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Home , Abbott Lawrence, Alice Mary Longfellow, Nathan Appleton, Thomas Gold Appleton, William Sumner Appleton

42 Old- Time New

WILLIAM SUMNER APPLETON IN 1917. (Photo SPNEA.) Beacon

KATHARINE H. RICH

hen , buildings of increasing architectural mag- Jr., was born on 29 May 1874 to nificence. In that year, a development W William Sumner Appleton and syndicate created a commercial scheme his cousin-wife Edith Stuart Appleton, he and unwittingly helped to create a cultural entered not merely the human dimension, revolution. With eighteen and a half acres but that of Beacon Hill. The name con- purchased from John Singleton Copley, jures up a world of culture unknown to portrait painter fled to England, the de- most of America by personal experience, velopers under the name of Mount Ver- one which has earned national sig- non Proprietors began to shape a social nificance as an image, a foil, a vision, a world. Among the proprietors were contrast to the vast physical quality dem- Charles Bulfinch, who represented the onstrated by the burgeoning west, the arts - he had just returned from Eng- corporate appetite, and the political ma- land’s Adam influence, and Harrison chine. It connotes a world of the mind, Gray Otis, of politics and the law, whose active, abstract, esoteric. It suggestsboth three houses built by Bulfmch acrossthe leadership and subtlety of approach. The hill date that social spread and yet remain triple mound whose beacon early gave the to grace the urban scene. There were name has long since changed; the beacon apothecary William Scollay, merchant visible in ancient prints has disappeared. Jonathan Mason, shipowner Joseph Yet the beacon’s image has remained, Woodward, representing commerce in all carried forward from the 18th century by its variegated forms, and the only woman an articulate handful whose vitality of member, Mrs. Hepzibah Clarke Swan.’ In self-definition and intellectual vigor their combination of interests, they built a helped to create 19th century Beacon Hill, residential world, as the vigorous, the which was then real and which has successful, and the ambitious in the port become a vision. Sumner Appleton did of began to establish themselves not discover that he too was a carrier of on Beacon Hill. that vision and image until 1910, when he Bulfinch was planner first as he laid out was 36 years old; his contribution to the the grid of streets, then architect. Having environment of preservation in the 20th lost money on the Tontine Crescent tract, century was a direct result of Beacon he was forced to become a professional Hill’s contributions to him. architect, not merely a gentleman-ama- In real terms, the hill in 1795 rose in teur. On the spine of the hill on Mount empty splendor over the crowded city Vernon Street grew at first the choicest elements clustered near the Boston water- residential properties, including in front - the small timber detached houses 1800-1802 the second Harrison Gray Otis and stores, the few mansions of the house at #85. Otis had moved up there energetic, not-so-idle rich, the public from Street on the north side,

43 44 Old- Time

Dramatis Personae

NATHAN APPLETON (1779-1861)

married 1. Maria Theresa Gold married 2. Harriot Coffin Sumner (1786-1833) -18671 Issue: (18 12-84) un- Issue: married, painter, writer, aesthete, wit William Sumner Appleton (1840- 1903) Mary (18 13- 1889) married 1839 Robert married Edith Stuart Appleton James McIntosh (1806-64) of Lon- Issue: don, Gov. of British Leeward Is. WILLIAM SUMNER APPLETON Charles Sedgewick Appleton (18 15-35) ( 1874- 1947) unmarried, founder unmarried SPNEA Frances Elizabeth (18 17-61) married Dorothy 1843 Henry W. Longfellow Eleanor Issue: Gladys Charles A. Longfellow (1844-93) Harriot (1841-1923) married Maj. Ernest Longfellow (1845-1921) Greely Stevenson Curtis Fanny (1847-8) (I 843- 1906) t 1850- 1928) Edith (1853-1915) married Richard H. Dana III Anne Allegra (I 855- 1934) married Joseph Thorp George William Appleton (1826-7)

and, again ahead of the social tide, would behind carved wooden pilasters which move to #45 Beacon Street in 1806-07 stretch to the fourth floor (Figure I). Built where Bulfinch built him a third house at by James Colburn in 1806, their architect about the middle of the Common. Each of was Asher Benjamin, who became an- these houses was imposing, of brick other leader in the development of facing lightened with stone, a freestand- Beacon Hills’ style. In 1808 Colburn sold ing monument to worldly success. #54 Beacon Street to Nathan Appleton, a This Bulfinch-Otis combination was rising merchant who thereupon began to irresistible, so a younger group of the move in the best social circles. ambitious middle class followed their lead to Beacon Street, where windows looked In real terms, Beacon Hill was an on trees and open space. Just down the attractive residential area for leaders and hill was (and still is) a pair of bow-front potential leaders of Boston. They by their town houses, graceful and elegant in brick ideas - creative and far-reaching - and Beacon

FIG. 1. 54 AND 55 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, 1806, ASHER BENJAMIN, ARCHITECT. (Photo SPNEA.) Old- Time New England by their real accomplishments molded in freedom from British manufacture. With succeeding decades the public image of cotton from the South, Yankee vigor and the hill. water power and labor, textiles could be Nathan Appleton was clearly a success made in . Although pros- (Figure 2). From Ipswich, Massachusetts, pects looked bleak for a time, and New where Samuel, his Appleton ancestor had England’s mercantile problems increased farmed since his arrival in 1636 from with the Embargo, Appleton’s far-sighted Little Waldingfield, England, near the investment was only the first of many. In Winthrop home, to New Ipswich, New 182 I, he was one of the founders of the Hampshire, where Isaac Appleton began Merrimack Manufacturing Company to farm about 1750,* the Appletons were (and thereby the town of Lowell) owning good Yankee stock. Nathan, however, 180 out of 600 shares of its stock. In 1825 rejected the farm and chose the city. he was its president, the company a Before the age of 27, he had become a growth stock paying annual dividends for successful merchant, dealing in fabrics, decadesto come of l2%.4 It was the power laces, and other textiles, and established loom which changed the face of New himself sufficiently to marry well. On I3 England, and indirectly that of all the April 1806 he married Maria Theresa nation, and it was Nathan Appleton who Gold, daughter of Thomas Gold and had the responsibility for establishing Marsha Marsh Gold of Pittsfield. Progres- works for the manufacture of printed sive and affluent in western Massachu- cloth.s From this time on, his investments setts, Gold, lawyer and Yale graduate, had a ripple effect, multiplying geo- believed in education for women; he sent metrically. 1 his daughter to boarding school at the age During these years the Appletons both of 12. The young Appletons were intel- established a family and moved farther up ligent and also handsome. Nathan com- Beacon Street, higher on the hill. They missioned in 1812 to paint produced five children, and by 1817 had his wife’s portrait, and then consented to outgrown their house. The grace and have his own done as well.3 They offered delicacy of their Asher Benjamin house at distinction to the second floor parlor or X54 had been newly stylish when the the oval dining room at 54 Beacon Street. Appletons had moved into it in 1808. By Nathan Appleton was a collector. He 1817, however, a different style offering an first collected wealth. Although he had interpretation of classic forms far more made a solid mercantile start prior to his austere, formal, and masculine was com- marriage, in 181 I-1814 he took vigorous ing into vogue. It is probable that the steps towards founding the fortune which architect they selected in 1817 who built would enrich not only his descendants, for them R39 Beacon Street was Alex- but also the cultural institutions of ander Parri@. (See cover.) It was (and yet Boston. At that time he invested $5,000 remains) handsome, bow-fronted and (thinking that $10,000 would be foolhar- generous in proportion, with one of the dy) in the Boston Manufacturing Com- first Greek doorways in Boston, charac- pany at Waltham, thereby entering the terizing an entirely new architectural business of cotton manufacture of plain, expression. The interior of this house, unprinted goods. Like others in New finished in 1821, shows a graceful curving England, he had begun to believe that the stair and a mantelpiece on which was future of American business was in true carved a symbolic laurel wreath. This was Beacon 47

FIG. 2. NATHAN APPLETON, 1884. From a miniature by B. M. Staigg. (Photo SPNEA.) ,. 48 Old- Time New England a sophisticated townhouse appropriate to (facing what would shortly become the economic and social status of a Copley Square) he was appointed one of merchant-industrialist king. the Harvard Trustees according to the charters’ special categ0ry.a He was Other Appletons of the merchant gen- sufficiently enthusiastic about the mu- eration had also come to Boston early in seum, and yet self conscious then as a the 19th century and likewise established patron of the arts, that he wrote “A their families on Beacon Hill - both Companion to the Catalogue” of that Samuel and William Appleton had done museum anonymously. He began in a so, and been at least as successful in literary vein: financial terms as Nathan. Samuel, for One fine day, I proposedto visit our new example, memorialized in a plaque on the Museum of the Fine Arts, and on my wall at Kings’ Chapel, was the donor of way encountered my friend STAR- and Starbuck had that Appleton Chapel to BriCK . . directness and honesty which breathes Memorial Church, and he was also a from the soil; there were no traps for benefactor of the Boston Atheneum artifice in his surrounding. He was where his portrait hangs today. William genuine to the core . . , Appleton prospered too and married well. Starbuck, rebellious yet obedient first With his wife, Mary Ann Cutler, he had mate on the Pequod under Captain Ahab, ten children, among whose descendants continued to listen as the esthete of are connections to the great and near- Boston taught. great names of Boston: Coolidge, Law- There is a way of talking about the Fine rence, Mason, Saltonstall and others. Dis- Arts which takes the life out of them . . tinguished jurists, bishops of the Episco- For they survive . _. because they were pal church, and businessmen are num- the very freshest and brightest things of bered among them. Still another Appleton the hour which then ~as.“~ whose affairs touched those of his Bosto- He commented on the collections and nian relatives was Daniel, who in 1825 exhibitions for the uninformed, and moved south to New York where he closed with a plea for donations to the formed D. Appleton and Company, pub- museum: “We, of greater democracy than lishers. For a century after its founding, it Greece knew, have accepted the half- helped provide connections to the scien- jeering and half-complimentary title of tific and literary greats of the 19th cen- the Modern‘ Athens ’ . . . “lo tury. ’ Leader of Boston, and therefore Amer- Direct familial lines into art and litera- ican culture, Thomas Gold Appleton had ture occurred in Nathans’ and Maria begun his own collection fairly young. As Theresas’ own children. Two of them who early as 1852 he had written home from continued to adorn the local scene were , “I have bought a little Diaz - the Thomas Gold Appleton and Fanny. French Rubens - Spanish blood and Thomas Gold Appleton f 18 12-84) was Murillo stealing constantly into his pic- Nathans’ eldest son, a leader in Bostonian tures.“” This painting now belongs to the culture as painter, writer, wit. Like his Museum of Fine Arts, which benefited father, he began early to collect oils by from Appletons’ patronage that was “dis- European painters in a self-conscious- criminating and generous,” according to ness of art. Upon the founding in 1870 of Oliver Wendell Holmes.*‘ Thus, Thomas the Museum of Fine Arts on St. James Gold Appleton was a leader of the whole Beacon 49

new generation on Beacon Hill which er. Three children enlarged the house- made the arts rather than commerce an hoid: William Sumner Appleton in 1840, occupation. H&riot in 1841 (who grew up to marry Major Greely Stevenson Curtis and found A daughter of Nathan, Frances Eliz- another prominent Hill family - also abeth Appleton (called Fanny) became collectors of art), and Nathan in 1843. the wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Each of these would benefit from the in 1843. Their home at 105 Brattle Street acumen of their father, whose collection in Cambridge was for years a center of of wealth was an important one. literary and cultural life. Longfellow, an At his death on 14 July 1861 and the early professor of modern languages at proving of his will on 2 September, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, , Nathan Appletons’ estate was appor- was delighted to accept a post at Harvard. tioned according to his six pages of There he taught and wrote, and also instructions.t4 In addition to bequests to courted the lovely heiress. Their family his wife Harriot of the “Mansion House” born between 1844 and 1855 added to at 39 Beacon Street and their summer their pleasures. Among the children of place at Lynn, with stables, furniture, some note were Ernest, who would be- silver, works of art and the like, he left a come his fathers’ biographer, and three trust fund for her life benefit of $10,000 girls who will always be known from their per year, which he later increased by fathers’ poem, “The Childrens’ Hour,” as codicil to $12,000. The first accounting of “Grave Alice,” “Edith with the golden his estate was in the sum of $1,669,3 12.32, hair” who married Richard Henry Dana of which furniture in the Mansion House 111, son of the writer of Two Years Bejbre bequeathed to Harriot was valued at the Mast, and “Laughing Allegra” who $10,000, and “plate, works of art and chose to live on Brattle Street near home books” at $11,634.” when she married. Further Beacon Hill Harriot C. Appleton survived her hus- ties to culture were provided by the band only six years to 1867. The settle- Longfellow friendships with Charles ment of her estate shows that she was Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, frugal, for her accounting totals some Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Cornelius Fel- $78,000: furniture listed at $9,285, pic- ton, distinguished President of Harvard, tures at $1,500, and books at $100, along whose portraits still hang in the study at with the family pew at Kings’ Chapel, I05 Brattle StreetI $500.t6 The trustees and administrators of Great changes were to occur in the these two estates obviously showed great household of Nathan Appleton at 39 care - they had important decisions to Beacon Street during the decade of the make with great sums at stake and 1830s. Grief-stricken over the death of his children of two marriages to consider. wife in early 1833, he remained single for Nathan Appletons’ trustees were ul- some years, concentrating his energies on timately T. Jefferson Coolidge, jurist of national issues at Washington. Towards note, Franklin H. Story, and Thomas the end of the decade, however, he Amory; his widows’ were Amos Adams married a young woman of good family Lawrence, the merchant-partner of and ancient American lineage, Harriot Nathan, Thomas Gold Appleton, her Coffin Sumner, who became in rapid stepson, and William Sumner Appleton, succession bride, step-mother, and moth- her elder son. Among their decisions was Old- Time New England a petition to the court for revaluation of a kind of dynastic sense of collection, he Nathan’s personal estate, which when was not just a money-maker or pack-rat in appraised showed the categories abbrevi- outlook. In 1856, he prepared a memoir of ated to: his late friend, captain of industry Abbott Plate as per schedule Lawrence. In it, Appleton described his on tile S 4,028. friend only after he had made a philo- Works of art as per sophic statement, obviously his own as schedule on file 7,855. Books as per schedule well as Lawrence’s. on file 2,818.85 It is to be taken for granted,however, that it has always been the use made of $14,701.8S 7‘ the wealth acquired in trade, which has Of interest is the trustees’ phrasing, been the object of commendation and indicating their understanding of their honor, rather than the success in ac- cumulationzO late friend’s intentions for his family and his material possessions.At the death of At the same time, he also indicated a the widow, Nathan’s six children would feeling of responsibility for the “moral come into the property equally, “share character and respectability of the opera- and share alike in fee simple”, the tives” working in the mills which made children to lake the share of the deceased his fortune, for on his first trip to Europe parent. The trustees would have the in I81 I when he had met Francis Lowell power to sell anything, whether real or in Edinburgh and they had discussedthe personal property, “of which he should possibilities of the loom run by power, he die possessed‘except his plate, works of said, art, and books’ looking no doubt to their The operativesin the manufacturing preservation, after the decease of said cities of Europe were notoriously of the lowest character, for intelligence and Mrs. Appleton, by his children or their morals. The question therefore arose.. . representatives as heirlooms and family whether thii degradation was the result memorials.“r* Thus, the intention of de- of the peculiar occupation, or of other liberate collection is made clear. and distinct causes . . . 21 On a more practical level, perhaps, It may here be seen that the processof Nathan Appleton’s will provided trusts making money was not the only motive for each of his three younger children by for those industrialists, capitalists, mer- his second wife, specifying, “One hun- chant kings. Part of the mystique of the dred thousand dollars include what each collection of wealth was a higher benev- shall have received from me, if any as olence and a contribution to culture. shall appear by the charges on my books. Nathan Appleton was a part of this idea The foregoing is to make them equal to which he thereupon transmitted to pos- my three oldest children, viz. Thomas terity. He left his descendants not merely Gold Appleton, Mary Macintosh, and wealth, but paternalistic, elitist philoso- Frances E. Longfellow, who have each phies on the association of the arts for received the like sum of $100,000.“t9 On purposes of collection, amid grandiose these trust funds hung the necessities,the expressions on justice, honor, and the comforts, and the cultural-collecting prac- desirability of liberalizing the mind. Both tices of future generations on Beacon Hill. wealth and collection were very real on While the family fortune was a large Beacon Hill. Upon their solid base rose an one, and while Nathan Appleton shows us image and a vision of leadership. Beacon

Both reality and image of cultural clause in his will indicating his wish to leadership fell next upon William Sumner sponsor a museum of art in Boston, Appleton, born in 1840, eldest son of the sharing this interest too with his elder merchants’ second marriage. He, like his half-brother. It was said that William half-brother Thomas Gold Appleton, Sumner Appleton had an exactness of reaped the benefits of wealth, becoming a classical training rarely to be found - of scholar in the first generation brought up himself, he wrote, “It has been my to wealth. He was graduated from Harvard fortune or misfortune to be generally in in the Class of 1860, delivering a Com- the minority.. . 23In addition to the family mencement Address entitled “A Uniform predilection for collecting objets dart,’ it Coinage”, his interest in money having by may readily be seen that this son of that time taken a different direction from Nathan and Beacon Hill concentrated on that of his father. Later in that same year, historical material more than artistic. His the young graduate was a founder of the library was distinguished.24 As the cen- Boston Numismatic Society. Throughout tury waned, he developed a strong interest his life he studied and collected coins; at in the preservation of Bostons’ buildings. his death in 1903, his collection consisted During that centennial period, when en- of some 12,000 coins and 3,000 medals, thusiasm grew for this civic “obligation,” which his son later helped to catalog. The William Sumner Appleton became a scholar continued to study - he earned founder and life member of an organiza- an A.M. in 1864 and L.L.B. in 1865. Like tion designed to foster preservation in the other young men of good family and city he loved, the Bostonian Society. financial ease, he continued in the tradi- On I2 August 1871, he married Edith tion of his generation established by his Stuart Appleton, daughter of his cousin elder half-brother - he enjoyed in 1866 William Stuart Appleton of Baltimore, the Grand Tour of Europe, accompanying Maryland.25 Like many women of her his life-long friend Phillips Brooks. Al- class in that day, she remains a shadowy though they were traveling companions figure to her death on 20 January 1892. and good friends, Appleton retained his Since William Sumner and Nathan Jr. Kings’ Chapel (by then Unitarian) alle- had inherited the family house on Beacon giance. Other Appletons, however, be- Street upon their mothers’ death in 1867, longed to Trinity Church while Brooks the bridegroom bought out his brothers’ was rector. interest and moved his bride into #39 where they lived until the mid-1880s. Among other scholarly, cultivated in- Photographs taken about 1886 show the terests pursued by William Sumner Ap- interior, filled with high style furniture, pleton was genealogy. He researched and collectibles and Victorian clutter (Figure wrote many lengthy monographs on the 3). Some of the original furniture - a pair ancestry of both his parents, in family of rosewood torchieres, a pier table, and a studies of not merely Appleton, Coffin mahogany dining table - may be seen and Sumner, but Armistead, Badcock, today at the first Harrison Gray Otis Oliver, Baker et al.22 His interest in history house, and an ornate gold French clock was on a larger scale than familial - he still adorns the mantelpiece at #39.26 In was one of the founders of the American this house were born a new generation of Historical Association, and even extended children, Dorothy, Eleanor, and Gladys, his interest to the arts. In 1868 he wrote a all of whom would marry and leave 52 Old- Time New England

FIG.3. FRONT PARLORAT 39 BEACONSTREET,c. 1886.(PhotoSPNEA.)

Boston by the end of the century, and one lived around the corner on the hill, in son, William Sumner Appleton, Jr., born whose home he was something between 29 May 1874.27 He would be the last of resident and guest. At one time he added Nathans’ male descent, remaining a bach- up the number of days spent with Aunt elor like his uncles Nathan and Thomas Harriots’ family, and the total was large - Gold. 1908 - I45 days, 1909 - I33 days, 1910 - It can be no surprise that young 213 days.28 He was also influenced by his Sumner, so called to distinguish him from uncle Thomas Gold Appleton, whose new his scholarly parent, from the beginning house at IO Commonwealth Avenue was had two advantages - his world was built in the French Academic style in the materially affluent, based as it was on fashionable Back Bay. There hung paint- New England textile mills and other ings which would later go to the new sound investments made by his forebears, Museum of Fine Arts, and engravings and his cultural, familial environment from the collection of Cardinal Tosti in spanned the humanities. From childhood Rome which would enhance Bostons’ fine he respected his father, but felt a certain libraries.2g The boys’ associations touched awe and distance from him, often a the world of letters too through the minority of one, who had the capacity to Longfellows in Cambridge. “Grave Alice” act with vigor as well as think creatively in was a special friend with whom Sumner his chosen field of interest. He was always cameto’ share a sense of history - he attached to his aunt Harriot Curtis who assisted her about 1914 with the Long- Beacon 53 fellow Foundation and the preservation of , , noting the occasion in his the family home at 105 Brattle Street. In diary on May 1, 1909. Significantly too, adult life, Sumner Appleton alternated Harvard provided him with some experi- Sunday dinners with “Grave Alice”, Aunt ence. in publication and club life which Harriot Curtis at 28 Street would be later helpful. Of these he wrote: on Beacon Hill, and poet Amy Lowell in In college I made practically no clubs or Brookline. athletic teams, but, if my memory is The formal education of young Sumner correct, I landed an editorship with two began at Miss Garlands’ School on others on the Advocate. An unsuccessful Chestnut Street, just around the block tour of the shops in Boston in an effort to from home. It continued at St. Pauls’ in secure advertising remains in my memo- ry as one of the most unpleasant and Concord, , and the unsatisfactory days of my college life. As Hopkinsons’ School in Boston. It is sig- a salesman I simply wasnt’ there. It was nificant that this educational experience is during my college years that it occurred described by the term “prepared” - it to me to start a small society known as the Amphadon. The idea was to have prepared him for Harvard in 1892.)O occasional meetings, possibly every fort- Among items still in his alumni file at night or so, at which someone would Widener Library is a group of course read a paper, followed by criticisms or programs indicating his studies between comments from the others with the 1892 and 1896 when he was graduated: assistance of beer and pretzels. All went well, and the Society grew and pros- French, history, fine arts, Latin, philoso- pered, until sometime soon after my phy, economics, government, and of graduation when the outstanding mem- course English - a gentlemans’ curricu- bers of some of the classes were all lum. Also extant is evidence of under- members. That was enough to wreck the Society, for, of course, each of these men graduate humor in a document which had so many other societies and clubs begins 21 January 1895: that the Amphadon was to each a minor Know all men by these presents! That I, interest and so became neglected and William Sumner Appleton of the City of finally disappeared. . . . Boston, State of Massachusetts, and Continuing in more personal terms, John Gorham Palfrey, of the City of Boston, State of Massachusetts, do here- Sumner Appleton wrote further: by solemnly promise not to use the As for distinctions and honorsat gradua- following words in an exclamatory sense, tion, it was distinctionenough for me to or in the sense of abuse, without paying graduate at all . . . 1 suffered from weak to the other five cents on demand. eyes to such a degree that it was only All names of the Deity, and all words with the help of others reading to me which would not be used in the presence that I was able to pass my exams . . . of Miss Eleanor L. Gray, (with the I started out in business with Lombard exception of “to hell with Yale”).3 ’ Williams as a real estate broker. We also had a line of soft drinks in a company in Accompanying this document are a num- which his father was interested. In ber of LO.U.3 from Palfrey for the large neither of these enterprises did we make sums of S.05, $. 10, $.25, and even one for any startling success. My health broke !&SO.There are none signed by Appleton. down, and I had one of the worst cases of nervous prostration I have ever come The influence of Harvard upon Ap- across.From then until 1910, my princi- pleton was very great; it provided him pal interest was an effort to regain my with a social world for the rest of his life. health and correct my eyestrain which He was of course a member of the was a fundamental cause of the break- Harvard Club of Boston, and additionally down.32 of the New York Club. He even attended Implicit is a feeling of failure. His health the first meeting of the Harvard Club in was “nervous”, his business had disap- Old- Time New England

peared, “the home and family life to events. In the winter he remained in which I looked forward as the natural Boston, in the spring he often went to future due every adult ‘96er eluded me”, South Berwick, Maine, in the summer, to and when his father died in 1903, he left Moon Island on Squam in Holderness, his son’s portion of wealth tied up in trust. New Hampshire. No matter where Ap- The son would be protected, perhapseven pleton was, he recordedonly his activities, from himself. He would enjoy a pleasant never his thoughts, and his notations were income for the rest of his life, but he could always telegraphic in style. The entries not touch the capital. This fact has, show a pattern of life which was socially characteristically for such an elitist world, rigid, empty and trivial. been offered as a reason why Sumner Aug. 27, 1906. Mon. Tennis in the Appleton never again entered business, morning. Left on Rockland boat in even when his health improved.)) afternoon and took the Bostonboat at Rockland, to attend Uncle Nathan’s Sumner Appleton occupied himself, funeral. then, with a rigorous social life. He wrote Sept. 9 at Moon Island. Canoeing with in 1946: “Those of us who made Sunday Hattie all morning . . . Charles spent afternoon calls in Boston in frock coat, most of the day canoeing au naturel. silk topper and cane, seem as far removed Sept. 10. Charles and Eleanor left . . . swim on beach au nature1. . . from contemporary life as are the knee Dec. 27. . . Swept the green in vingt et breeches and crinolines of earlier un in evening. times.“34 Evidences of Appleton’s social Feb. 18, 1907. Thought 1 had appen- life are in his diaries, in which he recorded dicitis, but Dr. Putnam thought differently. daily events.3s His sense of melancholy continued. Jan. 5, 1906. 1st Assembly. Fine. Cotillion Anna Phillips. O.K. The older generation had died, his sisters Jan. 7. Sunday. Afternoon calls. Eliz- had married and moved away, he had abeth Gray, out, Sally Lawrence, in. emptied and sold the house at Holbrook Molly Hooper, in. Elizabeth Shattuck, and given up the family pew at King’s out. Jan. 18. Thurs to Holbrook in the Chapel. In 1905-06 he took a course at the afternoon. Evening with Amy Bussey Institute at Harvard, an occasional Lowell. adjunct to the School of Botany. In the Feb. 5. . . . Supper with the Thorps in following winter, he took a course in the Cambridge. Erica played Parsifal. Beat Alice at billiards. Department of Mining and Metallurgy, of Mar. 9. Just plain busy.Called on George which he later wrote, “Since I was wholly Weld. Frightful weather, inches of unprepared for such courses the results slush, rain, snow, etc. were negligible.“36 He then took a trip May 29. Tues. my birthday. 32 years west to the mining camps of Nevada with old. Dined with Amy Lowell. ProfessorWhite, and spent a day or two in Throughout the months, the diary in- San Francisco, going on August 30th to dicates a successionof feminine compan- the St. Francis Hotel which had survived ions. “Stroll with Delia.” “Had Minnie all that earthquake-fire of 1906, commenting to myself. ” “An o.k. time.” It also indi- on August 3lst in his diary, “. . . walked cates his acquaintance with the best about city, hideous, mostly ruins. Abom- theater of the day - Man and Superman, inable layout anyway . . . ” He was filling Agamemnon, Maud Adams in Peter Pan in time, feeling futile, depressed, empty, which he described as “most unusual”, unengaged. Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. He regularly A spark had struck, however. In the fall involved himself in Harvard’s alumni of 1906, Appleton took one course on Beacon which he commented, “Enjoyable.” It and Victory of Samothrace.In Bourges,on was Architecture 7 with ProfessorRoss, a March 16, he wrote, “There are many old general course described in the Harvard timbered houses.” On March 24 in Car- catalog as “Theory of Pure Design, Har- cassonne, he wrote, “All morning on the mony, Rhythm, Balance. Lecture with walls, and glorious they are. Much im- examples.” In the same year he became proved since my 1896 visit .” April and conscious of certain old buildings, and the May they spent in Italy, than back to Paris need to preserve them. He was fearful of via Lucerne. On June 11, Sumner Ap- more subway damage to the Old State pleton noted, “Finished ground floor of House and met in committee on the issue. Louvre.” Sailing home on the Mauretania He served as secretary of the Paul Revere after a short trip to Britain, he spent the Memorial Association, which raised the rest of the summer as usual on Moon money to preserve and restore the house Island, Squam Lake. in which Revere had lived with his family The leisurely trip offered more than idle in the North End. His consciousness of entertainment - it gave visual experi- architecture began to be reflected in his ences and an opportunity to see some- diary. In 1906 he took a trip south to thing of European preservation to com- Maryland, visiting Annapolis. His diary pare with what he had learned on the Old notes, “Saw town, charming. Best houses State House and Revere campaigns. The superb . . .” Closer to home, he began journey also offered concentrated study of looking at houses seriously. collections in major European museums. It held the heritage of western culture April 16, 1907. Tues. to Salem. Saw which everything in Sumner Appleton’s Tommy Jenkins at Peabody Acade- familial associations,education, and expe- my and lunched at Salem Club with rience enabled him to appreciate. It point- him. Took many photosof old houses . ed to a vision of art and culture as well as April 18. Thurs. 9 a.m. train to New- to its reality. buryport to see Fanny Stone. These months of travel and study, his Lunched with her and spent day mind and senses barraged by stimulation seeing old houses. of the highest intellectual and artistic April 27. Sat afternoon to Bedford with Barbara Hinkley. Saw a flag, and order, were followed by a period of quiet a fine old house, and over a smithy’s routine on the island. It was a period of establishment germination, for although the diary en- tries continue on a seemingly trivial note, He rejoiced the next year at the success it is clear that by November 18, 1909, of the Revere campaign for which he had some ideas had begun to take shape in the worked, and continued thinking about back of Sumner Appleton’s mind. He collections, as he helped to sort and went to the opening of the new building catalog his father’s coins, and also the of the Museum of Fine Arts at Hunt- Appleton Papers which he would later ington and the Fenway, and examined the give to the Massachusetts Historical So- exhibits with care. “Building not as bad as ciety, of which he was a loyal member. rumored. Too many poor pictures hung.” On a lighter note, the year 1909 was He was reminded again of family collec- better. He embarked upon a trip to tions - his grandfather’s, his uncle’s, his Europe by steamer with his cousins father’s, his own. Isabella and Harriot Curtis. From Within the month Sumner Appleton Plymouth they journeyed to Paris, and at had quickened. He was involved in preser- the Louvre saw first the Venus of Milos vation the week before Christmas. 56 Old- Time New England

Dec. 18, 1909. All day in Lexington and Hancock. Destroyed 1863. The fate of Concord on assessments of property this house has become a classic in the of revolutionary value. annals of vandalism. Dec. 20. All morning on Harrington House. Found LeRoy Brown was Having caught the readers’ interest by owner and didnt’ intend pulling it the strength of his phrasing, Appleton down. continued persuasively to describe the Dec. 22. To Lexington in a.m. with Joe purposes and directions of the Society Chandler and Mrs. Barrett Wendell in her auto. Went all over Jonathan which he felt was so badly needed. “Our Harrington house by Common. New England Antiquities are fast disap- Should be saved as it is. Then over pearing because no society has made their Lexington Historical 8oc. rooms in preservation its exclusive object. That is Hancock-Clarke House. Dec. 23. Talk with C.D. Burraae about the reason for the formation of this Harrington House, not encouraging. Society.“3* Still remembering the demise Immediately after the holiday, on Dec. of the Amphadon, his Harvard club, and 28, 1909, a landmark entry reads in the dangers of fragmentation of historic laconic terms: “Chores of all kinds. Chats interest, Appleton knew that other, exist- with Mr. Bolton on founding a Society for ing organizations would not, could not fill the Preservation of New England Antiq- the need he saw. He had been a member uities.” The next week he and Charles K. for years of Massachusetts Historical Bolton of the Atheneum talked further - Society. He had also been a member of the the diary indicates “Looks like a go.” Massachusetts Society, Sons of the Revo- Bolton would become the Societys’ first lution, a patriotic organization, and he President, and after months of patient, knew that they could not save old houses. developmental work, Appleton would He was also a member of the Bostonian take the place he chose as Corresponding Society, and although its interest was Secretary. Later he explained that it was preservation, this interest was limited to the decision to rebuild the Harrington Boston. He then went on to say: House on Lexington Common which had The buildings and sites which make affected him. “It was to this house that our New England antiquities of surpass- ing interest are remarkably varied in Harrington, mortally wounded in the form. There are blockhouses and garri- skirmish of April 19, 1775, dragged him- son houses, of which but few are left; self, only to die at the feet of his wife as the oldest settlerss’ houses of the sim- she opened the door to meet him. This plest form, often having but one room story had always made a strong appeal to and an attic; also variations of these and later evolutions from them, including me and it seemed as though a house the picturesque overhanging second sto- having such associations should be safe- ry, and houses like the Fairbanks house guarded against all alterations . . . From in Dedham, with others of scarcely leas that minute on my lifes’ work seemed to note. The Georgian or Colonial type of be cut out for me . . _ “37 house supplies us with a wealth of material worthy of preservation, and And so in May 1910, William Sumner New England has her full share of Appleton sent forth a call to arms as he notable specimens still standing. . . . published the Bulletin of the brand-new It is proposed to preserve the most Society for the Preservation of New interesting of these buildings by obtain- ing control of them through gift, pur- England Antiquities. On its cover was a chase, or otherwise, and then to restore photograph, capticned, them, and finally to let them to tenants The Home of John Hancock, Beacon under wise restrictions, unless local Street, Boston. Built 1737 by Thomas conditions suggest some other treat- Beacon

ment. This plan has the merit of active members at $5, and 217 associates continuing the property in the use for at $2.41 which it was intended . . . and finally of In quantitative terms, a permanent fund leaving the estate on the local tax li&39 had reached nearly $3,000 - which Appleton had learned to be practical. would be used for the purchase of proper- He knew having a vision would be ties - and the membership had shot from pointless without solid financial underpin- the first eighteen who were officers, nings. He said, “In all plans leading to friends, and relatives of the founder, all of effective work two things are essential, them in eastern Massachusetts, to 476 namely, money and the ability to spend it members in twenty states. In terms less wisely.“40 He began to sound like his readily measurable, several categories of merchant grandfather Nathan. He knew collection had been established. Of initial that before he could begin to collect importance was the photograph collection houses, he would have to raise the money, which with the other graphics, the mea- so he started with friends and relatives. sured drawings, would be invaluable to The first Bulletin informing the world of students of New Englands’ architectural Beacon Hill that the SPNEA was in history. In the first year four hundred existence, ready to begin its work, lists the were on deposit in the Library. The first eighteen members of the Society who Museum was still only a dream without were its officers, local people all, and space to house collections, but a perma- proper too: nent director, Henry Davis Sleeper, had President, Charles Knowles Bolton, been appointed.42 Shirley, Mass. Most significant of all was the an- Vice-Pres. Mass., Miss Alice Longfellow, Cambridge; Waldo Lincoln, Worces- nouncement in 1911 that the Society had ter made its first purchase, the llsley House Treasurer, William C. Endicott, Danvers in Newbury, Massachusetts43 (Figure 4). Rec. Secy. John Albree, Swampscott The house had been built about 1671 as a Corr. Secy. William Sumner Appleton, two-room, two-story house with later Boston Lib, Mus. Dir., Ernest L. Gay, Boston additions. Its interior shows several stages of growth. It was highly appropriate for Board of Trustees, 1910 acquisition, and the funds with which to Miss Caroline Emmerton, Salem Mrs. Adeline F. Fitz, Wakefield do so were in fact over-subscribed, so that Mr. Worthington C. Ford, Boston Appleton planned to apply the overage Dr. Charles M. Green, Boston immediately against the mortgage on the Pres. Henry Lefavour, Boston first day possible. Appleton was delighted Mrs. Ida Louise F. Miller, Waketield at the ripple effect he had created and he Mr. Walter Gilman Page, Boston Miss Elizabeth W. Perkins, Boston was himself the epitome of his philosophy Mr. Julius H. Tuttle, Dedham that a societys’ greatest asset is the Miss Mary Lee Ware, Boston “energy and will” of its membersw Mrs. Barrett Wendell, Boston From the beginning, therefore, the Appleton had done his work well; he Society for the Preservation of New had picked good people as his first work- England Antiquities was an unusual or- ers. A year later the list of officers shows ganization. It had begun as the impact of a not only the addition of vice-presidents romantic Revolutionary War tale struck for the other five New England states, but and shocked a man who was ripe. Sumner a total membership list of 476, which Appleton was thirty-six years old, midway included 69 life members at $50, 190 in life. He had felt like a failure. He had no Old- Time New England

FIG. 4. SWETT-ILSLEY HOUSE, NEWBURY, MASSACHUSETTS,c. 1671.(Photo SPNEA.) occupation, no wife, no child. What he did It was in this sense that in Harvard Class have was a trust fund which freed his Reports, Sumner Appleton would call energies. He had some real estate experi- himself proudly, “Antiquarian” - he was ence, a little formal coursework in archi- fulfilling the cultural obligations which his tecture, in public speaking, in publication. ancestors on the hill had imposed upon He had been in society on the hill which him. spread out to include Harvard - his Yet he was not merely a copyist. acquaintance stretched through a vast and Nathan Appleton had been a man of well-placed family into an erudite, if commercial vision whose work had occasionally precious, world. He had ab- changed the landscape of New England sorbed his familial predilection for collec- and its people in the names of Progress tion, perhaps even unknowingly. There and of Wealth. First in any structure were obvious pleasures of ownership as comes the placement of the rough-hewn well as the benevolence of civic obligation beams; Nathan’s work was to carve out an fulfilled. It had been nearly a century empire for himself and his descendants. since Nathan Appleton had been one of After the huge beams are laid in place, the the subscribers in 1823 to the costs of carver or the turner may do his work in building a “Lecture Room” at the Boston the refinement of aesthetic interest. Athenaeum which was designed Sumner’s was the task of saving buildings to encouragea taste for the Fine Arts and their artifacts for scholars, treasures [so]that classof proprietorsof the of furniture and art for museum use, Athenaeum, who seldom frequent the drawings and photographs to make a Library.. . will all be capableof enjoying the Paintingsand Statues,and have the graphics library. Each man contributes to opportunityof introducinastranaers to the whole, for each has seen a vision the Museumof the Fine Arts . . ?5 which propels him - each develops from Beat 59 his past. It was this combination of reality William Sumner Appleton, 73, of 16 and vision which shaped the Society. This Louisburg Square, Boston, founder of the Society for the Preservation of New was no static sense of preservation, elitist England Antiquities . . . though it no doubt was, for Appletons’ A native of Boston, he was credited vision was of a rippling, moving force, with the preservation of many old New based upon the exercise of intellect, yet England landmarks and antiques, and richly flexible and creative too. Appleton had been secretary of the organization he established since its beginning. . . . would lead the Society in succeeding A bachelor he leaves three sisters . . . decades to become a living history show- The Herald found it unnecessary to add ing a way of life now gone, through that he also left the preservation move- accuracy of architectural restoration, and ment a working model of success. It had scholarly, rather than patriotic or roman- given meaning to his life. In return he had tic associations with historic properties. led the cause of preservation from purely On 25 November 1947 the Boston local or regional levels into national con- Herald carried a modest notice, in under- sciousness and significance. statement characteristic for residents of The beacon visible in ancient prints has Beacon Hill, on page 21. disappeared, yet still remains an image.

NOTES

t Walter Muir Whitehill, Boston, A Topographi- Cummings, Exec. Dir., 8oc. for the Preservation cot History, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Harvard Press, of New England Antiquities, although he the Belknap Press, 1973), p. 60 ff. Whitehill, indicates it is yet “undocumented”. Address to however, did not mention Mrs. Swan in any the Womens_’ City Club, Boston, in October capacity except artist. 1975 entitled “The World of Nathan AP- 2 Sumner Appleton later wrote of this property pleton”. in the 25th~ktniversary Report of the-H&aid ’ Grant Overton, Portroit of o Publisher ond the Classof 18%. minted for the Class in 1921: “An First Hundred Years of the House of Appleton ancestral homestead coming on the market in 1825-1925, (New York: D. Appleton & Co., New Ipswich, N. H., I picked it up at auction 1925). sale, securing a 10 room house built by my a First Annual Report for the Year Ending Dec. 31. great-grandfather, and some thirty acres . . . It 1876, (Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers, was my hope to live there a part, at least, of 1877). Walter Muir Whitehill, Museum of Fine every summer . . .” (p. 14 IIJ’ Appleton, F.R. et Arts. Boston. A Centennial History (2 vol.%), al, Appleton Farms , . . 1920 also. (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, Belknap 3 Portraits of the couple hang in Longfellow Press, 1970, vol. 1). House, Cambridge. Reproductions are in J. 9 Thomas Gold Appleton, Boston Museum of the Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, 1881, vol. Fine Arts, A Companion to the Catalogue, IV, p. 105. (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1877). p. 1-7. A 4 Nathan Appleton, “intro. of the Power Loom, copy is in the American Antiquarian Society in and Origin of Lowell”, Lowell, Mass., 1858, p. 2, Worcester, Mass. 22. to ibid., p. 77. 5 “Correspondence between Nathan Appleton It Susan- Hale, Life and Letters of Thomas Gold & John A. Lowell in relation to the City of Aooleton. (New York: D. Appleton & Co., Lowell”, (Boston: Eastburns’ Press, 1848.)- lgg5), p. 282. “The Appleton- Papers”, Mass. 6 The opinion cited is that of Abbott Lowell Hist. Sot. 60 Old- Time New England t2 Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Thomas Gold ers’ heirs. Suffolk County Probate Records, Appleton”, The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 53, June administration #338986. 1884, p. 849. 28 William Sumner Appleton, “Diary, t3 The house is now operated as a museum by 1906-10”. pencilled note on p. 1. SPNEA files, the . Boston. t4 Will X43594, Probate Records, Suffolk 29 Mabel Munson Swan, The Atheneum Gallery County, Mass. 1827-73cBoston: The Boston Atheneum, 1940). l5 /bid., vol. 160 t, p. 263. See also vol. 299, p. p. 158. 221. Inventory Vol. 298, p. 317. 30Biographical File, The Archives, Widener t6 Administration X48 118, Probate Records, Library of Harvard University. Suffolk County, Mass. Vol. 305, p. 34-S. 3t Ibid. t7 Petition in Vol. 166 t, p. 37; inventory at 32 , The 50th Reunion of the reappraisal of 25 Feb. 1868 in Vol. 305, p. 91. C/ass of 1896, (Cambridge: For the Class, 19461, t* Petition dated I3 Jan. 1868 in Vol. 166 t, p. p. 41 ff. 37. 33 Old-Time New England, April 1948, p. 72, t9 Will X43594, Probate Records, Suffolk citing Miss Margaret Curtis, a cousin, for this County, Mass. information. 2o Nathan Appleton, “Memoir of the Hon. 34 Harvard College, The 50th Reunion.. . , Class ”, prepared for the Mass. Hist. Report, p. 1. Reminiscences of such social Sot. (Boston: Eastburns’ Press, 1856). p. 4-5. customs in Boston are contained in Samuel Eliot Morrisons’ volume &e Boy% Boston. 2t Nathan Appleton, “lntro. of the Power Loom . . .“, op.cit., p. IS. 35 SPNEA files. Total diaries now in existence are fragments: 1906-10; 1936-40; Jan 1, 1947- 22 In the Library of the Boston Atheneum. Nov. 13, 1947; inconclusive real estate nota- 23 Charles C. Smith, “Memoir of William tions on the Cooper-Austin House dating Sumner Appleton, A.M.” (Cambridge: John randomly 1919-32. Wilson & Son. 1903): see also William T.R. 36 Harvard College, 50th Reunion . . . Class of Marvin “William Sumner Appleton”, (Boston: 1896, op. cit., p. 42. Press of David Clapp & Son, 1904), NEHGR, July 1904; MHS, Vol. V. 37 Harvard College, 25th Reunion Class of 1896, op. cit., p. 14 8. 24 C. F. Libbie Co., “Catalogue of Nuggets of American History from the library of the late 38 Bulletin. The Society for the Preservation of William Sumner Appleton. . .” (Boston: 1906). New England Antiquities, (Boston: May 1910, Vol. 1, No. 1). pp. 1, 4. 25 John Appleton, M.D., “Pedigree of Ap- 39 Ibid., p. 5-6. pleton”, 1864. Nathan Appletons’ younger brother Eben married Sarah Paterson; among 4o William Sumner Appleton, “Destruction and their children was William Stuart Appleton who Preservation of Old Buildings in New Eng- married Georgianna Armistead. land”, Art & Archeology (Vol. VIII, No. 3, 1919). p. 180. 26 SPNEA, 141 Cambridge Street, Boston. O/d- 41 Bulletin, SPNEA, Vol. 11, No. 2, August, 1911, Time New England, April, 1948, p. 72-3; The p. 20-27. Magazine Antiques, May 1975, p. 876 ff. The clock, however, is on display at the Womens’ 42 Bulletin, SPNEA, “First annual report” and City Club, 39 Beacon St., Boston. other reports by officers, Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 18 ff. 43 Ibid., p. 9. 27 Dorothy would marry the Rev. George F. Weld. D.D. of Harvard and an earlv Boston a Appleton, “Destruction and Preservation family and go to Santa Barbara, Calii Eleanor . . . “, op. cit., p. 157. A. S&den-would be of Shipley, , and 4s Mabel Munson Swan, The Athenaeum Galiety Gladys H. Winterbottom would be of Tangier, 1827-73, (Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, Morocco, in 1948 when they were their broth- 1940). p. 8-9.