The story
Belcourt sits on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, completed in 1894 for banking heir Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont by Richard Morris Hunt in the manner of a Louis XIII hunting lodge — famously designed around Belmont's horses, with carriage space below and the grand rooms above — and after Belmont's marriage to Alva Vanderbilt it became one of the Gilded Age's most storied addresses. Through the 20th century successive owners opened it for tours, and its haunted reputation grew steadily: the Tinney family, long its keepers, spoke openly of experiences, and tour guests and investigators have described footsteps in the ballroom, a monk's figure associated with a carved statue, chills around a suit of armour said in telling to cry out — linked to lore of its former owner's death — moving shadows in the French Gothic salon, and music from empty rooms. Under newer stewardship the mansion has been restored with tours continuing. These accounts should be presented as decades of owner and visitor telling, colourful and unverified. Current tour details should be confirmed from the official site before publishing.