The Palatial Belvedere Guest House
We take a trip to the extravagant Fire Island retreat that's steeped in queer history and mystery.
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While you’re here, here are some Dick Diaries that you might also like: Cole, Gabe, Troy, Jimmy Jimmy Cocoa Puff, Beto El Cabezón, Pillow Penis, Humpty Dumpty, The Driver, Thumper.
TEXT BY ELIAS BAEZ
PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN LEWANDOWSKI
There’s no place like Fire Island, and no home away from home like the Belvedere Guest House. Open to the public since 1957, the palatial landmark perched on the Cherry Grove bay has harbored generations of gay people seeking pleasure, community, and safety. Built by and for queer people, John Eberhardt, a New Jersey native who designed department store windows and sets for opera and TV, laid the Belvedere’s original foundation in 1949, bringing to life a Venetian-style fantasy that strikes an unmistakable silhouette with its ornate turrets and domed towers.
This summer, Coach partnered with several iconic Fire Island institutions, including the Belvedere, to celebrate what the LGBTQ community has built for ourselves. The other landmarks included are the Pines Pantry, Cherry’s, and the Tea Dance (also known as High Tea). Tote bags and tees have been fashioned with vintage imagery featuring these staple stops, mandatory for any weekend on the island.
In the wake of corporate disinvestment from queer representation, partnerships like this grow especially important. Similarly, as conservative politics gain traction rolling back our rights, we have to become more politically motivated. The Belvedere is textured by decades of queer struggle for survival that led to our hard-won freedoms. Its history can inform our understanding of the present moment.
The Belvedere Guest House has been family-owned and operated since its inception. John Eberhardt, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 92, gave the reins to his kin. The man he shared his life with the late Craig Eberhardt’s later partner
Julian Dorcelien Eberhardt is the current steward of the Belvedere’s business, mission, and legacy. This June, GAYLETTER caught up with Julian to discuss the Belvedere Guest House’s history, purpose, and place in the contemporary landscape.
The Belvedere began as John’s private home in 1949. Its palazzo-inspired expansion, the guest house, was unfinished in 1957, but enough had been built to be seen by passersby. That year, Duffy’s Hotelburned down. It had been the leading place for visitors to stay on the island. When July 4th revelers came knocking to ask if there were any rooms to rent, John realized he had the opportunity to make the Belvedere a lodging for people, and make himself some money on the way.
Over the course of his time on the island, at first alone and then with Craig, John built a sizable number of homes in Cherry Grove and the Pines. At Julian’s estimate, “He built 30 percent of the Grove.”
Cherry Grove had always been progressive. Julian describes it as “gay since the 1800s,” when it first began as an artist community. He recounts the documentary Where Ocean Meets Sky (2003), which details how “the gays from Broadway and the gays from Hollywood would all come out here.” Moreover, “Cherry Grove was one of the only communities in the 1800s that allowed African Americans to come to the bay. Cherry Grove, Oaks Bluff, Martha’s Vineyard, and Sag Harbor.”
He also points out that John was an early renter to women in Cherry Grove in the 1980s. This was John and Craig’s response to the unavailability of homeowners’ credit to women in the 1960s and 70s, and also to the AIDS crisis, as gay men who might have bought the homes he built were far fewer in number.
When I asked about women’s access to the Belvedere Guest House for Men, using the phrase “men’s only” in my question, Julian said, “Right now we’re not a men’s only space, we are a predominantly men’s space. But we do have weekends and we do have periods of the summer that are allotted to everybody.”
Julian doesn’t shy away from the fact of the Belvedere being predominantly a gay men’s space (though not exclusively). “Just like we need safe spaces for women to go to, men need to have safe spaces.”
For him, safety isn’t something that can exist without being recreated regularly. “We need to continue to make Fire Island a safe space for gay people.” There are a few threats to the project of the island’s safety. “We are getting a lot more straight people out here. They’re so like ‘Oh, well we don’t mind.’ But we do.”
There’s also the threat of ecological destruction. Summer 2023 in particular has been impacted by this year’s record-breaking unpredictable weather. When I praised Julian’s commitment to the mission of the Belvedere, to create a safe space and hold it down, he brought up the potential of a hurricane. “It could be wiped out at any moment.” That is a hazard of queer people’s sought-out safety being found in extremis. When the waters rise, shorelines will be first to go.
Besides Mother Nature’s wrath, there is also the threat of the federal government. Part of the history Julian shares is that, until the 1960s, the Meat Rack used to have houses. That decade, the national shoreline claimed that stretch of Fire Island, making the Meat Rack federal land and legally unzoned for residency. As the oceans respond to ecological damage and global shorelines continue to shift, what is to protect Fire Island from having more of its shoreline claimed by the government? Responding to my shock at the fact that the Meat Rack is federal land, Julian calmly said, “History, child. I’ll tell you all the history.”
The whole island hasn’t always been as gay as the Grove. Referring again to Ocean Meets Sky, Julian brings up the fact that “the Pines was developed as a straight community that didn’t want any gay people there. There was ‘We believe in family values,’ ‘No nudity,’ ‘Marriage.’ They had this whole list of things that were really saying, ‘We do not want any gay people here.’” Of course, that has since shifted, but as the media picks up on the Pines as a party spot (and not a place that people live), the risk of encroachment returns.
At every point of the island’s history, Julian speaks to what’s been protected and what’s been put at risk. The core of his motivation to protect Cherry Grove and the Belvedere has been the community he’s found there. Discussing Craig’s passing, and the transition of ownership that put the Belvedere in his charge, Julian is quick to express gratitude:
“He wasn’t only my partner. He was my husband, the love of my life at the time. The transition was the transition that everybody goes through. I always say, ‘I’m not the first person to lose a partner. I won’t be the last.’”
“I’ve had the privilege to know a lot of the people, my neighbors here, who have gone through the same thing. Who’ve been in long-term relationships and lost their spouses, and the way they’ve handled it with dignity. It’s been incredible. The support that I’ve gotten in my community was probably the thing that got me through it the most.”
One thing we know is love, despite the odds. We protect each other, in public and in our privacy. The Belvedere Guest House is a fruit of that generational labor, like the flower grown atop a cactus. With Julian at the helm, it’s in good hands.
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