Century of history: How a Belmont country club became a church

“It remains important in Belmont’s local history mostly because it precedes Belmont,” Micki Carter, chair of the Centennial Committee, said. “Belmont did not become a city until 1926.”

What was once the Belle Monti Country Club ballroom now serves as the church’s sanctuary, a space that still carries a nod to its past with sconces shaped like crossed golf clubs. The former dining room has become a social hall, while the lower level, which was once lined with showers and dressing rooms, was converted into classrooms and a nursery, later housing the Carlmont Parents Nursery School in the 1960s.

And its origin holds a few tales of its own. With intentions of mimicking a “little Hillsborough,” three developers saw potential in the rolling hills south of San Mateo. In 1924, San Francisco businessmen Lee Monroe, Arthur Lyon and Lawrence Miller collaborated and founded the Belmont Country Club Properties. They purchased and built on the 1,000 acres west of Ralston Avenue and east of Alameda de las Pulgas.

In 1925, developers opened the Belle Monti Country Club in Belmont, the first piece of a planned upper-middle-class subdivision anchored by two golf courses, a “swimming tank,” wading pool and tennis courts. The $65,000 clubhouse was marketed with free beer, hot dogs and a club membership for every homebuyer.

But lawsuits over unfinished paving and utilities stalled the project, and the 1929 stock market crash ended it. The clubhouse went into foreclosure and sat vacant for much of the 1930s, with rumors that it briefly served as a brothel.

During World War II, the Army housed military children there, ran an officers’ club and operated a literacy school for recruits. In 1948, the American Institute of Radiation purchased the building before selling it to the Kaiser Foundation for cancer research. Kaiser drained the pool, paved it over for parking and left it that way, as it remains today.

The enduring building and its 4 acres of land were sold by Kaiser in 1953 to the Northern California Conference of the United Church of Christ for $45,000, where it first became the Congregational Church of Belmont, which was supported by the Congregational Church of San Mateo.

In 2023, the Congregational Church of Belmont merged with First Congregational Church of Redwood City, creating the Congregational Church of the Peninsula.

The colorful stained-glass church hosts weekly Sunday services and maintains an active presence in the Belmont community.

The Rev. Jim Mitulski is the pastor at the Congregational Church of the Peninsula and has been leading the congregation for three years. While the church building is a historic landmark, the community within it means much more to him.

“We love the historic nature of this building, but it’s not just a museum for us; it is a platform for us to be active in the community around us,” Mitulski said. “We come here to change ourselves so that we can go out from this place and change the world.”

That sense of belonging resonates deeply with younger members, like Calyx Liu, who found the church after searching online for LGBTQ-affirming congregations.

“Since then, this church has become a place where I feel truly accepted and like I belong,” Liu said. “Whenever I return, everything feels like it picks up right where it left off and everyone is happy to see me.”

For Liu, the church’s values are just as meaningful as its traditions.

“I admire the congregation’s dedication to social justice and using its funds to contribute to various charities and causes,” Liu said. “It feels like an embracing of the outreach that Jesus embodied and encouraged during His ministry.”

Over its 100-year history, the building has evolved from hosting the city’s elite to sheltering servicemen’s children during wartime, to serving as a research site, and now, for seven decades, it has served as a center for worship and community support.

“Our centennial event on Sept. 7 will be both solemn and silly — solemn in that we will consider longevity, development and transition with lots of historic photos of our building over the 100 years, and silly in that we are going to have a good time with 1925 with flappers and a (nonalcoholic) speak-easy,” Carter said. “It will begin at 10:30 a.m. with Sunday morning worship and continue with a luncheon and speakers, including Mitch Postel, president of the San Mateo County Historical Society, and Karl Middelstadt, president of the Belmont Historical Society.”

The church will mark the milestone with a service 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, followed by a luncheon, where the community is invited to explore historic photographs, hear from longtime members and learn how the building evolved from a social hub to a house of worship.

Anyone with an interest in the history of the Peninsula is invited, but an RSVP to Office@CCPeninsula.org is required to ensure that there is enough food.