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Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House (1907)

A designer's dream (Gloucester, Massachusetts)

Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House, a National Historic Landmark, was the summer home of one of America’s first professional interior designers, Henry Davis Sleeper. Perched on a rock ledge overlooking Gloucester Harbor, Beauport was Sleeper’s retreat, backdrop for entertaining, and professional showcase, and an inspiration to all who visited.

After Sleeper’s death, Beauport was purchased by the McCanns, who left it largely intact. Visit Beauport and see Sleeper’s lifetime collection of curiosities, colored glass, folk art, china, and silhouettes in every nook and alcove. Each of the forty rooms is distinguished by a historical or literary figure, theme, color, shape, or object. No two rooms are the same, and each is more visually dazzling than the last. Get to know Sleeper, a gay man living in the early twentieth century; his housekeeper, Mary Wonson; his fascinating neighbors; and the house’s many colorful guests.

Plan Your Visit

Location

75 Eastern Point Boulevard
Gloucester, Mass. 01930

 

EXPLORE DIGITAL TOURS

Days & Hours

May 22 –  October 12
Wednesday – Saturday

Tours every half hour
10 AM – 3 PM

Reservations strongly recommended

Closed July 4

Admission

$25 adults
$22 seniors
$15 students
$10 youth (6 -12)

Free for Historic New England members

Accessibility

Tour involves standing, walking, and stairs. Visitors with limited mobility may be able to enjoy a first floor tour of the house and grounds. Visitors can access a virtual tour of the museum from their own digital device onsite. Folding chairs are provided for visitors who would like to use them while on tour. The site is not equipped with ramps, elevators, or lifts and some door openings are extremely narrow. Service animals are welcome. We are happy to work with you to make your visit an enjoyable one and we encourage visitors with questions or requests to call ahead.

Directions

Take Route I-95/128 north to the end. At second set of lights after the second rotary, take East Main Street 1.5 miles, approximately eight minutes, to the stone pillars at the entrance to Eastern Point Boulevard. Proceed through the pillars and follow Eastern Point Boulevard .5 miles to Beauport.

Parking

The Beauport parking lot is across the street from the house.

Public Transportation

Gloucester is accessible via the MBTA commuter rail. Beauport is located 3.6 miles from the Gloucester station. The red line on the Cape Ann Transportation Authority stops at the entrance of Eastern Point. Beauport is .5 miles on the right. Taxi service is also available.

Contact Information

China Trade Room

The hand-painted Chinese wallpaper was discovered tucked away in a Marblehead attic. Photos in this gallery by Eric Roth.

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  • China Trade Room

    The hand-painted Chinese wallpaper was discovered tucked away in a Marblehead attic. Photos in this gallery by Eric Roth.

  • Octagon Room

    The number eight appears throughout this dining room, from the number of sides to the room to the number of lamps and rugs.

  • Golden Step Dining Room

    Welcome to the Jazz Age, a Roaring Twenties kind of space where one whole wall is a window on the water world of Gloucester Harbor.

  • Central Hall

    Sleeper found an ingenious way to illuminate 150 pieces of amber glass in the central hall.

  • Pine Kitchen

    Sleeper salvaged the antique doors comprising the paneling from his mother’s ancestral home, built in Pembroke, Massachusetts in the seventeenth century.

  • Aerial View

    Beauport sits on a rock ledge overlooking Gloucester Harbor.

Property: Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House Henry Davis Sleeper (cropped)

Property: Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House
Henry Davis Sleeper (cropped)

Beauport’s Origin: Its Creator and Location

In the spring of 1906, a dinner invitation from Harvard economist Abram Piatt Andrew (1873-1936) brought Boston native Henry Davis Sleeper (1878-1934) to Andrew’s home, Red Roof, located on Gloucester’s Eastern Point, for the first time. In a letter dated April 19, 1906, Sleeper writes Andrew about his visit, “I had such a nice day yesterday – I was quite fascinated by your house & place, as you doubtless noticed from my comment thereon!” It is this outing that began Sleeper’s treasured friendship with Andrew and enthusiasm for this elite summer enclave.

Henry Davis Sleeper (pictured), also known as Harry by his friends, was born in Boston on March 27, 1878, the youngest son of Major Jacob Henry Sleeper and Maria (Westcott) Sleeper. His father served with distinction in the Civil War, and later took over the family real estate business. His grandfather Jacob Sleeper was a clothier, managed a building and trust at 31 Milk Street, and was one of three founders of Boston University. It was his real estate trust that provided Sleeper with income to collect art and eventually finance Beauport, at least initially. Eldest brother Jacob Sleeper (1869-1930) was a Foreign Service officer who spent time in Venezuela and Colombia before succumbing to an illness which had brought him under his brother’s care at Beauport. Middle brother Stephen Westcott Sleeper (1874-1956) was a real estate investor, taking over management of his grandfather’s building. He married Eliza H. Cushing in 1911 and they later joined his younger brother on Eastern Point, purchasing the summer cottage Black Bess, six doors down from Beauport.

Sleeper is said to have been tutored at home due to his frail health, and no trace of any formal education has been found. Some oral histories state that he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, though this claim is not supported by that institution’s records. When Henry reached the age of eleven, the Sleeper family began spending summers in their new home on Marblehead Neck, designed by architect Arthur Little. Henry’s father built the home in 1888 and died while summering there three years later. After his mother sold the home in 1902, Sleeper saw that he would have to purchase another summer retreat for his family to escape the city heat. When he visited Eastern Point in 1906, he was determined that this would be the site of their new refuge.

The social enclave of Eastern Point was created in the 1880s by wealthy Bostonians John and David Greenough, who formed the Eastern Point Associates to purchase farmland in east Gloucester from the heirs of farmer Thomas Niles. They bought the land on November 12, 1887, for $100,000 and began laying out streets and dividing the parcel into building lots. On a map of the subdivision produced for the Associates in 1889, the future site of Beauport occupied the lot designated as number 101. In 1901 the lot was sold to well-known Cape Ann hotel builder George O. Stacey, who already had sites including the Moorland Hotel, the Magnolia Hotel, and the Hawthorne Inn to his credit. One year later, Stacey purchased three adjoining lots and a few parcels across the road for the 300-room Colonial Arms Hotel which opened for the season in 1904. Stacey separated the southernmost lot, 101, and sold it to Henry Sleeper on August 13, 1907. Sleeper began construction in the fall of that year and occupied Beauport by May 12, 1908, when Andrew was his first houseguest.

Sleeper’s original Little Beauport, named after Le Beau Port, French explorer Samuel de Champlain’s description of Gloucester Harbor, was a relatively small cottage situated on a modest lot. Henry soon became the last official member of “Dabsville,” a self-imposed acronym invented by a group of artists and intellectuals who inhabited homes along a small section of Eastern Point Boulevard. The D stood for Joanna Davidge of Virginia, proprietress of Miss Davidge’s classes, a finishing school for young ladies in New York, who inhabited a cottage called Pierlane next to Red Roof. A, of course, was for its owner, A. Piatt Andrew. B was for well-regarded Philadelphia portrait painter Cecilia Beaux who resided in Green Alley, the southernmost Dabsville property. S stood for Henry Sleeper but also for South Carolina native Caroline Sinkler, whose home was sandwiched between Red Roof and Beauport. She called her cottage Wrong Roof in a joking jab at Andrew’s home. Despite that colorful bit of levity, Miss Sinkler had experienced a tragedy that left an equally indelible image. Shortly before her winter wedding, her fiancé, John Stewardson of Philadelphia, drowned while skating on the Schuylkill River. From that day forward, Sinkler wore mourning clothes in hues of lavender and black which earned her the name of “the Lavender Lady” among the members of Dabsville. Completing the assortment of unique individuals was the compulsive collector, Mistress of Fenway Court, Isabella Stewart Gardner as an honorary member. For Henry Davis Sleeper, this group of friends was his source of entertainment and inspiration for his great pride, Beauport.

Shortly after Sleeper purchased the lot on Eastern Point, he and Andrew discovered the William Cogswell house in Essex while on their way to visit Emily Tyson, who had recently restored Hamilton House in South Berwick, Maine. Sleeper eventually purchased the interior of this dilapidated eighteenth-century farmhouse and used the paneling and shutters to form the Cogswell’s Hall and the Green Dining Room, both on the original 1908 floor plan. It was this purchase that began Sleeper’s interest in architectural salvage which he used throughout his summer home, making his new house appear old.

Beauport Photo Shoot with E.RothBeauport Expands

Beauport was the beginning of a fruitful partnership between Sleeper and Gloucester architect Halfdan M. Hanson (1884-1952). Like Sleeper, Hanson did not have formal education but only training from correspondence classes. Together they created a house of risk and ambition and continued to expand Beauport and work on various other commissions until Sleeper’s death in 1934.

When Sleeper purchased the lot in 1907, just next door was the massive Colonial Arms Hotel preventing all possibilities of expansion to the north. On New Year’s Day of 1908, the hotel burned to the ground leaving only a black cellar hole and open ground. On October 16, 1911, Sleeper purchased an eighteen-foot strip of this land. By December of that year Henry and Hanson completed the Book Tower, Shelley Room, and Pineapple Room. The following year, the Linebrook Parish Room, which become a favorite room for intimate dinner parties and entertainment, the Belfry Chamber upstairs and connected by the secret staircase, and the Chapel Chamber guest room on the first floor were added.

Sleeper’s additions and changes were often inspired by objects, themes, or significant events. In 1917 the death of his mother resulted in the creation of a wing on the northern side of the house. The Pembroke Room, more commonly known as the Pine Kitchen, was constructed with doors and paneling from the seventeenth-century Barker House – his mother’s ancestral home – in Pembroke, Massachusetts. This room was not only Sleeper’s favorite but also became the most copied in the homes of his clients. Visitors to the house were drawn to the colonial hearth with its many implements, charming redware, colonial wing chairs, and wide floor boards that came from the nineteenth-century Dillaway House in Boston’s North End. At the same time, Sleeper added the Franklin Game Room which exhibits his fascination with America’s founding fathers. Over the Franklin stove he hung an image of his mother, one of only two known, flanked by Victorian wax flowers.

Sleeper’s crowning achievement, which greatly influenced the Octagon Room, came with his participation in the American Field Service (AFS). In 1915 Andrew enlisted him to raise funds for the Field Service in France, a group of American ambulance drivers that transported the wounded from the battlefield during World War I. Sleeper became the AFS’s American representative and chief fundraiser, and served as director of its Paris headquarters in 1918 and 1919. For his efforts he received the Legion of Honor (1918), the Medal of Honor (1919), and the Croix de Guerre (1921). When Sleeper returned from France in 1920 he planned and executed the addition of four more rooms at Beauport: Golden Step Room, Indian Room, Mariner’s Room, and Octagon Room. The latter, often referred to as the Souvenir de France, was created with eight sides to display his red-painted tinware (tole) that he collected while in France.

Sleeper’s interest in the decorative arts was well established before World War I. He served as Director of Museums for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, and as a founding member and trustee of the Shirley-Eustis House Association. In 1914 and 1915 he assisted in the reconstruction of the Our Lady of Good Voyage Church in Gloucester. After the war, Sleeper embarked on a professional career as an interior designer and decorator which brought Beauport further attention from the media, friends, and eventually clients.

Beauport Photo Shoot with E.RothA Designer’s Showcase and Legacy

In 1921 Sleeper opened offices at 50 State Street in Boston, moved to 40 State Street between 1925 and 1926, and finally settled in a building at 420 Boylston Street, which housed a number of other interior designers. His work received attention in a number of important periodicals and monographs, including House Beautiful (1916), Country Life (1929), and in several of designer Nancy McClelland’s works. In its early years, he described his business as “Norman and English Country Houses – 17th and 18th Century American Interiors,” but later he modified this to “English and French Interiors- 17th and 18th Century American Paneling.” He executed commissions for clients including Isabella Stewart Gardner (1923) and Henry Francis du Pont (1925) in the East, and in Hollywood, for John Mack Brown (1930), Joan Crawford (1934), and Fredric March (1934). In 1923 he decorated Chestertown, du Pont’s new summer home in Southhampton, Long Island, and five years later he began consulting for the new wing of the du Pont family home, Winterthur, in Winterthur, Delaware.

Beauport continued to evolve during this time beginning with the transformation of the Medieval Hall. Sleeper purchased pristine, unused rolls of late eighteenth-century hand-painted Chinese wallpaper depicting three industries of China: the production of porcelain, the raising of rice, and the cultivation of tea. The papers were discovered in 1923, still in their shipping crate, in the attic of the Elbridge Gerry House in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Reportedly, the paper was ordered by Philadelphia banker and signer of the Declaration of Independence Robert Morris via the China Trade. Sleeper used the tea series to adorn the walls of client Bruce Merriman’s Chinese ballroom in Providence, Rhode Island, and used the remainder at Beauport. In 1925 Sleeper added the North Gallery and Sun Porch turning the once modest summer cottage into a mansion with more than forty rooms.

By the 1930s Sleeper and Beauport were extremely well-known. The house became Sleeper’s showroom containing his lifetime collection of glass, ceramics, folk art silhouettes, furniture, and so much more. Upwards of five visitors a day came to see this eclectic seaside house and were often received by Sleeper’s housekeeper, Mary Landergan Wonson. She worked for Sleeper until his death in 1934, and continued on at Beauport, serving as the first site administrator of the museum until her own death in 1957. Not only did she care for and clean the house but also its collections. She made diagrams so she could put everything back in the right place. She was known as the face of Beauport as she frequently gave tours of the house. During the summer, Mary and her family lived at Beauport in five servant rooms and a bathroom above Pine Kitchen. Two of the servant rooms have been restored to appear as they did when Mary, her husband George, and their two sons were there.

In May 1934 Sleeper received a prestigious honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of architecture and applied arts as “a collector of Americana and protector of the culture of early America.” Four months later Henry Davis Sleeper died at the Phillips House of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on September 22, 1934, from leukemia and was buried in his family’s plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Piatt Andrew wrote a tribute published in the Gloucester Daily Times the following Monday, calling Sleeper a man of versatile talent and varied achievement. In closing he remarked, “A valiant soul left this world when Henry Sleeper’s life ebbed out the other day.” Sleeper was a gay man and never married.

Beauport Photo Shoot with E.RothMcCann Ownership: Preserving Sleeper’s Vision

Upon Sleeper’s death, Beauport passed to his brother Stephen. Although he had a modest trust fund from his grandfather and a successful interior design business, Henry Sleeper relied almost entirely on elaborate mortgages and financial dealings to finance Beauport. With Beauport, Stephen also acquired his brother’s debt and was forced to sell the house. On October 21, 1935, Mrs. Helena Woolworth McCann, wife of Charles E. F. McCann of Oyster Bay, Long Island, purchased the house. Mrs. McCann, who collected European art, including her well-regarded collection of export porcelain, understood the charm and historical significance of her new American find and wished to preserve it unchanged.

When Sleeper’s former client Henry Francis duPont heard the news, he wrote Mrs. McCann congratulating her and offered his thoughts on the house. “Naturally the minute you take the things out of this house, or change them about, the value of the collection does not exist, as really the arrangement is 90%. I have no feeling whatsoever about the Chinese room, as I think it is distinctly bad; but the rest of the house really is a succession of fascinating pictures and color schemes.”

Desiring a room for entertaining, Mrs. McCann took duPont’s advice and remodeled the China Trade Room in 1936. Aside from this alteration, small changes in some textiles, wallpaper, and various touches, Sleeper’s collections and arrangements remain intact.

Before her death in 1938, Mrs. McCann approached William Sumner Appleton, director and founder of Historic New England, with the intention of bequeathing the property. Shortly after this initial discussion Mrs. McCann took ill and the proposed bequest was forgotten. Instead, she left Beauport to her three children, Constance Betts McMullan, Helena Guest, and Fraiser McCann, and they continued to occupy the house for several years. Appleton approached the children with their mother’s proposed bequest and suggested the unusual idea of allowing the family to access Beauport after it obtained museum status. On December 21, 1942, ownership of Beauport transferred to Historic New England as a permanent memorial to Helena Woolworth McCann.

Beauport Gardens 2015Becoming a Museum

Since 1942 Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House, has been open to the public and operated as a museum by Historic New England. In May 2003 the house was designated a National Historic Landmark, one of only two in Gloucester. In December 2007 Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, along with Congressman John Tierney, awarded Beauport a $500,000 Save America’s Treasures grant from the National Park Service. This grant funded much-needed preservation work of the windows, roof, and chimneys securing the envelope of the house.

Collections on Display

Model of the Ship "Golden Step"

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Portrait of a Woman

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Punch Pot

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Landscape History

Standing at the gatehouse door, visitors get their first glimpse of the private domain of Henry Davis Sleeper. The garden, like the house itself, evolved over several decades in the early 1900s. Today the landscape looks very much as it did in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the grounds best reflected Sleeper’s plans. The land surrounding the house affords diversity of spaces that make the area seem larger than it is.

Starting from the entrance, the treatments progress from a naturalistic look adapted to the contours of the site to a more formal style closer to the house, culminating in the brick terrace overlooking the water. Materials change from rough stone to more formal brick, the design moves from flowing lines to strict geometry, and plantings shift from naturalized native species to beds of specimen plants and hybrids. With its intimate spaces and outdoor rooms, the garden is an integral part of Sleeper’s concept for his summer retreat.

Its combination of straight and irregular lines, lack of pretension, small scale, and use of local materials are all characteristic of Arts and Crafts landscape design. Its charm is further enhanced by features often found in Arts and Crafts gardens—planters, a sundial, benches, and charming small carvings and statuary. The garden was restored over three years, 2009 to 2012, to reflect the gardens of the late Sleeper and early McCann period, as part of a Save America’s Treasures project.

Property FAQs

Find out about restrooms, photography policy, and more.

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  • Are there restrooms at Beauport?

    Yes. There are two restrooms open to the public seasonally, during regular museum hours and special events.

  • Can I take photographs at the museum?

    Interior and exterior photography for personal use is allowed at Historic New England properties. For the safety and comfort of our visitors and the protection of our collections and house museums, we ask that you be aware of your surroundings and stay with your guide. Video, camera bags, tripods, and selfie sticks are not permitted. Professional/commercial photographers and members of the media should visit the press room for more information.

  • How do I become a member of Historic New England and get more involved?

    Join Historic New England now and help preserve the region’s heritage. Call 617-994-5910 or join online.

  • When can I visit the museum grounds?

    The Beauport grounds are open during regular museum hours.

  • How long is the tour? How many rooms will I see?

    Daily tours of Beauport are approximately one hour long. On this regular tour, thirty rooms are on view. To see the entire house, we offer the popular Nooks and Crannies program once a month during the season. Please see the events calendar for details.

  • Do I need to take a tour or can I just look around?

    All visitors to the house receive a guided tour.

  • Is there food allowed at the museum?

    Anyone is welcome to bring picnics and enjoy them on the Beauport grounds during open hours. For suggestions on sandwiches or box lunches please call Beauport directly at 978-283-0800.

  • What is the square footage of the house?

    The house is approximately 14,200 square feet.

  • Why are there signs marked “Private Roads/Members Only” on stone pillars leading to Eastern Point?

    Eastern Point, the neighborhood where Beauport is located, is a private neighborhood. Beauport and the breakwater, next to the lighthouse at the end of Eastern Point, are open to the public. Security guards are stationed at the Eastern Point entrance on weekends and occasionally holidays but are happy to let visitors through to get to Beauport.

  • Is the house available to rent for weddings or other private events?

    The entire interior of Beauport is museum space and only available for tours, although small private gatherings or wedding ceremonies can be arranged on the grounds.  Please see the event rental page or contact the site manager at 978-283-0800 for details.

  • Was the first owner of Beauport, Henry Davis Sleeper, married?

    A gay man, Sleeper never married or had children.

  • What was Sleeper's occupation?

    Sleeper was one of the first professional interior designers in the country. He opened his office in 1921. Clients included Henry Francis du Pont and actors John Mack Brown, Joan Crawford, and Fredric March.

  • How many bedrooms, bathrooms, and fireplaces are in the house?

    There are twelve bedrooms (fourteen during Sleeper’s lifetime, two servants rooms are now used for storage), eight bathrooms and twelve fireplaces (some worked and some were there for effect).

  • Did Sleeper have siblings?

    Yes, Sleeper was the youngest of three boys. His brothers were Jacob Sleeper (1869–1930) and Stephen Westcott Sleeper (1874–1956).

  • Where did Sleeper's money come from?

    When Sleeper reached the age of fifteen, he benefited from his grandfather’s (Jacob Sleeper) real estate trust, which provided him with approximately $850 a year. This income partially supported his collecting and living expenses. Although he made an income from clients after 1921, Beauport was primarily funded by elaborate mortgages and financial dealings.

  • Do you provide admission discounts for EBT cardholders?

    EBT cardholders from all fifty states can show their card for $2 admission to house tours for up to four guests per card.

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