The town of Belmont took its name from Bellmont, the magnificent 50-room mansion built by the China trade merchant John P. Cushing between 1836 and 1840 on a 150-acre estate between Common and School streets. After Cushing’s death in 1862, the estate and mansion passed through several owners and uses until it was finally razed in 1929 after a fire. One item salvaged from the ruins was a beautifully made curved wooden bookcase that had been designed and built specifically for Cushing’s library. The Belmont Historical Society obtained the remaining pieces of the bookcase years ago and kept them in “temporary” storage that had no climate or insect control provisions. With the wood deteriorating and no suitable place to display and use the bookcase even if it were restored, the Society
This is a painting from the Belmont Historical Society's collection of images depicting people, places, and things from the town's history. This particular picture shows the railroad and railroad station in Belmont Center in 1882, before the underpass was built to eliminate the grade-level crossing.
Joe Cornish has provided this link (http://www.janewentzell.com) to an extensive collection of recent pictures of the historic Thomas Clark House at 59 Common Street. Jane Wentzell is the photographer. The Clark house is the subject of an intensive effort to preserve it from demolition.
