A Professional Showcase - Beauport

House Museum

Jan 15

Beauport, also known as the Sleeper–McCann House, was the shingle-style summer home of Henry Davis Sleeper, one of America’s earliest professional interior designers. Sleeper—described by a tour guide as “a gay man living in the early twentieth century”—used the house as an entertaining venue, professional showcase, and personal retreat. Perched dramatically on a ledge overlooking Gloucester Harbor, Beauport reflects both his creative vision and social world.

Sleeper was introduced to the area by A. Piatt Andrew, a lifelong bachelor who owned a summer mansion in Gloucester’s Eastern Point neighborhood. While some historians suggest Sleeper and Andrew were in a romantic relationship, others believe they were close friends.

The house began as a modest cottage, completed in 1907. As surrounding properties became available, Sleeper purchased them and expanded the home repeatedly until 1925. Architects Halfdan M. Hanson and Joseph Everett Chandler contributed to various phases of the house’s design.

Following Sleeper’s death in 1934, the property passed to his brother, Stephen Westcott Sleeper, who was unable to afford its upkeep. In 1935, the house was purchased by Helena Woolworth McCann, a conservation-minded heiress to the Woolworth department store fortune. She preserved the house with minimal alterations, and the McCann family spent several summers there until her death in 1941. After Mr. McCann’s death in 1944, the house was inherited by their two children, who donated Beauport and all its contents to Historic New England the following year. The donation included the unusual provision that the family could continue staying in the house—often simply closing bedroom doors when tours passed through.

Beauport served as Sleeper’s stage for displaying his collections of curiosities, colored glass, folk art, china, and silhouettes. Despite having no formal education beyond correspondence courses, Sleeper attracted an impressive clientele, including Isabella Stewart Gardner and Henry Francis du Pont. What began as a small cottage evolved into a forty-room mansion, with each room uniquely named and themed; 26 rooms are included on today’s guided tour, which winds through a maze of Sleeper’s artistry.

Beauport has been open to the public as a house museum since 1947, and in 2003, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Here is what caught my eye, I hope you enjoy!

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The fairytale exterior of the house with pitched and uneven rooflines, tower and belfry

The houses’ pitched and uneven rooflines and chimney

Another view of the house exterior

Exterior decorative corbel

Another facade of the house

The house exterior with diamond-panel leaded-glass windows and chimney

The Bell Frame

The house exterior reflects Gothic, medieval, and early Colonial architecture styles.

Exterior detailed cobels

China cupboard in Cogswell Entrance Hall

Cogswell Entrance Hall

Sleeper was a collector of antiques, artifacts and furniture.

Sleeper found an ingenious way to illuminate 150 pieces of amber glass in the central hall by cleverly installing a skylight so that the collection was always naturally back-lit. The arch is a doorway salvaged from a house in Connecticut.

I can’t even imagine the time it takes to clean these shelves.

Sleeper would repurpose house shutters as panelling.

Sleeper freely repurposed historic materials, windows and leaded glass doors.

Strawberry Hill Room

The chandelier in Strawberry Hill Room, with dark wallpaper, contrasts with the bright sunshine that floods the room.

The Strawberry Hill Room

This room is evidence of Mr. Sleeper building rooms to accommodate the display. Notice the head and foot boards closest to the wall.

In 1924, those planning the new American wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City spent several weeks at Beauport, soaking up the placement of antiques and color schemes of its period-style rooms.

A corner chair in the Master Mariners Room

The Master Mariners Room

The Red Indian Room

This is the Red Indian Room, with twin beds and harbor view, where the McCann daughters could stay whenever they wanted, often just closing the bedroom door when a tour came through.

The Red Indian Room

The Red Indian Room Porch

Each space is meticulously staged.

The Master Mariners Room

The Red Indian Room Porch

The Master Mariners Room

The Master Mariners Room with coal stove

The Master Mariner’s Room with nautical articles

The Master Mariner’s Room with Windsor chair and binoculars to look out over the harbor

Various fireplaces and doorways from homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island

The Master Mariner’s Room

The Master Mariner’s Room with items on display

The Master Mariner’s Room

This is the North Gallery showing the eagle in the nest sculpture and skylight.

The Golden Step Room has a full wall of windows looking out onto Gloucester Harbor. The windows could be lowered into the wall to allow the guests to have open air dining.

This is the Golden Step Room with model ship over the fireplace.

Decorative arts in the Golden Step Room

Stove in the Golden Step Room

Amethyst glass alcove off the Octagon Room

The Octagon Room

The view of the Harbor from the Octagon Room

The Octagon Room

Looking out of the window in the Octagon Room

Silhouettes

This is a view of the Stair Hall with George Washington stove.

The Green Dining Room

200 year old story wallpaper showing the cultivation of rice

This wallpaper tells the story of the manufacturing of porcelain.

The China Trade Room hand-painted wallpaper was discovered tucked away in a Marblehead attic. The room was designed around the sections of wallpaper.

A nautical touch

Roof peaks decorated with whimsy

A ceramic squirrel sits on the brick wall, with the Harbor backdrop. The gardens of perennials and grasses near the rear brick terrace, overlook Gloucester Harbor.

The garden, like the house itself, evolved over several decades in the early 1900’s.

Exterior view of the roofs and chimneys

What you should know:

There is free parking across from the entrance to Beauport.
There are guided tours; check the website for tour times.
The house is not open every day; check the website for days and hours of operation.
Yearly memberships for Historic New England can be purchased here. This membership entitles the bearer to admission to any of the 30+ properties the organization runs in Massachusetts, Rhone Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine
There are a few house and garden tour options.
You could spend a few hours here.

Location: 75 Eastern Point Boulevard, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930

For more information: Beauport