Beauport

Beauport, an imaginative, whimsical dwelling containing nearly fifty rooms, was one man's creation. Begun as architect-interior decorator Henry Davis Sleeper's three-room summer cottage in 1907, Beauport was enlarged over the next twenty-five years to house his growing collections of early American objects and furnishings, both of native craftsmanship and of European origin imported to America for the colonists' use in their homes. The appearance of this estate has not been sub- stantially altered since Sleeper's death in 1934. There was some interior redec- oration by the subsequent owner, Helena Woolworth McCann, notably in the Chinese Room. However, her own particular inspiration, "This house and collection must be preserved," insured the survival of Sleeper's vision.

Her heirs turned this assem- blage over to its present owner, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, for preservation in 1942. Essentially a two-story structure, Beauport rises from a granite ledge looking west over the entrance to Gloucester Harbor. From the land side, Beauport is partially concealed by a small wooded part with terraced lawns and informally laid out paths and garden areas. Stylistically, the exterior of Beauport is best de- scribed as "eclectic." A complex composition, it uses the irregular massing of the shingle style in combination with romantic borrowings of Tudor and Erancos Norman deeign elements.

The multi-gabled, picturesque, free-flowing contours re- sulted from Sleeper's primary requirement that the exterior design not dictate the interior arrangement of rooms. This scheme enabled Beauport to grow in all directions for a quarter of a century while retaining a strong stylistic coherence. The exterior walls of Beauport consist largely of irregularly alternating field- stone and brick planes at ground level, and of brown shingles on the upper floors.

Beauport comprises an important early collection of American and European antiques housed within a unique architectural setting. Created over the first three decades of the 20th century, the property represents one of the earliest attempts in America to rescue architectural fragments and install them in new surroundings. It played a key role in the establishment of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum and of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum. Owner-architect Henry Davis Sleeper has been recognized as a genius of American interior design and his influence on taste is felt even today. Beauport became his design showcase and Sleeper enjoyed using it as a summer center for his rather Bohemian social set, which included nu- merous celebrated personages.

At the outbreak of war in France in 1914, Sleeper and his Eastern Point neighbor and friend, A. Piatt Andrew, organized, then staffed and supplied the American Field Service, an ambulance corps working behind French front lines. For this work Sleeper was awarded the ribbon of the Legion of Honor by the French government. Early in 1907 Sleeper purchased land and began to erect a small cottage on foundations blasted out of a ledge overlooking Gloucester Harbor. At first he called the place "Little Beauport," for the harbor itself had been termed "le Beau Port" by Samuel de Champlain when he charted it in 1606. Later that summer Sleeper acquired wood- work, windows and furniture from the about-to-be demolished Choate House, built in 1728 by William Cogswell in the nearby village of Essex.

These materials were moved to Gloucester and installed in the new cottage, creating Cogswell Hall, the Central Hall and the Green Dining Room from the paneling. Thus began the imaginative scheme Construction on Beauport continued apace and by 1909 the house had 26 rooms.