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48-672: The Newport Art Museum , founded in 1912 as the Art Association of Newport, is located at 76 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island . The museum operates a gallery in the John N. A. Griswold House , a National Historic Landmark that is one of the first American Stick Style buildings. It was designed by the noted American architect, Richard Morris Hunt in 1864 and one was one of his first commissions in Newport. The museum purchased

96-930: A Hyacinthe Rigaud portrait of Louis XIV , which hung in the Green Room in the Palace of the Tuileries . The centerpiece of the Tinney additions was an enormous Imperial Russian -style chandelier, which holds 13,000 rock crystal prisms and 105 lights. The chandelier hangs a few feet above the rose marble mosaic floor of the banquet hall. At the time that Belcourt was purchased in 1956, the Tinney family comprised Harold Tinney, his wife Ruth Tinney, their son Donald Tinney, and Ruth's aunt Nellie Fuller (a descendant of Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller ). In 1960, Donald Tinney married Harle Hanson, who had been at Belcourt to work as

144-553: A banquet hall, a chapel, two of three grand halls, a music room, an Empire-style dining room, a French gothic-style ballroom, two principal bedrooms, a loggia and a gallery. All of the rooms are furnished with pieces from the Tinney family collections. The first tours of Belcourt were given in 1957 and, ever since then, the castle has been a fixture on Bellevue Avenue. The collections included furnishings, art and artifacts from 33 European and Asian countries and 37 other Newport mansions. The Tinney family's enormous collection earned Belcourt

192-424: A building in the district beyond ordinary maintenance and repair, and issue a Certificate of Appropriateness. It cannot order any changes made to a property. Belcourt Castle Belcourt is a former summer cottage designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island . Construction was begun in 1891 and completed in 1894, and it

240-521: A notable status within Newport's thriving tourism industry. Belcourt was also the only mansion in Newport that was both open to the public and had a private owner in residence. Harle Tinney frequently guided tours through her home and was often present to greet visitors when she was in residence. On November 12, 2012, Belcourt was purchased by Carolyn Rafaelian , owner of the Cranston , Rhode Island–based company Alex and Ani , for $ 3.6 million. Rafaelian

288-570: A result, guests entered Belcourt through an entrance just off of Ledge Road, a short road that runs parallel to Bellevue Avenue. Inside the castle was just as magnificent and somewhat eccentric. Belmont housed his vast collection of horses and carriages on the ground 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

336-460: A tour guide. Harle Tinney was the only surviving member of the family when Belcourt was sold in 2012. Other artifacts within Belcourt included an immense collection of Persian rugs , French royal art and furnishings, Oriental art and furnishings, and numerous religious objets d'art . Changes at Belcourt have been numerous in the years following 1956, when the Tinney family moved in. They raised

384-482: Is also a study of the development of the taste and skill of men like Richard Upjohn , Richard Morris Hunt and McKim, Mead and White over their professional careers." Eight of the district's buildings have been designated as National Historic Landmarks in their own right. Several others are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Many are open to the public for guided tours. To maintain

432-446: Is currently restoring and renovating the mansion, which she reopened in summer 2014 as a tour house, art gallery, and event space under the business name Belcourt of Newport. Rafaelian reports she has already spent $ 5 million on renovations, including $ 3 million for a new roof. Belcourt's distinctive exterior appearance was achieved through the use of brick and Westerly granite to frame the windows, doors and fields of stucco. The roof

480-590: Is located on Bellevue Avenue at Lakeview Avenue, in Newport. A 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m ), 60-room summer villa, it was designed by Richard Morris Hunt for 33-year-old Oliver Belmont, who during the construction was divorced from Sara Swan Whiting and the father of a daughter, Natica, for whom he denied paternity. It was based on the Louis XIII hunting lodge at Versailles , and incorporated Oliver's love of pageantry, history and horses in its magnificent interior halls, salons and ballrooms . The Belmont Stakes

528-456: Is pierced by oval copper dormers and chimneys finished in the same manner as the walls. The symmetrical north façade is where the carriage entrances were located. A narrow wrought-iron balcony stretches 70 feet (20 m) on the second floor. Belmont had disdain for the nouveau riche who, in splashy displays of wealth, built ostentatious mansions between Bellevue Avenue and the Atlantic coast. As

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576-579: Is sheathed in Pennsylvania slate and is pierced by numerous ox-eye (elliptical) dormer windows. The interior, completed by 300 imported artisans, was created of carved oak with oak and mosaic marble floors. The numerous decorative ceilings were finished with sculpted and molded plaster and carved woods such as chestnut . The walls are finished with canvas paintings, carved oak, imported paneling and pure silk damasks. The numerous exterior railings and gates are composed of wrought iron and bronze, featuring

624-636: Is the next most common, with many of the historic mansions now used as historic house museums . One, Vernon Court , is home of the National Museum of American Illustration . Another, Belcourt Castle , is a privately owned house museum. Many others are owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County . Salve Regina University , home to some more historic buildings, including the William Watts Sherman House ,

672-465: Is wholly within the district, and there is also a more modern senior citizens home built in the mid-20th century. Commercial properties are clustered near the Newport Casino at the north end of the district, such as two contemporary strip malls opposite and to the right (respectively) of the casino itself. There are some small parks within the district, the block just south of Vernon Court on

720-553: The America's Cup races which began being held in the nearby waters every three years. The onset of the Depression began to change this, as some families, faced with dwindling fortunes, turned their houses over to the public or private nonprofits such as the Preservation Society of Newport County . As the trend toward tourism continued in the years after World War II , the mansions began being converted into museums and opened to

768-714: The Bellevue area, later added to the National Register of Historic Places : the original Bellevue Avenue district along the residential portions of the street itself, the Ochre Point/Cliffs district around The Breakers and the Bellevue Avenue/Casino District in that area. In 1972 the city applied to the National Park Service to combine all three and expand them into the current Bellevue Avenue district. Four years later

816-725: The Belmont coat of arms . The room's original damask , blood red in color, has long since been replaced with the same fabric in gold. The Grand Staircase, now a replica of the stairs in the Cluny Museum in France , connects the Lower Grand Hall to Belmont's Upper Grand Hall on the second floor. The details are mostly the same as those of its partner room below. Myriad formal rooms open onto one another in varying periods of French style and decoration. The galleries and halls of

864-576: The Lorillards sold the rundown, mostly abandoned castle to the Tinney Family. The Tinney Family, 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 castle with their own collection of antiques and reproductions. Included are a coronation coach, which son Donald made, and a 1701 copy of

912-898: The Newport Art Association. It is one of the oldest continuously operating art associations in the United States. The association started during the art colony and Impressionist movements and was connected to the New York art scene. In 1916 the Association acquired the Griswold House to use as a gallery. Today the museum has many notable works particularly from Rhode Island and New England artists, including William Trost Richards , John Frederick Kensett , John La Farge , Gilbert Stuart , and Catharine Morris Wright as well as many contemporary artists. In

960-576: The Taylor estate in Portsmouth . The overthrow was altered to make the gates the tallest of any estate entrance in Newport. In 1983, robbers attempted a million-dollar heist of Belcourt's antiques. Police recovered many artifacts but not a 14-pound silver reliquary containing a relic from the third century. The lawns contain many sculptural pieces in bronze , terra cotta , marble and stone. Depicting scenes from mythology, nymphs and cherubs ,

1008-464: The Tinney family's occupation of the castle up to and including the present day. On May 26, 2009, it was reported that the then-owner of Belcourt, Harle Tinney, had put the residence up for sale. The home was put on the market for $ 7.2 million. As of June 2011, the price had been reduced twice to $ 5.1 million and then to $ 3.9 million. Subsequently, it was taken off of the market and re-listed for sale in two parcels totaling $ 4.625 million. Tinney said she

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1056-493: The carriage room into a banquet hall and transformed a study into a boudoir , importing 18th-century French paneling. In 1899, Belcourt was the host of the nation's first automobile parade. Oliver Belmont died in 1908 and Mrs. Belmont died in France on January 26, 1933. Belcourt passed to 80-year-old Perry Belmont , the eldest Belmont child and Alva's brother-in-law. At the onset of World War II , Perry Belmont had most of

1104-546: The ceiling of the Organ Loft 11 feet (3.4 m) to accommodate a 26-rank tracker organ . Between 1966 and 1970, when the coronation coach was being built, an old kitchen area became a coach hall. In 1969, the open loggia became a French salon. In 1975, they transformed the north-west reception room into a chapel with the addition of German Renaissance stained glass. In the early 1980s, the Tinneys built gate piers on Bellevue Avenue and installed gates that they had acquired from

1152-515: The cliffs at Ochre Point on the eastern shore. The Astors expanded the 1856 Beechwood to suit their needs. These houses and their occupants made Newport synonymous with wealth and leisure in the early 20th century. Tennis and sailing would become associated with the city and the district through the tennis courts in the Casino, which hosted the early tournaments that became the US Open , and

1200-476: The collection is an informal contrast to the strong and robust lines of the French-style château. The driveways and pathways are lined with lush arborvitae , planted by the Tinneys a few years after they moved into Belcourt. Belcourt is the third largest mansion in Newport, after The Breakers and Ochre Court . The castle has been the subject of an ongoing restoration project spanning from the beginning of

1248-403: The contents of Belcourt moved to his other estates as Newport was a naval base and potentially at risk of attack. Select pieces of Alva's were auctioned off, as Perry allegedly had no great love for her. In 1940, Belmont decided to rid himself of Belcourt. Negotiations commenced with George Waterman, an entrepreneur. Waterman envisioned Belcourt as an antique auto museum. The only conditions of

1296-589: The district's historic character, the city created its Historic District Commission (HDC) at the same time as the district itself. It consists of nine citizens appointed to three-year terms by the City Council to oversee not just the downtown historic district but Newport's other historic districts, two of which ( downtown and Ocean Drive ) are also recognized as National Historic Landmarks. The city considers them all one large district for its administrative purposes. The HDC must review any exterior alterations to

1344-411: The district. During the colonial era and the decades after independence , most of Newport's development remained around its downtown area, where port facilities, the mainstay of the city's economy, were. Early in the 19th century, visitors to the city in the summer months came to appreciate the moderating effects of the sea breezes and the panoramic ocean views. They began building cottages along

1392-559: The east side of Bellevue is the location of the Frederick Law Olmsted Arboretum, located on the site of Stoneacre, no longer extant. The grounds of Stoneacre were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted . Rovensky Park is further down Bellevue Avenue and is maintained by the Preservation Society of Newport County. Many of the larger mansions sit on large lots , leaving plenty of open space within

1440-560: The eleven years that he owned it (up until 1954). During the war years when many of the grand mansions were being razed or converted into various institutions, Dunn rented the stables of the rundown castle to the military to use for repairing equipment. Dunn sold Belcourt to Louis and Elaine Lorillard in 1954 for $ 22,500. The Lorillards, of tobacco fame, envisioned Belcourt as a seat for the Newport Jazz Festival . The lawns on Bellevue Avenue could accommodate over 10,000 and

1488-472: The higher ground where Bellevue Avenue, then a lightly traveled farm path, now runs. In 1839, George Noble Jones , a Southern plantation owner, built Kingscote , a Carpenter Gothic building considered the first of the city's mansions. The Civil War and the years leading up to it slowed further development in the area, but then it picked up again during the economic prosperity of the Gilded Age in

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1536-522: The homes represent pioneering work in the architectural styles of the time by major American architects. The district was declared a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1976. Several of the mansions within the district are also individually National Historic Landmarks, and a number of them are open to the public as museums. The district has become one of Newport's major tourist attractions. The district encompasses an area of 606 acres (245 ha) bounded by Block Island Sound and Narragansett Bay to

1584-558: The house in 1915. The museum's second gallery space was built in 1919 and was designed by Delano & Aldrich . Dedicated to the memory of the artist Howard Gardiner Cushing, the museum added the Sarah Rives lobby and Morris Gallery to the building in 1990. The museum's school is the Coleman Center for Creative Studies at 26 Liberty Street. The Museum has its origin in the Art Association of Newport, which later became

1632-584: The later decades of the 19th century. Houses became slightly larger than the original cottages, and experimented with new architectural styles . Chateau-sur-Mer was one of the few built as a year-round residence in 1851, it was later expanded in the 1880s using the Second Empire architecture from France. The Casino and the Isaac Bell House inaugurated the Shingle style , where that material

1680-448: The masonry and stucco façade provided an acoustic background. The large central courtyard was the scene for concerts, with the open loggia providing further room for spectators. Inside, the massive rooms were used for workshops and lodging. However, the future for Belcourt as a permanent venue for the festival was dim due to protests from the neighbors. Belcourt had deteriorated, largely uninhabited for over two decades. In November 1956,

1728-490: The museum's staff page. Bellevue Avenue The Bellevue Avenue Historic District is located along and around Bellevue Avenue in Newport , Rhode Island , United States . Its property is almost exclusively residential, including many of the Gilded Age mansions built as summer retreats around the turn of the 20th century by the extremely wealthy, including the Vanderbilt and Astor families. Many of

1776-430: The national average wage at the time. When construction finished in 1894, the entire first floor was composed of carriage space and a multitude of stables for Belmont's prized horses. Upstairs was a master bedroom with wall scenes depicting the life of a nobleman and a bathroom with Newport's first standing shower. Scheduled to open for July 4 of that year, Belcourt would remain closed for the summer season while Belmont

1824-464: The new district was recognized as a National Historic Landmark District , the second of three in the city. The mansions and museums continue to be a draw for visitors to the city today. The builders of the mansions had the means to employ the best architectural talent available to them at the highest level of creativity. "The list of architects", says NPS historian Carolyn Pitts,"embraces almost every major designer of that time and what emerges at Newport

1872-551: The public; the International Tennis Hall of Fame opened in the Casino in 1955. The 1962 sale of The Elms , the last of the mansions to be owned and operated by the original family, marked the end of the resort era. Preservation efforts had been going on in the downtown historic district for years, and the city had begun to appreciate their value as tourist attractions. In 1965, it recognized as part of its original local historic district three smaller areas in

1920-421: The sale were that Waterman had to restore the castle as close as possible to Hunt's original plans. Waterman was responsible for the restoration of the third-floor roof and removal of an addition overlooking the courtyard. After paying $ 1,000 for the castle, Waterman was informed that zoning wouldn't allow his antique auto museum. In 1943, Waterman sold Belcourt to Edward Dunn, who never lived at Belcourt during

1968-407: The second floor employ the architect's trademark of vistas framing the views into various rooms. Belmont married his neighbor 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. Alva Belmont converted

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2016-526: The south and east, respectively, Spring Street and Coggeshall Avenue to the west, and Memorial Boulevard to the north. This takes in the southeastern quarter of the developed portions of the city on the southwestern neck of Aquidneck Island . Bellevue Avenue itself runs north–south for over two miles (3.2 km) through the middle of the district. Land use within the district is overwhelmingly residential. Most of its 63 buildings are dwellings either in use or originally built for that purpose. Institutional use

2064-612: The summer of 2024, the museum eliminated four positions leaving it without a full time curator on staff. Representatives stated plans to switch to a guest curator approach for its exhibitions. Spokespeople for the Independent Curators International and the American Alliance of Museums raised concerns about the museum's practices in response to these changes. As of October 18, 2024, there were no longer any curatorial department staff listed on

2112-535: Was hospitalized in New York City , the victim of a mugging. It would be a full year until Belmont saw his completed mansion. The building was formed of a large quadrangle, with two-story wings connecting to a three-story main block (the north wing). The effect can be viewed today in the form of a large, 80-by-40-foot (24-by-12m) central courtyard with half timbers in the Norman style . The immense mansard roof

2160-422: Was intended to be used for only six to eight weeks of the year. Belcourt was designed in a multitude of European styles and periods; it features a heavy emphasis on French Renaissance and Gothic decor, with further borrowings from German, English, and Italian design . In the Gilded Age , the castle was noted for its extensive stables and carriage areas, which were incorporated into the main structure. Belcourt

2208-522: Was named for his father, August Belmont Sr. , and Oliver was known for his skill as a four-in-hand carriage driver. Belmont wanted Belcourt designed precisely to his specifications. Hunt was hesitant, but concentrated on his guiding principle that it was his client's money he was spending. Construction cost $ 3.2 million in 1894, a figure of approximately $ 80 million in 2011 dollars. Belmont employed some thirty servants at Belcourt, with aggregate wages of approximately $ 100 per week, or approximately 40% of

2256-462: Was ready to part with the home after her husband's death in 2006. Belcourt was open to the public as a museum of antiquities and architectural and social history. Of the 60 rooms at Belcourt, over a dozen were viewable on tour. A visit to the castle included viewings of an English library (added in 1910 by John Russell Pope ; the ceiling is a replica of the one in Haddon Hall 's Long Gallery),

2304-483: Was used as siding instead of clapboard. More and more wealthy families were drawn to Newport in the summers, transforming the architecture again. William Kissam Vanderbilt 's Marble House in 1888 helped spark the transformation of Newport with stone as a building material, Beaux Arts as a style, and set a new standard for size. A few years later, his brother Cornelius spent a record $ 7 million (equivalent to $ 256 million in 2023) on The Breakers , sitting above

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