20. The Loggia now The French Salon

In The loggia/salon runs the entire 70' length of the north side of the courtyard on the second floor. Between 1894 and 1969 the open area in the half-timbered Norman style with a Victorian balustrade overlooked the central courtyard. Early photographs show the loggia furnished with painted wicker tables and chairs, potted palms and hanging plants and canvas curtains draped in the arches.

Mr. And Mrs. Belmont often enjoyed tea on the loggia while fabulous coach horses, or specimens from his menagerie of wild animals, performed in the courtyard.

When the Castle became a year round home, in 1969, the Tinney Family enclosed the loggia without removing anything original. The half-timbered walls between the French doors to the Gallery were overlaid with oil paintings. These allegorical scenes, painted about 1890 by Italian artists on tooled leather, are framed by fruit moldings which the Tinneys cast from 19th century originals of "Whiteholm", designed by John Russell Pope.

The Tinney Family marbleized the walls in an art process called "Scagliola" like the rooms of "War" and "Peace" in Louis XIV's Versailles Palace. The ceiling has decorative hand sculptured Louis XIV style fruit moldings modeled, molded and cast by the Tinney Family.

The loggia's original soft heart pine plank floor, slanted, was stripped of many layers of deck paint, sanded and finished with deck varnish. The salon is furnished with antiques from the Royal Arts Foundation collections.