EXPLORATIONS

Beauport’s Lively Creative Spirit An historic Gloucester mansion highlights decorative arts and Henry Davis Sleeper. by nell porter brown

eauport, perched on Gloucester’s country’s first Eastern Point, is much more than a professional interior designers. “Beauport Sleeper’s summer home sprawls across beautiful house. Touring its maze of feels as though he just walked out the door, Eastern Point with views of Gloucester rooms offers a romantic exploration even though he died in 1934,” says Martha Harbor (above left and opposite). Interior B rooms (above) are inspired by the China of literary and historical themes through Van Koevering, site manager with Histor- trade, the octagon, and Colonial kitchens. decorative arts. It’s also a trip into the art- ic New England, which owns the prop- (Opposite) A portrait of the pioneering istry of Henry Davis Sleeper, one of the erty (also known as the Sleeper-McCann interior designer

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House). “It’s a very personal place, his own creation. The whole composition is a work of art.” Beauport’s charm begins with lush gardens of perennial flowers and coastal grass- SOMERVILLE SOMERVILLE $849,000 es, and a rear brick $885,000 terrace overlooking

Gloucester Harbor. The home’s fairy- COMING COURTESY OF HISTORIC NEW ENGLAND tale exterior— SOON pitched rooflines, tower, belfry, diamond- paned leaded-glass windows, and chimneys are an amalgam of Arts and Crafts, Gothic, medieval, and early Colonial architecture. The interior is just as eclectic. Sleeper originally built a modest Arts and Crafts- style cottage, but expanded it slowly dur- ing the years he summered there. The re- sulting 40 rooms (26 of which are shown on daily guided tours) are mostly packed together like a warren, with alcoves, odd- angled rafters, and linking stairways. And everywhere, exquisitely displayed, are the more than 10,000 objects and furnishings CAMBRIDGE SOMERVILLE that Sleeper acquired, with special fondness $1,195,000 $719,000 for salvaged architectural artifacts. Each space is a meticulous stage set with a specific theme. A two-story book tower, with a balcony and arched windows, was [email protected] designed around antique carved wooden (617) 593-3120 curtains that Sleeper had found. Three ear- ly bedrooms pay homage to English figures: MaggieCurrier.com Lord Byron, naval hero Horatio Nelson, and the Gothic novelist Horace Walpole. The “China Trade” room, with its soaring ceil- ing, features a pagoda-inspired gold-cur- tained balcony, a marble fireplace, and bold

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Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Harvard Squared antique 1780s wallpaper (originally ordered CURIOSITIES: Learning from Dolls by Robert Morris, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence) depicting the rice In 2004, Debra Britt and her sisters, Felicia Walker and Tamara Mattison, began to and porcelain industries of China. There’s collect and make dolls, doll clothes, and accessories. By 2012, the serious hobby had also a Jacobean-style dining room with a overrun their homes and “our husbands were, wood-beamed and white- like, you got to get this stuff out of here,” Walker plaster ceiling and heavy says. So they rented a storefront space in down- oak furnishings that feels town Mansfield, Massachusetts, where they lived, like an old English pub. “Yet and transformed it into the National Black Doll he wasn’t a stickler for pure Museum of History and Culture. authenticity,” Van Koever- The nonprofit now features about 2,000 of ing says. “The ‘Pine Kitch- their figures, Britt says, roughly a quarter of their en,’ one of the later rooms, is still-growing collection. Their mission is to “nur- Sleeper’s romanticized view ture self-esteem,” especially among children, and of a Colonial-era kitchen.” to preserve the legacy of black dolls. The toys It has a wide brick hearth also pointedly reflect aspects of the centuries- hung with antique cast-iron long African-American experience. One room is pots and utensils, but he had packed with 780 African- a local furniture-maker cre- style rag dolls (most ate the simple wooden chairs, crafted by the sisters), to which are “a little different recreate the inhumane from what the Colonials

conditions of a slave ship. MAGAZINE/NPB HARVARD would have had, and a little “The Ugly Truth” display Debra Britt (below) in the more comfortable. So he would break the represents demeaning glamorous “Fashion Doll” room; rules sometimes.” “Ugly Truth” figures (above); and characterizations of black musicians, including D.M.C. He also freely repurposed historic materi- people: Buck­wheat, Lit­tle als: Beauport’s central hall is lined with pine Black Sambo, Aunt Jemima, and golliwogs, among them. paneling (rescued from the dilapidated eigh- Yet there are also hundreds of more contemporary figures teenth-century William Cogswell estate in symbolizing triumphs, artistry, and power: pint-sized Obamas; nearby Essex); from the hall one can also see comic-book superheroes, including Black Panther; plenty of the bulk of one wall filled with a graceful

HARVARD MAGAZINE/NPB HARVARD athletes, like Michael Jordan and Serena and Venus Williams; double-wide, leaded-glass door, obtained and leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Condoleezza Rice, and Jesse Jackson—along with from a home in Connecticut, that Sleep- scientists, legal scholars, businesspeople, and other color-barrier-breakers. er altered to hold his perfectly arranged “If we can’t find a doll, we make it,” Walker notes: those collaged “Stand-Ins” include 130-piece collection of amber-glass objects. boxing hall of famer Jack Johnson, Thurgood Marshall, and Angela Davis. “Record- He cleverly installed a skylight in the pan- Makers” highlights musical artists, from Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong to Tupac try behind the door “so that the amber is Shakur and Beyoncé—and the sisters’ father, a teacher whose record store was an always naturally back-lit,” Van Koevering offshoot of his own 5,000-album reserve. “My other siblings are collectors, too,” notes. Nothing was collected in the name of Walker adds of the family habit. “I say ‘collecting’ is just a fancy word for hoarding.” investment. “He deliberately selected only Both parents were also members of the Black Panthers, and patrolled their Dorches- objects that personally appealed to him, in ter neighborhood. Pride in black culture was paramount; the kids played with any as much as he didn’t have the deep pockets black-focused toys and games of other collectors in at that time,” available; commercial black dolls she says. “And he had this fabulous ability were, and still can be, hard to to showcase things.” find. One display explains how Sleeper’s light-filled “Golden Step” room, their grandmother, a maid, disas- holding a bank of diamond-paned windows sembled white dolls, “then dyed overlooking Gloucester Harbor, is a nod to them all brown, and put them New England’s maritime history. Wood-

VIA GETTY IMAGES GETTY VIA IMAGES back together for us,” reports work, the trestle tables and chairs, and a Walker. “Everyone wants to see cabinet painted a sea-foam green set off ma- something that represents jolica and Wedgwood dishware. Prow orna- them,” Britt has concluded. “It ments of bare-chested mermen hang on the

THE BOSTON GLOBE BOSTON THE immortalizes you.” vn.p.b. wall amid models of a China trading vessel and whaling and fishing ships. National Black Doll Museum of Adjacent is the “Octagon Room.” Auber- History and Culture JOHN TLUMACKI/ JOHN nbdmhc.org gine walls dramatize Sleeper’s amethyst and ruby-red glassware and red antique

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Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Harvard Squared toleware (tin objects, typically kitchen- Explore Garden in the Woods ware) that he brought home from France. Visitors can hunt for the groups of “eights”: hooked rugs, chairs, sides of the table, scores in the ceiling, and even facets on the door knobs, Van Koevering points out. So excited was Sleeper about creating this space that in 1921 he wrote of his plans to his friend, the art patron (of the eponymous Boston museum), “Of course, I have all the details visualized and am enjoy- ing it accordingly.”

Gardner visited Beauport many times, as did other prominent members of Boston and New York society and art circles; East- ern Point itself was developed at the turn of the twentieth century as a wealthy sum- mer enclave (which it still is). Yet the resi- dents, at least those Sleeper socialized with, tended to be the less conventional members Beautiful native of the elite, more “bohemian-minded” and intellectual. plants in a dramatic Sleeper himself came from a Boston family wooded landscape of comfortable means: his father, Jacob Hen- ry Sleeper, was a revered Civil War veteran, Open Daily • 10 am-5 pm 180 Hemenway Rd. • Framingham, MA and his grandfather, Jacob Sleeper, a founder 508-877-7630 • newenglandwild.org of . Reportedly frail, the young Sleeper was presumably tutored at home, Van Koevering says, but no record of any formal education exists. In 1906, as a 28-year-old bachelor, he was introduced to Eastern Point by Abram Piatt Andrew, Ph.D. 1900. An economics professor Just how healthy at Harvard, Andrew served as director of the U.S. Mint in 1909 is your brain? and 1910 and played a role in the creation of the Federal Reserve Join our 6-week course on healthy brain aging. System. Also a bach- Taught by Harvard-a liated McLean Hospital clinicians, elor, he had already the science-based topics to be covered include: built his own summer ■ Strategies and technology that address home, Red Roof, on memory di culties Eastern Point’s rocky ■ Stress management tips that can help ledge. Enamored of manage coexisting medical problems the site’s beauty and ■ Diet and exercise recommendations for “clearly besotted” Abram Piatt brain, heart, and cognitive health Andrew with Andrew, Van Koevering says, Sleep- er purchased a lot one house away, and by For information or to register, please call: 1908 had moved into Beauport, named for 877.300.0382

PUBLIC DOMAIN French explorer Samuel de Champlain’s description of Gloucester Harbor. The two men became close, and years later during World War I, when Andrew founded the American Field Service, an organization of Ranked #1 in the country for psychiatric care. volunteer American ambulance drivers who worked on the front lines in France, Sleeper

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Beauport’s “Golden Step” room cele­ brates maritime history and culture.

served as its administrator and fundraiser Document1Document1 11/20/03 11/20/03 11:51 11:51 AM AM Page Page 1 1 both in Boston and in Paris. That “besotted” assertion is based on 60 extant letters he wrote to Andrew between 1906 and 1915. There is no explicit proof the men were gay, or that they had a romantic or sexual relationship. (Sleeper’s personal Photo by: Tom Fitsimmons papers might have contained evidence of his preferences, but those items, although listed THOMPSON ISLAND (617) 830-5114 in inventories of Beauport’s holdings follow- OUTWARD BOUND [email protected] EDUCATION CENTER ing his death, were missing by the time the www.thompsonisland.org Boston Harbor Islands mansion was opened to the public in 1942.) Yet, about a decade ago, after a close friend of Sleeper’s identified him as gay in an oral history, Van Koevering says, Historic New England began acknowledging that idea ASSISTEDASSISTEDLIVINGLIVINGRETIREMENTRETIREMENTCOMMUNITYCOMMUNITY during its tours. The organization also en- Independent and Assisted Living Teaching the World® courages discussions on the subject. “A Cel- Specialized Memory Care Here’sHere’s what what people people are are Teaching the World® ebration of Pride and History at Beauport Whatsayingsaying do Harvard about about us. alumni us. Museum” (on June 10) highlights “the sto- have in common? ry of a gay man in the early twentieth cen- tury,” according to the promotional blurb, Cadbury Commons and explores Sleeper’s circle of family and A Remarkable Senior Residence friends. And on June 28, a tour of Beauport will be followed by “Codman, Sleeper, and the Gay Man Cave,” a lecture at the nearby Rocky Neck Cultural Center by Wheaton College art-history professor Tripp Evans. Name:Name:MiltonMilton R. R. Occupation:Occupation:PostalPostal Supervisor, Supervisor, Retired Retired He plans to discuss “how these men dis- Hobbies:Hobbies:Reading,Reading, Walking, Walking, Exercising Exercising armed the stigma of same-sex attraction by Lifestyle:Lifestyle:Independent,Independent, Active Active creating spaces that asserted their author- ChoiceChoice of Senior/Assisted of Senior/Assisted Living: Living: CadburyCadbury Commons Commons Open House ity, provided sanctuary, and reimagined the The Harvard alumni who chose historical past.” (Ogden Codman Jr., him- “There“There is a is stable a stable and and gentle gentle atmosphere atmosphere LearnSATURDAY,Open and JANUARYHouse thrive 21, of Cadbury helpof help and and Commons empathy empathy throughout throughoutmay have the the self an interior designer, and co-author, with community.retiredcommunity. from I feel Iwork, feelassured assured but that not thatI am fromI partam part oflife. of in a9a bilingual,m-12pm Edith Wharton, of The Decoration of Houses, others’others’ lives, lives, as they as they are ofare mine. of mine. For Formyself, myself, contributed to alterations of the decorative I feelIMuseum feel that that Cadbury CadburyVisits Commons • CommonsPlay Reading provides provides a a caring,Preschool9a andandm-12pm Kindergarten creative wellSymphonywell trained trained and andcaring Selections caring group group of •people ofLecture people who who scheme of the Codman Estate, in Lincoln, are interestedare interested in my in welfare.”my welfare.” Preschool and Kindergarten Massachusetts, now also owned by Historic Series • Yoga • Organic Gardening Arlingtonenvironment! Campus: 17 Irving Street CallCall (617) (617) 868-0575 868-0575 to arrange to arrange a personal a personal New England.) tour, or visit www.cadburycommons.com Preschool through Grade 12 tour,Call (617) or visit 868-0575 www.cadburycommons.com to arrange a personal tour, ToArlington learn more, Campus: call 17 617.499.1459 Irving Street Other special tours offered throughout WhereWhereor visitThe www.cadburycommons.comThe Emphasis Emphasis Is On Is OnLiving Living or visit www.isbos.org the 2018 season include “Nooks and Cran- 66 Sherman6666 Sherman Sherman Street, Street, Street, Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge, ISBTo is accredited learn by more,NEASC (New call England 617.499.1459 Association of Schools and EQUAL EQUAL nies” (the first of them on May 26 and June MA 02140◆ ◆ (617) 868-0575 HOUSING HOUSING Colleges), CIS (Council of International Schools), MEN (French Ministry MAMA 02140 02140 (617)• (617)868-0575 868-0575 OPPTY OPPTY ofor Education) visit and www.isbos.org IB (International Baccalaureate).

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Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 Harvard Squared 16), which take visitors on a longer, more detailed tour of rooms not seen on the regu- lar tour, and “Designing Beauport, Room by Room” (beginning on June 8), which delves into Sleeper’s personal process and progression in creating the mansion. “Tour- ing the house, you can begin to see the early rooms with an English theme and then see the additions, in 1910 and 1912, and the em- phasis on Americana—the Pine Kitchen, the Franklin Game Room—and see how he moved through different phases, and when he gave up wallpaper,” Van Koevering ex- plains. “He clearly loved glass, and display- ing it, but he didn’t start collecting it until 1917. The amber-glass window in the cen- tral hall was the last reconfiguration of the house, in around 1929.” WHY I JOINED THE HARVARD CLUB OF BOSTON Beyond Beauport, friends in Eastern Point and Boston sought Sleeper’s artistic There are many dierent reasons to join the Harvard Club of Boston. talents. After the war, he chose to work as Mike Seward is a Harvard alum and former varsity hockey player for a professional designer, opening an office the Crimson. Here's why he joined. in Boston (where he lived when he was not in Gloucester). His clients included Isa- "I joined the Harvard Club in my freshman year, and brought bella Stewart Gardner and Henry Francis my Harvard friends as well as friends from other colleges to du Pont, for whom he worked on a Long the fun events like Member Mixer at the Downtown Island estate and, in the latter 1920s, as a Clubhouse. Seven years later, I'm still a member because of consultant on a remodeling at Winterthur, the people and the programs oered by the Club. Every the Delaware estate that is now a premier month, there is an exceptional line-up of activities, like food museum of American decorative arts. In the and wine or beer tastings, networking events, and access to early 1930s, Sleeper also traveled to Holly- Red Sox and Bruins tickets. And the wide range of people in wood to work for several celebrities, and he the Club is also a huge reason I stay. The Club has was working on a Vanderbilt family home members from many dierent schools, like MIT, Boston in Connecticut when his life was cut short University, and Holy Cross - not all the members are from by leukemia. He was buried in the family Harvard. And I get great career and life advice from them." plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery, and An- -Mike Seward ’15 drew wrote a Gloucester Times tribute to his friend, noting, among other assets, his “im- For more information regarding membership, please peccable taste” and “ingenuity in color and call 617-450-4402 or visit harvardclub.com. design which was distinctly creative.” (An- drew died two years later of influenza; his Back Bay Clubhouse Downtown Clubhouse ashes, at his request, were scattered from an 374 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 1 Federal Street, Boston, MA airplane flying over Eastern Point.) Beauport drew crowds even during Sleep- er’s lifetime; it was not that unusual for peo- ple to show up at the front door requesting a VOX CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE QUEST tour, which Sleeper’s longtime housekeeper, Four-Day College Application Intensive Mary Landergan Wonson (who stayed on after his death), typically obliged. He had earned a national reputation as a designer, curating decorative art exhibits and serv- ing as a consultant to museums and collec- tors. In 1924, those planning the new Ameri- can wing at the Metropolitan Museum of For Rising Seniors - Limited to 25 spots // Get started on Common Application Art in New York City spent several weeks Complete 1st draft essays & supplements // Learn to interview // Small group setting at Beauport, soaking up the placement of Held at the Harvard Faculty Club (Not affi liated with Harvard University programs or activites) antiques and color schemes of its period- 9am - 5pm // To enroll contact Kathleen Moore // www.voxcambridge.co // 617-320-2724

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Beauport’s verdant grounds (below) and Sleeper’s cleverly back-lit display of amber glass

style rooms. From 1909 to 1911, Sleeper even served as the first “director of mu- seum” (overseeing the col- lections) at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, which Ballet classes: age 3 - teen, later became Historic New England. adult and pointe. Sleeper’s brother inher- ited Beauport, but couldn’t New Students Welcome! afford to keep it. In 1935, the View Summer Schedule at: conservation-minded Hel- ena Woolworth McCann, heir to www.freshpondballet.com the Woolworth department store Visit us on Facebook: chain, bought the mansion and facebook.com/FreshPondBallet preserved it virtually as Sleeper had left it. The McCann family spent several years summering Nina Alonso, Director, FPB there, but by 1941 both she and her 1798a Mass Ave husband had died. Their children, Cambridge, MA 02140 knowing their mother’s wish that 617.491.5865 Beauport be preserved as a house museum, donated it to Histor- ic New England with the caveat that they could stay there when- ever they wanted. One of them often did, into the 1970s, amicably closing of the Newport mansions. Instead, the place the door to her quarters in the “Red Indian” speaks to a generous creative spirit, and still room when tours came through. holds a warmth that’s unusual in a house And therein lies much of Beauport’s ap- museum. “It was a place that was lived in, peal. It’s not stuffy, or built on a grand scale; was comfortable, and enjoyed,” Van Koever- and it lacks the ostentatious flash of many ing says. And it will just stay that way. COME FOR A VISIT. MEET OUR STAFF. EXPERIENCE THE COMMUNITY. Visiting Gloucester ist, and “Unfolding Histories: Cape Anne A Not-For-Profit Assisted Living Community The city offers plenty of things to see Before 1900” (through September 9) tells • Special Memory Support • Two Acres of Secure Gardens and do, along with great restaurants and regional history through a range of archi- Neighborhood and Walking Paths cafés. Some suggestions: val materials. • Daily Fitness and Social Events • Private Studios now available Good Harbor and Wingaersheek From there, it’s easy to walk to restau- • A Warm, Inclusive Community • * Short Term Stays Available Beaches. Both have alluring sandy ex- rants, shops, and the harbor. Pleasant panses, rocks to climb at low tide—and Street Tea Co. serves lunch, smoothies, COME FOR A VISIT. MEET OUR STAFF. crowds. Best to arrive early, or late. and caffeine, or stroll farther, up Main EXPERIENCE165 CHESTNUT STREET,THE COMMUNITY. BROOKLINE WWW.GODDARDHOUSE.ORG Rocky Neck Cultural District. Street, to the lively local favorite Lee’s A Not-For Profit LANCE CHAPMAN AT 617-731-8500 EXT. 105 Cape Ann has long drawn artists, from Diner. For creative cuisine and cocktails, Assisted Living Community Winslow Homer to Milton Avery. Cur- try Franklin Cape Ann, Short and • Soil Tending rent art-makers regularly mount exhibits, Main, or Tonno. And don’t miss stops at • Progressive Minded open their studios, and hold other special both Dogtown Bookshop­­—where pro- • Inclusive Culture events. prietor Bob Ritchie presides over thou- • Socially Engaging Cape Ann Museum is downtown. sands of used, rare, antique, and out-of- • Intellectually Stimulating “Harold Rotenberg: An American Im- print books—and, two doors down, Main 165 CHESTNUT STREET, BROOKLINE pressionist” (through June 17) features Street Arts and Antiques, which holds WWW.GODDARDHOUSE.ORG vibrant, textured works by the local art- something unique for everyone. CALL LANCE CHAPMAN AT 617-731-8500 EXT. 105

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