. Belmont never lost her interest in the cause and
continued to make large contributions. In a few years Mrs. Mackay
turned her attention to other matters but her society was continued
under the presidency of Mrs. Howard Mansfield. In 1909, under the
direction of Mrs. Catt, its chairman, the Inter-Urban Council of
twenty societies became the Woman Suffrage Party and organization
along the lines of the political parties was begun.

The delegates came to the State convention at Troy in 1909 with high
hopes that with headquarters established in New York City the suffrage
work could be promoted as never before. It was held in the Y. M. C. A.
building and greeted by representatives of the Emma Willard
Association, City Federation of Women's Clubs, Daughters of the
American Revolution and Teachers' Association. Mayor E. P. Mann