Belcourt Castle
photo taken from pics4.city-data.com
Belcourt Castle is the former summer cottage of Oliver Belmont, a former wealthy American socialite and United States Representative of New York. The castle took three years to be built (1891-1894) and only intended to be used for 2-3 months of the year. Today, it is a museum of antiquities and a place for architectural and social history. Of the sixty rooms in the castle, only a little over a dozen are viewed by tour.
The castle is a “hot spot” for paranormal activity. This includes moving chairs, armor, a possessed statue, and ghostly apparitions. It is said that the castle is home to more than eleven ghosts. There is a lady in a gown who vanishes in-between doors, a spirit trapped inside a suit of armor who ‘s growls you can hear in the ballroom, and even a monk who hovers over a wood-carving of a monk.
Works Cited/Further Reading
http://www.belcourtcastle.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belcourt_Castle
http://cache.travel.boston.com/places/newengland/stories/globe_belcourt.shtml
Belcourt castle is a must see. It is the only Newport, Rhose Island mansion that you can tour that has it’s owner still in residence. The 60 room mansion was built for Oliver H. P. Belmont in the 1890s. he married the divorced Alva Vanderbilt and they lived there together. Harle Tinney owns this mansion today and she often gives the tour herself. Please go and see this wonderful historical mansion !