Beauport

The Beauport Sleeper-McCann House on Eastern Point, Gloucester, is a real gem. It is a forty room mansion built by one of America's first professional interior decorators. DuPont, Rockefeller, Henry James, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Okakura Kakuzo, and John Singer Sargent were house guests. Henry Sleeper mixed American antiques with kitch that was contemporary to his lifetime. Sleeper died in tremendous debt and it was great fortune that the McCanns bought the house intact and left everything in place. It was bequeathed to Historic New England, then known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. It is open seasonally to the public for guided tours.