Belmont 150th - An Evening at Bellmont

An Evening at Bellmont

Attending an event at Bellmont in 1859, the year Belmont was incorporated, would have begun with a carriage ride up the long curving oyster shell drive to the north entrance of the fifty room mansion, Bellmont, home of John Perkins Cushing and his wife, Mary Louisa. Mr. Cushing was a major contributor to the fight for incorporation, and the town was named for his home. The spelling, however, was changed to Belmont. Once inside the showplace residence, designed by Asher Benjamin, guests would have enjoyed refreshments and entertainment as they socialized.

The building itself was a novelty. It was literally a house within a house, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter than traditional structures. The exterior of the mansion was brick painted yellow. The trim was dark green. Ten Corinthian columns of Carrara marble supported galleries on both the east and south sides of the mansion.

After guests were seen safely to the door at Bellmont, carriages would continue to the large center-entrance, two-storey carriage house/stable on the west side of the house. Carriages could be stored there long or short term while horses and drivers were rested and refreshed. The building was spacious and well appointed.

Inside the house beautiful furnishings and exotic art objects were to be found. Many rooms were circular or oval, finished in mahogany, Spanish cedar, oak and ebony. More columns were incorporated into the interior design and there were fifty fireplaces of Italian marble throughout the house. Some floors were ebony, others were inlaid with intricate patterns. Oriental carpets added their brilliant colors to those of the stained glass windows.

The walls of some of the rooms at Bellmont were covered with Chinese wallpaper ordered by Mr. Cushing directly from China. Historic New England is in possession of two panels of the yellow wallpaper used in the oval music room. Typical of Chinese papers of the period it shows cherry, lemon and other flowering trees, bamboo, peonies and an assortment of decorative birds. The panels are non-repeating and would have presented a graceful and vibrant mural around the room. A strip of the paper approximately 2 to 3 feet wide is missing from the bottom of each panel. The sections would have included additional birds and a foreground.

Bellmont was constructed between 1840 and 1849 at a cost of more than $115,000. The roads that today mark the block within which the house stood are Benton, Old Middlesex, Indian Hill and Essex. The original estate covered 200 acres.

At the end of the garden was a 60-foot-long conservatory and 14 greenhouses devoted to the cultivation of orchids, palms, azaleas, grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs and a wide assortment of other fruits, vegetables and plants. Behind the conservatory was a tree-lined walk up to a rustic summer house from which one could enjoy a view of Boston and its suburbs.

Thirty-seven acres of spacious and well-kept lawns stretched to what is today Payson Road. At the foot of what is now Pequossette Road there was an artificial lake. The grounds were screened and shaded by immense copper beeches, elms, oaks and magnolias. One of the magnolias still stands and is said to be one of the largest in the northern states.

Between the house and present-day Cushing Avenue was a nearly two acre flower garden said to have been laid out by the previous owner of the property, Eleazer Preble. He had built two high brick walls to protect the garden from the winds. One was on the west side, the other on the east. The east wall still stands. It is 11 feet high, 13 inches thick, 165 feet long and is capped with lead. Today it provides a boundary between the homes on Preble Gardens Road and those on Townsend Road. Walkways extended all around the rectangular garden with walks seven feet wide dividing the garden into four great squares. Next to the garden was a park well stocked with deer.

The focal point of the garden was a Carrara marble fountain resting on a base of fine granite that rose from a circular pool. A giant bed of flowers surrounded the fountain. The spacious landscaped grounds and beautiful gardens at Bellmont were open to the public one day a week. According to newspaper reports, throngs of people enjoyed strolling through the idyllic setting.

The mansion was closed in 1925, shortly after the death of Col. Everett Benton, its last owner. A fire badly damaged Bellmont in 1927 and it was razed in 1929. That is the bad news. The good news is that the land was NOT developed as an amusement park, one of the options offered, but as a residential neighborhood.

While many of the components of the house were sold or taken away as demolition debris a token few remained in town: a stained glass window from China, the circular library components, a handpump fire wagon and many of the bricks that were used in the new homes built in the neighborhood.



An Evening at Bellmont Attending an event at Bellmont in 1859, the year Belmont was incorporated, would have begun with a carriage ride up the long curving oyster shell drive to the north entrance of the fifty room mansion, Bellmont, home of John Perkins Cushing and his wife, Mary Louisa. Mr. Cushing was a major contributor to the fight for incorporation, and the town was named for his home. The spelling, however, was changed to Belmont. Once inside the showplace residence, designed by Asher Benjamin, guests would have enjoyed refreshments and entertainment as they socialized. The building itself was a novelty. It was literally a house within a house, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter than traditional structures. The exterior of the mansion was brick painted yellow. The trim was dark green. Ten Corinthian columns of Carrara marble supported galleries on both the east and south sides of the mansion. After guests were seen safely to the door at Bellmont, carriages would continue to the large center-entrance, two-storey carriage house/stable on the west side of the house. Carriages could be stored there long or short term while horses and drivers were rested and refreshed. The building was spacious and well appointed. Inside the house beautiful furnishings and exotic art objects were to be found. Many rooms were circular or oval, finished in mahogany, Spanish cedar, oak and ebony. More columns were incorporated into the interior design and there were fifty fireplaces of Italian marble throughout the house. Some floors were ebony, others were inlaid with intricate patterns. Oriental carpets added their brilliant colors to those of the stained glass windows. The walls of some of the rooms at Bellmont were covered with Chinese wallpaper ordered by Mr. Cushing directly from China. Historic New England is in possession of two panels of the yellow wallpaper used in the oval music room. Typical of Chinese papers of the period it shows cherry, lemon and other flowering trees, bamboo, peonies and an assortment of decorative birds. The panels are non-repeating and would have presented a graceful and vibrant mural around the room. A strip of the paper approximately 2 to 3 feet wide is missing from the bottom of each panel. The sections would have included additional birds and a foreground. Bellmont was constructed between 1840 and 1849 at a cost of more than $115,000. The roads that today mark the block within which the house stood are Benton, Old Middlesex, Indian Hill and Essex. The original estate covered 200 acres. At the end of the garden was a 60-foot-long conservatory and 14 greenhouses devoted to the cultivation of orchids, palms, azaleas, grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs and a wide assortment of other fruits, vegetables and plants. Behind the conservatory was a tree-lined walk up to a rustic summer house from which one could enjoy a view of Boston and its suburbs. Thirty-seven acres of spacious and well-kept lawns stretched to what is today Payson Road. At the foot of what is now Pequossette Road there was an artificial lake. The grounds were screened and shaded by immense copper beeches, elms, oaks and magnolias. One of the magnolias still stands and is said to be one of the largest in the northern states. Between the house and present-day Cushing Avenue was a nearly two acre flower garden said to have been laid out by the previous owner of the property, Eleazer Preble. He had built two high brick walls to protect the garden from the winds. One was on the west side, the other on the east. The east wall still stands. It is 11 feet high, 13 inches thick, 165 feet long and is capped with lead. Today it provides a boundary between the homes on Preble Gardens Road and those on Townsend Road. Walkways extended all around the rectangular garden with walks seven feet wide dividing the garden into four great squares. Next to the garden was a park well stocked with deer. The focal point of the garden was a Carrara marble fountain resting on a base of fine granite that rose from a circular pool. A giant bed of flowers surrounded the fountain. The spacious landscaped grounds and beautiful gardens at Bellmont were open to the public one day a week. According to newspaper reports, throngs of people enjoyed strolling through the idyllic setting. The mansion was closed in 1925, shortly after the death of Col. Everett Benton, its last owner. A fire badly damaged Bellmont in 1927 and it was razed in 1929. That is the bad news. The good news is that the land was NOT developed as an amusement park, one of the options offered, but as a residential neighborhood. While many of the components of the house were sold or taken away as demolition debris a token few remained in town: a stained glass window from China, the circular library components, a handpump fire wagon and many of the bricks that were used in the new homes built in the neighborhood. Town of Belmont \| Belmont Historical Society