Belvidere Mansion, Oklahoma, United States

5Morgalla 5:00 PM Jan 26, 2017

Perfect for a lunch date
While the house itself is fascinating in its own right for the architecture alone, we enjoy the gift shop and restaurant. They have an excellent lunch menu with an extensive hot tea selection, served in adorable individual tea pots. They have rooms you can reserve for a little girl's tea party or baby shower and a real ballroom on the third floor (no elevators though). It's owned by the local historical society and is still being restored. There was a ramp for wheelchairs out front to access the restaurant and gift shop which are on the first floor, but there are only stairs to access the second and third floors. If you can do stairs it's definitely worth a look up there to see the bedrooms and ballroom. We were made to feel very welcome and allowed to look around the entire house except the kitchen (it's a commercial kitchen) which is furnished with gorgeous Victorian era antiques. The place is run by volunteers who obviously spend a lot of time and effort trying to share the history of the house and help visitors enjoy themselves. They were in the middle of taking Christmas decor down (the whole mansion is decorated for each season) so it was a little chaotic, but we could still see everything. There are "before" pictures of how the mansion looked before the historical society restored it in photo albums. It's amazing the transformation! They have fundraisers and murder mystery plays several times a year to afford the improvements. The food is excellent and so reasonably priced for what we got. Highly recommend for a nice lunch with friends in an upscale atmosphere. Reservations aren't usually needed unless you bring a big group. If you call ahead they can get a volunteer to give a guided tour, but even the waitresses know a lot about the history if you just ask them. It's a great way to pass the time if your husband wants to go to the gun museum!

4Channie055 5:00 PM Dec 2, 2014

Wow!
While we did not eat at the Belvidere, we walked through the 3 story home that is recreated in the time of it's splendor and glory. The staging and preservation of period pieces is stunning and worth a stop. The mansion was decorated for Christmas inside and was like walking through Santa's private quarters! Just spectacular. Whether you eat here or not, be sure to walk through and get a glimpse of what living in an old Victorian like this would have been like back in the day. You can even go through bedrooms and view the bathrooms. What a treasure this place is! They also have a small but stunningly beautiful gift shop with very unique items. I would definitely go again just to browse the gift shop!