Neighbors: The Lucius Beebe Family of Wakefield

THE LYNNFIELD ADVOCATE - Friday, March 25, 2016
Page 9
Neighbors: The Lucius Beebe Family of Wakefield
By Helen Breen
(wakefieldlibrary.org)
Of all the lovely homes that
grace the eastern shore of Lake
Quannapowitt in Wakefield, one
stands out from the rest – 142
Main St., the family seat of
the Beebe family. Those of us
who “walk the lake” can’t help
but admire the graceful lines
of this meticulously maintained
Federalist mansion. Tradition
suggests that the original
farmhouse was remodeled by
famed Salem architect Samuel
McIntire (1757-1811).
Eventually business titan
Lucius Beebe (1810-1884)
p u r c h a s e d t h e p r o p e r t y,
including its extensive farm
acreage, in 1852 for $10,000.
The convenience of the daily
Boston & Maine train to Boston
attracted Beebe to Wakefield.
He and his wife Sylenda (Morris)
Beebe raised their 12 children
on the estate, making continual
improvements to the home,
(wakefieldlibrary.org)
The Federalist Beebe estate in Wakefield was added to the National Register of Historic Places in1989.
Oil painting of Lucius Morris
Beebe, with family crest
behind, sits above a marble
fireplace in the library.
white marble floor in the entry,
elegant reading rooms with
working marble fireplaces and
“Adams style plaster detailing
on the walls and ceilings” along
with “urn motifs that echo the
stone urns on the building’s
facade.” The beehive, symbol of
the Beebe family, is a decorative
motif throughout. In the late
1990s, the building underwent a
total renovation, bringing it back
to its pristine grandeur.
The next generation
In an alcove across from
the circulation desk hangs the
arresting portrait of Junius’s
son, Lucius Morris Beebe
(1902-1966). Raised in a life of
privilege on the Beebe Farm,
educated at St. Mark’s School
in Southborough – where he
established his reputation as a
prankster, he proudly admitted
to having been expelled from
both Yale and Harvard. His
writing talents, however, were
apparent at these institutions,
regardless of his youthful
machinations.
Described as “a syndicated
columnist, journalist,
photographer, gourmand,
railroad historian, author,
raconteur, and acknowledged
dandy,” Lucius traveled in rarified
social and literary circles here
and abroad. By 1934 he had a
nationally syndicated column in
the New York Herald Tribune.
He was credited with coining
the phrase “Cafe Society” as he
mingled at watering holes like
the Stork Club and El Morocco.
Tiring of the New York
scene, Lucius and his life
partner, Charles Clegg, later
decamped to Virginia City,
Nevada, where they purchased
a local newspaper for which
Mark Twain had once worked.
Together they produced some
35 books, mostly about the
West and railroading, traveling
about in their own luxurious
railroad car.
Looking back on his life, one
admirer explained that Lucius
was “an ornate gentleman who
drank deeply of the pleasures
of the world, and who loved
its velvet comforts. A true
boulevardier in a mold of his
own creation.” The “farm” was
sold in 1963 and divided into
house lots. Yet the Beebe family
heritage remains in the beautiful
“house on the lake,” the literary
legacy of Lucius Morris Beebe
and the architectural jewel that
is the Beebe Public Library in
Wakefield Center.
including the installation of the
first indoor plumbing in the town.
In those days the “Beebe
Farm” had extensive flower
gardens, orchards, and
cornfields along with a herd of
over 100 milking cows and a
stable of horses. At Lucius’s
death, the property passed to his
ninth child, Junius Beebe (18541934), a prominent Boston
banker and utility executive. His
wife Eleanor (Merrick) Beebe
used the home as a summer
residence up until the late 1930s.
The library
In 1916 the people of
Wakefield purchased a lot to
build a new library at the corner
of Main and Avon Streets for
$16,000. Then in 1922 Junius
Beebe offered the princely sum
of $60,000 to build the structure,
in memory of his father Lucius.
Junius engaged the services
of Ralph Adams Cram (18631942), “a prolific and influential
American architect of collegiate
and ecclesiastical buildings,”
including many at Princeton
University. Cram diverted from
his usual Gothic Revival style to
fashion Wakefield’s library in the
Classic Revival mode.
The library features a black and The foyer of the Beebe Library is embellished with classical motifs (lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com).