Weird Island

32. HAUNTED: Newport’s Belcourt Castle

Episode Summary

Belcourt Castle, the third biggest mansion in Newport, was built as a bachelor pad for Oliver Belmont and his many horses. Over the years, it developed a reputation for its paranormal activity. To Visit: 657 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840 - Tours on Weekends

Episode Notes

Belcourt Castle, the third biggest mansion in Newport, was built as a bachelor pad for Oliver Belmont and his many horses. Over the years, it developed a reputation for its paranormal activity.

To Visit: 657 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840 - Tours on Weekends

Episode Source Material:

Episode Transcription

In the late 1800s, America’s most wealthy residents had what was called a social season and it was split in half. The winter season was spent in New York and the Summer season was, famously, held in Newport, Rhode Island. All at once, Newport started sprouting enormous, elegant mansions perfect for big social events. But they weren’t called mansions by the people who built them. No, they were “summer cottages,” of course. Although they look nothing like a cottage to me.
These places are enormous. When you go to visit, you might find yourself saying, “Imagine living in there…” And maybe you’re picturing all the things you could fit into a house that big. Maybe an indoor pool or a home movie theater or enormous walk-in closets to fit all of your shoes and clothes.
But when I see a huge house like that and I imagine living in it, it makes me feel really nervous. All that empty space. Someone could be inside the house and you wouldn’t even know at all. And with those big rooms and high ceilings, an otherwise inconspicuous noise, like a floor creaking or the heat turning on, might echo and resonate throughout the house. And sound like an intruder. I would be startling at every little noise. Turning on and off lights in empty rooms, doing laps of the house, checking attics and closets, like a little kid checking for monsters before bed. I know that’s how I would be in a big mansion, because it’s kind of already what I do when I’m alone in my tiny apartment. So when I see a house that big, the idea of living in it actually just makes me feel anxious.
But it’s that creepiness that made me think, one of these mansions has got to be haunted, right? And, unsurprisingly, a number of them are. There’s one that stood out, both for its history and for its hauntings, and with Halloween coming up, it is the perfect time for some ghost stories.
Hi, I’m Sara. And you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week, I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny little state in Rhode Island. And this week, I’m going to be telling you about haunted suits of armor, spirits that walk through walls, and chairs that push you right out of them - all at the beautiful Belcourt Castle.
Welcome to Belcourt Castle, the third largest mansion in Newport. Designed to look like a Louis XIII hunting lodge at Versailles, the building is interesting in its construction. Because it wasn’t really made to be comfortable for people. It was built for one man and his horses.
That man was Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont. Oliver came from a wealthy banking family, and he was a socialite, and a member of his family’s banking firm, and a US Representative from NY. When his father died in 1890, Oliver received a large inheritance. And a year later, he hired Richard Morris Hunt, a prominent architect amongst the wealthy, to design his dream summer home - one that has been described as a bachelor pad for Oliver and his many horses. If you know anything about horse racing, which I didn’t, the name Belmont might sound a little familiar. In the United States, the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing is made up of a series of three races: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes - which was founded by and named for Oliver’s father, August Belmont.
So, a love for horses was in Oliver’s DNA, and he was said to be a skilled 4-horse-in-hand carriage driver. And he wanted this summer home built around the carriage house and stables, with just a single bedroom, so he could live in privacy with his horses. Richard Morris Hunt wasn’t so sure about this concept, but he had a guiding principle to his architectural approach, and that was that it was his clients’ money he was spending, not his own. So he built the mansion to Oliver Belmont’s wishes. And in addition to having the house built around the carriage room and stables, Oliver had space for his collections, which included carriages, medieval manuscripts, stained glass and suits of armor. Some of that armor was displayed riding life sized statues of horses.
The house was finished in 1894, but that year Belmont missed his whole Newport summer season there, because he was mugged in New York and ended up hospitalized. But the following year, in 1895, Oliver opened Belcourt with a “Bachelor’s Ball.” It was quite the event. Monkeys and birds were brought in from a menagerie Belmont had collected at one of his other Newport residences, and they were scattered around the courtyard amongst lights and tropical plants. Guests participated in hobby horse races, and when they left, they were given expensive party favors, like riding whips with silver handles and satin bags and bouquets of flowers for the women.
But though this was a bachelor’s ball, Oliver wouldn’t stay a bachelor for long. Because he fell in love with a woman named Alva, who happened to be the wife of his friend, neighbor and business partner, William Vanderbilt. Alva divorced William in 1895 and a year later, she married Oliver and moved down the street to Belcourt Castle.
Alva was not a fan of the fact that Belcourt Castle, with its 60 rooms, had only one bedroom, one bathroom and no kitchen. So she started to “civilize” the mansion. She had the carriage room converted into a banquet hall, added a kitchen, created a bedroom for herself and added a library, with four secret, well-hidden doors.
Alva and Oliver were together for 12 years, until Oliver’s death in 1908 at age 49 from septic poisoning after a burst appendix. Alva went on to have a prominent role in the Women’s Suffrage movement, but spent much of the end of her life in Europe or NY, not at Belcourt Castle. When she died in 1933, the house went to Oliver’s oldest brother, 80 year old Perry Belmont.
For the next 16 years, the house changed ownership a number of times. In 1940, it was sold to a man named George Waterman, who planned to turn it into an antique car museum. But when he found out it wasn’t properly zoned for that use, he sold the property to a man named Edward Dunn, who never actually lived in it. Dunn rented the place out to the military during WWII, and the stables served as a place to repair military equipment. But after the war, the place was largely abandoned. Until Dunn struck a deal with a Danish artist named Benny Collins. Collins was commissioned to paint his huge altarpiece for a New York church, but he needed a space large enough to work in. Dunn allowed Collins to live in Belcourt and use it as a studio, while also acting as caretaker of the estate. At this point, the largely empty Belcourt mansion was a pretty appealing target for trespassers and vandals. So Collins had an idea. He bought a white sheet, a broom and a flashlight and when intruders got in, he would chase them out, pretending to be a ghost. This added to some rumors that had already started to trickle around that the house was haunted. Collins stayed on as caretaker after Dunn sold the house to Elaine and Louis Lorillard in 1954. The couple briefly used the house to host the Newport Jazz Festival, though that didn’t last long. In 1956, the Lorillards sold the house to the Tinney Family, who would reside there for the next 50 or so years.
Let me tell you a little bit about the Tinney Family. There were four members of the family that initially moved into the house: Harold Tinney and his wife Ruth, their son Donald and Ruth’s aunt, Nellie Fuller. When the family moved in, Benny Collins stayed as well, as a resident artist and, later, a tour guide once the house was opened to the public.
The family restored the deteriorating Belcourt and turned it into a museum displaying their private collection of antiques, which included Persian rugs, French royal art and furnishings, Asian furnishings, religious artifacts and a collection of chandeliers. In addition to some of the collections left by Oliver Belmont, like that collection of armor I mentioned earlier. So many people wanted to tour the place, the family hired tour guides on the weekends. One of these tour guides was a young girl named Harle Hanson. And the Tinney’s son, Donald, quickly fell in love with her. The two were married and lived in the estate for many years.
Throughout that time, some strange things started to happen. The house had a lot of history behind it at this point. And, to Harle, it seemed like maybe there were spirits in the house. Not ghosts. The place didn’t seem haunted; it wasn’t scary. But there were these lingering spirits associated with the place.
For instance, Belcourt was supposedly built over a man’s grave that was never relocated before construction began. And some people reported seeing the spirit of the man wandering around the Banquet hall. And then there were reports of the spirit of a feisty lady in a ballgown, thought to be the spirit of Alva Belmont, who was occasionally seen on the 2nd floor. These two spirits were said to be connected to the house.
But not only was the house full of its own history, but it was chock full of stuff. Antiques and artifacts and they all came with their own stories, too.
There were these two chairs, called the Salt Chairs or Salt Thrones, and they were said to have been used by French kings or royalty. And when people got close to them, they reported feeling a prickling feeling on their skin. And some who tried to sit in the chairs said they couldn’t for some reason. There was some sort of resistance, almost pushing them out of the seat. One guest even fell out of the chair, and claims he was shoved out.
There was also this German wood carving of a monk in a hooded cloak. One night, Harle Tinney woke up to see a man standing at the foot of her bed. He wore a brown cloak with a hood, and left the room by walking right through a wall. Later, a paranormalist hired by the Tinneys was said to have communicated with the monk, who asked that the wooden carving be moved into Belcourt’s chapel and the family did as the spirit asked. One day, a guest on a tour wandered past the chapel and saw a man preparing for mass. When the visitor asked when the mass would be held, everyone looked at her with confusion. No mass was planned, and when they returned to the chapel, it was empty.
And then there were those suits of armor. There is nothing scarier than a suit of armor, because it already looks like a person, but there’s no person inside. And yet, what if there was someone hiding in there. It’s almost like your brain can’t help but imagine a suit of armor starting to move.
Well, one 15th century set of armor had this crack in the helmet. And it was thought that the knight who once wore the armor was killed by a spear or some other medieval weapon that went through his visor. One night, Harle Tinney was going to the kitchen and noticed the lights were on in the ballroom. She shut them off, but when she did, she heard a scream. I imagine she was pretty brave, because she didn’t panic at all, while I would be freaking out. Apparently there were a few other residents living in the mansion at the time, and she assumed maybe one of them was playing a trick on her. So she walked back to the kitchen. But then she noticed that the lights were on again. So she turned them off. And, again, she heard a scream. She called the residents upstairs to check in, and they answered the phone and assured her they had nothing to do with the screaming. So Harle waited for her husband to come in from walking the dogs, and when he did, the dogs would go nowhere near that ballroom.
They came to believe that the screams came from the spirit of the knight who was forced to relive his death over and over again. And in addition to screams, some visitors on tours claimed to see the helmet move out of the corner of their eyes.
There were so many paranormal experiences like this that the Tinneys conducted ghost tours and invited paranormalists to visit the house. And Harle wrote a whole book of her experiences within the mansion.
Truthfully, while I have an incredibly overactive imagination and get scared very easily, I’m not actually a believer in ghosts. Or, at least, I don’t believe I believe in ghosts. But as soon as it starts to get dark, my mind plays tricks on me, and I start seeing all kinds of things moving and faces reflected in windows and I hear noises and I get all freaked out.
In fact, as I was reading about Belcourt Castle, I looked up “haunted objects.” I was curious to understand how often objects are believed to be haunted as compared to places. And it turns out there are tons of supposed haunted objects -- or “possessed possessions” if you will (which aren’t all possessions inherently possessed). But not only are there lots of stories about haunted objects, but there are tons available for purchase on eBay. And while I claim that I do not believe in ghosts, I couldn’t actually bring myself to click on any of the listings, just in case. I don’t know what I thought would happen. But a few years ago, Post Malone claimed to have come into contact with a famous possessed possession called the Dybbuk Box, and he said it caused a whole string of bad luck. So just in case, I couldn’t risk clicking on the link. But just as a fun fact, should you desire to own a haunted object, you could perhaps buy something like a “Haunted Demonic Spiritual Possessed Paranormal Doll - DONT BUY IF CAN'T HANDLE.” But be aware, according to eBay’s policies on the sale of paranormal items, you are buying a tangible item only, no promise of a spirit attached.
So on that note, I’d like to let you know that you can actually tour Belcourt Castle on the weekends, but I can’t promise you’ll have any paranormal experiences. Belcourt is no longer owned by the Tinney family. In 2012, Harle (the last surviving Tinney family member) sold the mansion to Carolyn Raffaelian, the founder of jewelry company Alex and Ani. And she still owns it today.
Most of the Tinney family’s antiques were included in the 2012 sale, but today only a few are still displayed in the house, which is being renovated back to its earlier setup. But if you’re hoping to encounter ghosts, you should know that the chapel has been converted back into a reception room, which is how it would have been when Alva and Oliver Belmont lived in the mansion. So you’re unlikely to encounter the spirit of the monk. And, actually, according to the current owner, you’re unlikely to encounter any spirits at all. She said that “There were energies and entities, some not pleasant.” But she reportedly had a shaman perform ceremonies to rid the house of spirits. And today, she says, “The house has a different vibration.”
But if you’re still a little nervous about taking a tour, strewn around Belcourt Castle are crests and engravings that say, “Without Fear,” in French (which I’ll avoid trying to pronounce). It’s kind of the motto of Belcourt. And can serve as a little reminder to you on your tour to forge on, without fear, even if you feel like there’s a spirit present.
Thanks for listening! As always, all research and writing is done by me, Sara Corben.
If you liked this episode, I’d love it if you could share it with your family and friends. Or you can email me or send me a recorded voice memo at weird rhode island @ gmail.com. And if you have any spooky stories of your own, please send them my way! I want to hear them! Hope to hear from you and see you next week as we dig up more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of Rhode Island. Until next time!