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OF BEAUPORT AT GLOUCESTER IT is usual in books reporting first discoveries of unknown lands to print a map of the area. This is the map of the beanstalk Henry Sleeper planted and raised, 1903-1937 . It is of the main floor only, adapted from a plan which hangs today in the pantry. Good hunting. |
By agreement in June 1942, Constance, Frasier and Helena, children of Mrs. Helena W. McCann transferred "Beauport" to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, with an annual grant for maintenance from the Winfield Foundation, to make the house permanently available for the benefit and education of the public as a memorial to their mother.
So in December the deed and details of this extremely generous, well-considered and interesting gift were duly recorded. The Society took on the responsibility for its 44th property, in a roster that now numbers 56. They stand, hospitably, in five of the six New England states, ranging from the sturdy dwellings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the impressive mansions of the Federal period, to the fine homes of the early Republic. Most are open to the public. All of them are preserved and furnished through the interest and generosity of members and friends of the Society.
In 1950, the Society chanced to bring together at its headquarters (the Harrison Gray Otis House, 141 Cambridge Street, in Boston) one of the country's finest picture-makers and a writer who had known Henry Davis Sleeper, the creator of "Beauport" and had learned from him first-hand the story of the house. The happy result follows.
They have told you in pictures and words how a twentieth-century genius has strikingly re-created in a series of rooms full of antiquities and glowing with colour, many of the moods and mingled skeins of culture that have contributed to the tapestry of our America.
BERTRAM K. LITTLE, Director
The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
 BEAUPORT
FROM THE HARBOURSIDE BELFRY
BEDROOM BYRON
ROOM CENTRAL
HALL CHAPEL
CHAMBER CHINESE
ROOM COGSWELL
ROOM FRANKLIN
ROOM GOLDEN
STEP ROOM GREEN
DINING ROOM INDIAN
ROOM JACOBEAN
ROOM MARINER'S
ROOM NELSON
ROOM NORTH
GALLERY OCTAGON
ROOM PEMBROKE
ROOM PINEAPPLE
ROOM REVERE
ROOM SHELLEY
ROOM SOUTH
GALLERY STORY,
The --- by Paul Hollister STRAWBERRY
HILL ROOM, Frontispiece, TOWER
LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
SITTING ROOM WILLOW
ROOM |