Belcourt
Castle is the former summer cottage
of Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, located in Newport,
Rhode Island. Located on Bellevue Avenue, Belcourt
was designed by Richard Morris Hunt for the heir
of August Belmont, a Prussian Jew who came to the
United States in 1837 as an agent for the Rothschilds
and accumulated enormous personal wealth as a banker.
Oliver Belmont, at 33, was still a bachelor during
the construction of his 60,000 square foot (5,600
m²), 60 room summer villa. Based on a Louis
XIII hunting lodge at Versailles, Belcourt incorporated
Oliver's love of pageantry, history and horses in
its magnificent interior halls, salons and ballrooms.
Belmont wanted Belcourt designed precisely to his
specifications. Hunt was hesitant, but he concentrated
on his guiding principle that it was his client's
money he was spending.
When construction
finished in 1894, the entire first floor
was composed of carriage space and a multitude of
stables for Belmont's prized horses . Scheduled
to open for July 4th of that year, Belcourt would
remain closed for the summer season. Belmont was
hospitalized in New York City, the victim of a mugging.
It would be a full year until Belmont saw his completed
mansion. The summer of 1895 witnessed the thirty
servants of Belcourt preparing the vast estate for
the arrival of its owner. Immediately, Belmont set
out to inspect his extensive stables, which entailed
the entire south façade. The building was
formed of a large quadrangle, with two story wings
connecting to a three-story main block (the north
wing). The result can be viewed today in the form
of a large, 80 by 40 foot (24 by 12 m) central courtyard
with half timbers. Inside the mansion was just as
magnificent and somewhat eccentric. Belmont housed
his vast collection of horses and carriages on the
first floor, accessed by two huge carriage entrances
on either side of the north façade. To the
west of this vast area was Belmont's Francis I Renaissance-style
Grand Hall and foyer which exited onto Ledge Road.
The monumental Gothic rooms with their huge stained-glass
windows
were emblazoned with the coat of arms of Dunois,
the Bastard of Orléans. The room's original
damask, blood red in colour, has long since been
replaced with the same fabric in gold. Ascending
the Grand Staircase, now a replica of the stairs
in the Cluny Museum in France, guests reached Belmont's
second floor Grand Hall.
The details are exactly
the same as those of its partner room below. Belmont
married Alva Vanderbilt, the former wife of William
Kissam Vanderbilt, on January 11, 1896. Eager to
reshape and redesign Belcourt, Alva made changes
that morphed the already eccentric character of
Belcourt into a yet more eccentric hybrid mixture
of styles. Oliver Belmont died in 1908, and surviving
Belmonts sold their interest in Belcourt in 1940.
Belcourt deteriorated, largely uninhabited under
several owners, until the Tinneys, of Cumberland,
Rhode Island, bought Belcourt in 1956 for $25,000.
In addition to changing the name from Belcourt to
Belcourt Castle, the Tinneys filled the house with
their own collection of antiques and reproductions.
Included are a coronation coach, which the Tinneys
made, and an original copy of a Hyacinthe Rigaud
portrait of Louis XIV. The centerpiece of the Tinney
additions is an enormous Imperial Russian-style
chandelier, which holds 13,000 rock crystal prisms
and 105 lights. The luminous treasure hangs a few
feet above the floor of the banquet hall.
Materials
Belcourt Castle's
distinctive exterior appearance was achieved through
the use of brick and stone to frame the windows,
doors and
fields of stucco.
Other: wrought iron (gates, grilles
and railings), stone (pilasters, pathways and
estate walls)
Structure:
Steel I-beams, brick (firewalls, structural partitions),
concrete, heavy timber (beams, rafters and floor
joists), iron (support rods for staircase, ceilings,
etc)
o Foundation: concrete and cut stone.
