Ms. Judy Martin toured Belcourt Castle as Alva Belmont, who divorced millionaire William K. Vanderbilt and married Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, an heir to the American Rothschild banking representative, August Belmont. Judy Martin comes from Dallas, Texas. She has an undergraduate degree in theatre and was a high school drama teacher for fifteen years. She has acted in community theater in Texas and Washington state. Over a twenty-year career she acted in, directed and choreographed musicals such as “L’il Abner”, “Bye Bye Birdie”, “Hello, Dolly”, “Oklahoma”
Life at "Belcourt" began in 1895, when Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, a bachelor, occupied his new summer “cottage” in Newport. On September 2, 1895, his best friend’s wife, Alva Vanderbilt, hosted the opening ball. That night the 60-room mansion captivated Newport society when they saw that architect Richard Morris Hunt had created a veritable French Louis XIII-style hunting lodge, with the entire ground level devoted to horses and carriages. “I remember driving in through large wrought iron gates when I was sixteen”, said Daisy Pearson Hull to Harle Tinney in 1961. “We went into the house through massive carved doors inside and up to the ballroom on the second floor.” Julia Ward Howe also described the tour of Belcourt at the opening ball, where Mr. Belmont showed off “the finest stable in America” with thirty stalls.
The year 1896 saw changes as Alva Vanderbilt, aged 43, became Alva Belmont. Right away Belmont’s library became a bedroom for Alva. Soon, Mrs. Belmont changed the house with no kitchen and one bedroom into a grand place to entertain. By 1907 the horses were gone entirely and a new library took the place of the tack room and part of the passageway. The exercise yard for horses became a garden courtyard, and the carriage room became a large banquet hall. Mrs. Belmont oversaw it all.
Ms. Martin has absorbed the character of the indomitable Alva and portrayed the lady in her later years, recalling her life and making some observations about the way Belcourt has become Belcourt Castle under the 52-year ownership of the Tinney Family. Harle Tinney, who married Donald H. Tinney in 1960, introduced Mrs. Belmont by telling some of her own personal stories of life at Belcourt Castle. In the introduction to the tour, she toured the renovated Banquet Hall, the present Tinney Family Chapel (once a reception room) and the Lower Grand Hall. She described the Tinney Family collections of priceless antiques which make Belcourt Castle a home with museum qualities.
The tea was held appropriately in the English Library, where Mrs. Belmont shared personal memories of her parties, her building projects and her motivations for the suffrage movement. Alva Belmont’s role in “Votes for Women” is significant. The interaction between Mrs. Belmont and Mrs. Tinney, with questions and comments from guests at tea was an extemporaneous conversation. A lovely wood fire in the English-style fireplace crackled softly as tea was served from silver accompanied by tasty pastries.
The program will be repeated on Saturday February 21st, 2009 at 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm. The evening tour will include champagne in place of tea.
To join the Saturday program guests must telephone 401-846-0669. The cost is $18.00 per adult and $10.00 per child aged 6 to12.
