Unique among the mansions of Newport, “Belcourt”, a Louis XIII style hunting lodge, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt, “the Dean of American architects”. The sixty-room summer cottage cost 3 million dollars in 1894, a figure of approximately seventy-five million dollars in 2007. Three hundred skilled European craftsmen were employed in Belcourt’s creation between 1891 and 1894.

In the original plan the mansion had one bedroom with bathroom, no guest rooms and no kitchen. There were sleeping quarters for thirty full-time servants. The entire first floor was devoted to a fine carriage collection and a stable with 30 luxurious stalls accommodating prized coaching horses.