The Ghosts Of Belcourt Castle

By Harle H. Tinney

With some new stories and pictures the third edition of THE GHOSTS OF BELCOURT CASTLE recounts stories of apparitions seen, heard, and experienced in Newport, Rhode Island's gilded age mansion of the Belmont Family. Belcourt stood empty for fifteen years until the Tinney Family purchased it in 1956. A residence and showplace, the castle was furn

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Apr 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647537272

Harle H. Tinney

Harle Tinney studied pre-med at Albion College in Michigan and cello at Brown University before her marriage to the artist, restorer and collector, the late Donald Harold Tinney. The Tinney Family acquired art works and furniture from thirty-three countries and many other Newport mansions over a sixty year time span. In 2010 Harle Tinney celebrated her fiftieth year in residence at Belcourt Castle, where some sixteen ghosts have manifested. Paranormal investigators, such as Ghost Hunters and RISEUP, found that some of the spirits are attached to certain antiques, while others occasionally revisit the historic house.

Book preview

THE

GHOSTS

OF

BELCOURT

CASTLE

HARLE H. TINNEY

The Ghosts of Belcourt Castle

Copyright © 2021 by Harle H. Tinney. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021904662

ISBN 978-1-64753-725-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-726-5 (Hardback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-727-2 (Digital)

16.02.21

CONTENTS

Preface

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter I Belcourt Is Not Haunted

Chapter II Belcourt Becomes a Home

Chapter III The Bride

Chapter IV The Monk

Chapter V The Cassone

Chapter VI Strange Noises

Chapter VII Conversations with Ghosts

Chapter VIII The Monk Speaks

Chapter IX The Monk Walks Again…and Again

Chapter X The Disbelievers

Chapter XI The Mysterious Hand

Chapter XII The Pope

Chapter XIII The Believers

Chapter XIV Discovering the Monk

Chapter XV The Secret Door

Chapter XVI Other Ghosts

Chapter XVII August Belmont IV

Chapter XVIII The Cat that attended the funeral

Chapter XIX Christmas Party Apparition

Chapter XX Who Moved the Tools?

Chapter XXI Amateur Ghost Seekers

Chapter XXII Halloween Paranormal Investigation

Chapter XXIII In Life I died, In Death I live

Chapter XXIV Spirit Orb

Chapter XXV Crows

The Author

List of Photographs

Figure 2: Harle Tinney and Virginia Smith

Figure 3: Belcourt Castle West Façade

Figure 4: Self-Portrait of Benny Collin

Figure 5: Musicians Gallery with white sheet ghost

Figure 6: Tinney Family in the Versailles Dining Room

Figure 7: Donald and Harle Tinney’s formal wedding photo by Coit Studio

Figure 8: The Tinney Family in the Seaverge Library in 1956 photo by Jerry Taylor

Figure 9: The monk appears in the grand hall photo enhanced by Keith A. Henry

Figure 10: Italian walnut cassone ca. 1390. Photo by Harle Tinney

Figure 11: Belcourt’s medieval style Master Bedroom. Photo by Residential Properties

Figure 12: French Gothic Ballroom

Figure 13: Exterior of Belcourt

Figure 14: Painting of Mary Magdalene by Guido Reni

Figure 15: Francis I style Grand Stair

Figure: 16: Cabinet with reliquary of Pope St. Sylvester I. Photo 1978 by Yankee Colour Corporation

Figure 17: Thirteenth Century stained glass in the French Gothic Ballroom

Figure 18: Italian battle armor ca. 1450

Figure 19: German woodcarving of a monk

Figure 20: Belcourt’s Family Chapel

Figure 21: Francis I Music Room

Figure 22: Virginia Smith and the French Gothic salt chair

Figure 23: Miniature Horse

Figure 24 : Polished steel and copper chandelier in Belcourt Castle.

Figure 25: Mrs. Belmont’s Bedroom

Figure 26: Ruth Tinney in her pink gown, photo by Coit Studio

Figure 27: English Library

Figure 28: The organ loft in the French Gothic Ballroom

Figure 29: Harle and Donald Tinney at New Year’s Eve

Figure 30: Spirit orb over Donald Tinney’s head. Photo by Larry Brown

Figure 31: Harle Hope Hanson Tinney. Photo by Steven Stanley

Preface

In 1956 the Harold B. Tinney Family purchased Belcourt, a historic sixty-room castle on world-famous Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. They saved it from being torn down. Between 1940 and 1975 about fifty Newport mansions were demolished as functionally obsolete. They were called white elephants and no consideration was given to the skilled craftsmen and architects who built them, or for the social history of prominent citizens who lived in the mansions.

Admiring the lost arts, the Tinney Family learned and practiced many artistic skills such as oil painting in the style of old masters, wood carving, and stained glass in the thirteenth century style. These arts were lost rapidly because of the invention of machinery in the twentieth century. The Tinneys amassed a collection of antique furniture from 33 countries and 37 other Newport landmarks to exhibit within the main rooms of Belcourt. The antiques were skillfully restored using old masters techniques.

Though the Tinney Family had encountered a few unexplained phenomena in their residences, they refused to share the stories outside the family. As a visitor, on a guided tour, Miss Virginia Smith became aware of spirits in the castle. Miss Smith researched and discovered evidence of ghosts, mostly attached to antiques in the Belcourt collection. She began to remove the stigma associated with seeing ghosts, in her popular slide lectures, which benefited Belcourt’s preservation. Miss Smiths’s lecture focused on ghosts she encountered in her travels around the world as well as in Newport, where she now resides. Miss Virginia Smith’s Ghost Tour was expanded to include a guided tour and a shocking demonstration of energy in two chairs in Belcourt Castle’s ballroom.

As Ghost Tour attendance revealed that the subject was growing in popularity, Mrs. Harle Tinney began to share some of the Tinney Family experiences with visitors. Thousands of guests have been introduced to the historic house museum through this intriguing subject.

Mrs. Tinney has related some eerie stories of haunting in the first edition of this book published in 2010. Some current stories have been added to the third edition of "The Ghosts of Belcourt