Northshore Home magazine highlights the best in architectural design, new construction and renovations, interiors, and landscape design.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1226262
ASTERN POINT WAS A SUMMER DESTINATION FOR TH E ELITE, WHO BUI LT LARGE, GRACIOUS "cottages" perfectly positioned for soaking in the daily moods of Gloucester's Outer Harbor. One of America's first professional interior designers, Henry Davis Sleeper, couldn't resist the location, building his own cottage, the richly furnished Beauport mansion, on its coastline. Authors, artists, dignitaries, industrialists, and more succumbed to the peninsula's end-of-the-earth allure. Centuries later, the magic of Eastern Point cast its seaside spell on a family based in Chestnut Hill wanting to put down more permanent roots in Massachusetts. They envisioned those roots ideally hitting a rocky or sandy shore. "We didn't know the state well and were open to almost any coast with access to Boston: South Shore, North Shore," explains the husband. "But one day we were invited by friends to dinner at Eastern Point Yacht Club and we fell in love." When their lot came up for sale, the couple were impressed with its hilltop, harborside setting and the pedigree and potential of its home. Designed by Boston architect Samuel Dudley Kelley in 1893, the large Shingle-style grande dame was expanded over time by previous owners. But sections were in disrepair, and the additions detracted from the architectural cohesiveness. More importantly, the interiors needed modernizing, with better light and flow, which 62