Spaces: Divine Intervention

Belmont Memorial Chapel in Newport as it looks today. Photography by Wolf Matthewson

The Belmont Memorial Chapel has anchored Newport’s Island Cemetery since 1888, a vision of Romanesque beauty carved in brownstone, tipped with gothic arches and a soaring belfry.

Only a select few in the city, however, knew of its existence. For decades, ivy and wisteria vines grew untamed, wrapping the chapel in a verdant cloak, encroaching trees punching holes in the roof.

“I drove by all my life and never saw it. I never knew it was here,” says Elizabeth Leatherman, who serves on the Belmont Chapel Foundation’s board of trustees. “It was completely covered in vegetation.”

Ivy and wisteria vines completely obscured the building before the renovation project started.

The restored chancel features the original altar, made of Caen stone, marble and onyx columns. Photography by Wolf Matthewson

Now, thanks to the efforts of a committed group of volunteers and community members, a three-year, $2.5 million renovation project has restored the chapel to all its Victorian glory.

The chapel was built by August Belmont Sr., a wealthy Newport businessman who married socialite Caroline Slidell Perry, the daughter of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry. It honored their daughter, Jane Pauline, who died at nineteen. (If the surname sounds familiar, it’s because Belmont was also a prominent racehorse owner and breeder — so much so that the Belmont Stakes is named for him.)

The chapel was designed by architects George Champlin Mason Sr. and his son, George Champlin Mason Jr. Later work was done by prominent architect Richard Morris Hunt at the same time he was building Belcourt for August Belmont’s son, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont.

Weddings, burials and other services were held in the nondenominational chapel until 1960, when the cemetery stopped using it. The building fell into disrepair and was completely boarded up in 1978.

The completed nave is centered by a chandelier designed by Jamestown architect Abigail Campbell-King. Photography by Wolf Matthewson

That’s how it remained until 2014, when a few concerned citizens, led by Newport resident Harry Eudenbach, created the Belmont Chapel Foundation to rehabilitate the structure.

They cleared the vines from the building and removed trees that had punctured the slate roof, leaving gaping holes. Inside they found graffiti, crumbling plaster and tile and stained-glass windows pockmarked by vandals armed with BB guns.

The damaged roof had allowed water to seep inside and was the first item slated for repair. The foundation set a $2.5 million fundraising goal and started applying for grants in 2020. Members raised enough money for general contractor The Damon Company, of Newport, to start work in spring 2021, replacing rotted timbers with new heart pine and sourcing new slate roof tiles.

Once the roof was in place, foundation members held a Belmont Stakes viewing party and fundraiser in 2022, both inside the chapel and outdoors.

Workers recreated the design and wording on the chapel’s “Christ Blessing the Children” window after finding the original drawings in Paris. Photography by Wolf Matthewson

Painstaking work went into restoring the chapel’s ornate stained-glass windows. Craftspeople from Serpentino Stained Glass, in Needham, Massachusetts, tracked down the windows’ original designs in Paris and were able to recreate the scenes and wording on the bottom portion of three windows.

Likewise, the mason working on the vestibule floor noticed a name on the back of some of the broken tiles: Craven Dunnill Jackfield. Zachary Russell, the cemetery’s records manager, discovered the English company was still in business and reached out across the pond for help.

“I sent them photographs of the tile and they said, ‘Yeah, we still have the molds from them,” he says. So now the foyer is a swirling mosaic of restored and new tiling.

When it came time to restore the interior plaster walls and paint, foundation members turned to Building Conservation Associates, Inc., in Newton, Massachusetts. Workers there analyzed samples to match the original colors and designs, which preservationists from John Canning & Co. in Cheshire, Connecticut, carried out. In the chancel, they chose white lilies on a cornflower blue background, reminiscent of Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral.

The original double front doors. Photography by Wolf Matthewson

The foundation hit the $2.5 million fundraising goal within three years, with funding sourced mainly through grants, fundraising efforts and individual donations. The building opened to visitors in December 2024, and another Belmont Stakes viewing party was held this past June — this time to celebrate the project’s completion.

The project won two awards in 2024 for its restoration efforts: a Rhody Award for Historic Preservation from Preserve Rhode Island and a Doris Duke Historic Preservation Award.

Foundation members and Island Cemetery employees hope to hold a yearly Belmont Stakes viewing party, along with weddings, meetings, speakers and concerts at the chapel. There’s also talk of bringing back Victorian carolers in time for the holiday season.

Cherubs anchor the seven-foot-wide altar. Photography by Wolf Matthewson

They’re excited to show off the newly restored building to residents, donors and volunteers who supported the project — and the chapel — through its many iterations.

“The community really stepped forward,” says Sharon Hussey, Island Cemetery’s executive director. “People were very interested in seeing this happen.”