BELMONT

city, San Mateo county, western California, U.S., near San Mateo. Settled in 1850 as a stagecoach station, it was known for its association with William C. Ralston, Bank of California magnate, who in 1866 transformed Count Lussetti Cipriani's hillside villa into an ornate, rambling mansion-now the main building of the College of Notre Dame (founded 1851 in San Jose, moved 1923). Belmont became a shipping point for flowers. Several sanitariums, including a neuropsychiatric centre, were built there, and after 1950 the community grew as a southeastern residential suburb of San Francisco. Nearby is the tourist attraction Marine World/Africa U.S.A. Inc. 1926. Pop. (1993 est.) 24,857. village, Lafayette county, southwestern Wisconsin, U.S. It lies 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Madison. The original village (Old Belmont) was the first seat of the Territory of Wisconsin (created 1836), and the first legislature met there for 42 days in one of four hastily constructed frame buildings (a Council House, Supreme Court building, governor's residence, and boarding house for the legislators). The old village of Belmont (now called Leslie) died after it was bypassed by the Platteville branch of the Mineral Point Railroad, and the legislature moved to Burlington, Iowa (then in the Territory of Wisconsin) and later (1838) to Madison. The present agricultural village of Belmont was established on the railroad line and was incorporated in 1894. In the First Capitol State Park, 3 miles (5 km) northwest on the old village site, are the restored (1924) Council House and Supreme Court building. Mineral Point (now restored), a centre of lead-mining activities in the mid-19th century, is a few miles northeast. Pop. (1990) 823; (1994 est.) 815.