Celebrate Beauport Day!

As part of the 100th anniversary celebration, October 12 is declared Beauport Day by Gloucester Mayor John Bell, with birthday cake, a proclamation, music and more. Tours of Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House are free throughout the day.

According to an entry in the diary of Cecilia Beaux, an artist and Eastern Point neighbor, October 12, 1907, is the day the cornerstone was laid for Henry Sleeper’s summer and weekend retreat in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

‘Also called by Sl. [Sleeper] and went over to his place to talk over house & cornerstone’.At four to Sl for brick. A.P.A. [A. Piatt Andrew] he & I wonderful moments. The re [slabs?] wrapped in silk and seal. ‘Little Beauport’.’

The cornerstone was probably a brick that Sleeper had wrapped in silk with a seal that read ‘Little Beauport’.

Sleeper, a nationally noted antiquarian and collector and one of the country’s first professional interior designers, began building Beauport in 1907. He eventually enlarged the house to over forty rooms filled with a lifetime collection that includes period furniture, glassware, books, ceramics, hooked rugs, and silhouettes arranged within various rooms. The house and its well-known themed rooms remain virtually as Sleeper left them. Beauport is open for tour Tuesdays ‘ Saturdays, June 1 ‘ October 13. For more information, please contact (978) 283 ‘ 0800 or beauporthouse@historicnewengland.org.

About Historic New England
Beauport is one of thirty-six history sites owned and operated by Historic New England, the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional preservation organization in the country. It offers a unique opportunity to experience the lives and stories of New Englanders through their homes and possessions. For more information visit www.HistoricNewEngland.org.