Belden House & Mews

Three-hundred-and-ten years of history gave the creators of Litchfield’s newest boutique hotel plenty of material to choose from when designing the elegant Belden House & Mews that now graces North Main Street in Litchfield.

After opening Troutbeck an estate hotel in Amenia NY, developer Anthony Champalimaud envisioned a new, high-end, full-service hotel in Litchfield, a town established in 1715 and where the developer makes his home. His attention focused on the house built for Dr. Charles O. Belden in 1888. With its hip roof, conical gabled pavilions, demilune windows and Doric pilasters, Belden House was the perfect example of Victorian and Queen Anne styles at play beside a Colonial Revival architectural style.

In turn-of-the-last-century Litchfield, the Colonial Revival was serious business. As floods of Eastern European immigrants flooded into the country, Colonial Revivalism was more than just a style, it was a way of life. Prominent families embraced their colonial roots, held teas and balls and replaced or remodeled elaborately ornamented Victorian homes with white-columned 18th century-style houses to evoke images of the town’s past.

Belden House took its cue from this movement but it was not the final architectural statement in Litchfield. After World War II artists and designers began creating a completely modern movement.

Hungarian-born Marcel Breuer, protégé of modernist godfather Walter Gropius, was commissioned to design three homes in Litchfield, featuring original and highly functional interior designs for the modern family. Soon other homes were on the drawing board, and a modernist enclave was established on a cul-de-sac, set back from the Litchfield colonial facades. By 1953 Breuer was a household name in Litchfield and had attracted compatriots to the region.

The three-acre Belden House & Mews property marries the 1888 house built for Belden and the Mews, a 1959 modernist building with three wings tucked back from North and West streets. Recently added was the reimagined 1891 Firehouse which hosts meetings and events.

The three structures, carefully conceived by Champalimaud Design (founded by Champalimaud’s mother, Alexandra) and PBDW Architects, are set near the center of a town that is itself on the National Register of Historic Places. They combine to provide a hostelry with 31 guest rooms and suites, a wellness spa, a 50-foot pool, sweeping lawns that lure guests outside to play and a gourmet restaurant.

The buildings have been drawn firmly into 21st-century life, providing a restful retreat from the madding crowd while incorporating thoroughly au courant esthetics. Knit together, each pays homage to its architectural origins, with, for example, rooms carefully accoutered with four-poster beds in the Belden House and mid-20th-century furnishings in the Mews.

The design team has carefully preserved the buildings’ essences and histories through small details including custom wallcoverings duplicated from old fabric remnants uncovered during renovation.

History is everywhere but the skillful use of color banishes any remembrance of sepia-toned stuffiness. In the pink-and-gold living room one finds chic green-patterned fringed banquettes, and a 137-year-old fireplace that still has its original butter yellow tiles. In the 2,100-square-foot, three-bedroom penthouse suite, the living area has velvet sofas in warm blue and pink that frame a leather gymnastics bench that doubles as a coffee table.

There is an acid-green bar with a zinc countertop and cheetah lamp while some main house guest rooms have handsome recessed minibars refashioned from original demi-sinks. Works from Litchfield County creators appear throughout, including custom wall coverings by twenty2 Wallpaper & Grasscloth, ceramic lamps by Dumais Made and tables by renowned craftsman Ian Ingersoll.

In the penthouse suite’s kitchen Marcel Breuer chairs are an homage to modernism and yellow ware mixing bowls reflect vintage New England.

Penthouse guests have access to a kitchen but don’t have to worry about cooking if they don’t want to. The kitchenette is serviced discreetly from Chef Tyler Heckman’s kitchen via a dumbwaiter. Here, as with all guestrooms at Belden, butler service is available 16 hours each day.

Of the 31 rooms and suites, a penthouse suite, two one-bedroom suites, three Grand Rooms and two Belden House bedrooms are in the main house, reachable by two separate carpeted staircases.

All the Mews guest rooms and suites feature sleek designs that evoke traditional designs and a modernist aesthetic emerges from their pale palette. These suites are accessed via private terraced gardens.

All rooms, Mews and Belden House, are furnished with amenities such as artisan Wildsmith skin care products and lush Frette linens on the beds.

Elegant as the rooms are, no one comes to Litchfield to linger in a room. The town is rife with attractions, from alluring shops and historical sites to art galleries, restaurants and parks. Belden House has its own significant temptations. The pool may be seasonal but even as the warmth of the summer months evaporates, the bathhouse and spa at the hotel beckon.

The bathhouse, with its blond wood cabinets, warm brown tiles and stone floors, boasts a sauna, a steam room and a Japanese Ofuru tub for hydrotherapy. Wildsmith wellbeing treatments and thermal experiences are delivered by trained practitioners and can be booked by both guests and day visitors.

With mind and soul replenished by the experiences of the day, guests can turn to Belden House’s restaurant to nourish the body. There, in the house’s original dining room, they will find satisfying dishes created by Chef Heckman. The 26-seat space is not large but, like the hotel itself, is intimate with a feeling that is elegant but not stuffy.

Heckman left New York City after 10 years at Farris, Chelsea Hotel and Villanelle, among others, to return to his native Connecticut. He describes his cuisine as light and approachable but hopes the flavors will make diners wonder, “What are these ingredients?”

Those ingredients are sourced from area farms, the New England coastline and from purveyors the management knows and trusts.

Belden House & Mews offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dining is open to the public, ages 12 and up, and reservations are strongly encouraged

Belden House welcomes kids age 12 and older. Nightly rates at Belden House & Mews start at $500. It is located at 31 North Street, Litchfield, CT 06759; (860) 337-2099.