The Beebe Estate
By Arnold W. Williams
The impressive mansion now known as the Beebe Estate, at 235 West Foster Street, Melrose, Massachusetts, was constructed on the site of a house built in 1720 by Phineas Sprague, a descendent of one of the earliest Melrose settlers.
The mansion housed in turn the Foster, Harlow, Bigelow, and Beebe families, whose business and political activities over a span of 135 years matched in vigor and extent the economic growth and expansion of the United States. It serves as a microcosm of our country's development.
In 1828, William Foster, impressed by the natural beauty of the area, purchased a large acreage of the Sprague property containing the Sprague house. North Malden (later Melrose) was then a pleasant farming community. Mr. Foster maintained a home he had built on Beacon Hill in Boston and used his Melrose residence with its elaborate cupola, gracious grounds, and formal gardens as his summer retreat.
William Foster was born in Boston on January 10, 1772, where he attended schools until the age of 14 when he was sent by his father to be employed in the counting house of his correspondents in Cadiz, Spain. William returned to America when he was about 20. After a short stay his father sent him to Morlaix, France, with a cargo of fish. Here he made the acquaintance of a wealthy merchant by the name of Perron who had a very attractive daughter, Hortence, in whom William became interested although she was only 14. In about a year, he married her and remained in France as his father's correspondent.
He was there during the French Revolution, was called as a conscript in the army of Napoleon I, and participated in many of the events of that revolution. After serving his stint in the army he became a very active member of the Jacobin Club in France and at one time was president of one of the more than 1200 branch clubs throughout the country. These clubs consisted of revolutionary leaders such as Mirabeau, Robespierre, Pere Gerard and Abbé Gregoire. They were political clubs which exercised profound influence on the progress of the French Revolution. After Robespierre was beheaded, the clubs lost much of their power and were subsequently banned by the government.
In 1793 William Foster made a trip back to the United States bringing with him the first pair of Merino sheep introduced to this country. This important breed of sheep originated in Spain and the Spanish royalty forbade their exportation. However, William took the risk of having his ship confiscated should the sheep be discovered on board. On the same trip, he brought valuable paintings, one of which "The Meeting of Rebecca and Abraham's Servant" by Bartolome Murillo, the noted Spanish painter, was presented by Foster to the Boston Athenaeum in 1824, was loaned to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 1876 to 1905, and was presented to Boston College in 1905 where it now hangs in the library.
Mr. Foster permanently returned from Europe to Boston in 1807 with his wife and two children entering his father's firm as a Commission Merchant. He built a house on Beacon Hill and summered in Melrose after the house there was built in 1828. Mr. Foster was as proficient in French, Spanish and Italian as in his own language, and was frequently called into court to translate and explain difficult and obscure passages in those languages.
He took a very active part in local politics and was elected Democratic Senator from Suffolk County in 1834. He frequently wrote articles in the old Boston Transcript, the Courier and other papers over the signature of "Franklin."
Mrs. Foster died about 1840 and a few years thereafter he sold his Melrose estate and built a large house on Woodland Road, Stoneham, Massachusetts, on the shore of Spot Pond, patterned after a chateau in Normandy, France, where his wife was born. He and his daughters summered there for a number of years. At this woodland retreat, Mr. Foster wrote many of his newspaper articles. Following a short illness, William Foster died on February 25, 1863, at the age of 91.
Around 1842 William Harlow, also a Boston businessman, purchased the Foster estate on West Foster Street, Melrose, from Mr. Foster. Mr. Harlow was connected with the steam railroad business, and while he was living in the house the Boston & Maine railroad tracks were laid through Melrose in 1845, a portion adjoining his land. He remained in the house for 12 years, and then sold it to Liberty Bigelow
Mr. Bigelow, who was born in Sutton, Massachusetts, on June 23, 1815, left home at the early age of 17 to seek his fortune. He became a stage driver, then considered a respectable calling, and made a real success of it. After consulting with James Gordon Bennett, the noted Scottish-American newspaper publisher and journalist, he established the first stage express between Boston and New York.
When steam railroads began to replace stage express, Mr. Bigelow naturally gravitated to the railroad business. It was his idea that the Cheshire Railroad, based in Keene, New Hampshire, then in its infancy, should be extended into Vermont. He was able to attract the attention of the proper people with his idea and when the Sullivan and the Rutland Railroad lines were established in Vermont, he was appointed Superintendent.
In 1854, Liberty Bigelow was appointed Superintendent of the much larger Fitchburg Railroad with offices in Boston. At about this time he purchased the Melrose home built by William Foster. Bigelow left the Fitchburg Railroad in 1857 to establish his own express business in Brattle Square, Boston. His company first expressed merchandise by railroad between Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and Keene, New Hampshire. Later he merged his company with Northern Express Ltd. There was born his idea for a United States - Canadian express, which developed into one of the most prosperous express companies on the continent.
A few years later, Mr. Bigelow was asked to go to Chicago to work with Franklin Parmalee in establishing a horse street railway system. New York City had had such a system for some years and many of the large eastern cities had followed suit. Chicago having become a thriving city, was in great need of such a method of transportation. The Chicago City Railway Company founded by Bigelow and Parmalee was a great success. Liberty Bigelow first conceived the idea of running a system of railway coaches between railroad stations and hotels in Chicago. This idea spread throughout the eastern part of the country. During his stay in Chicago, the Bigelow family remained in their Melrose home. After completing his service of about five years in Chicago, he returned to Melrose to enjoy a well deserved retirement. He continued to serve as director of several Boston concerns including the Metropolitan Horse Railway.
Mr. Bigelow died in Melrose on June 20, 1890, in his 75th year. He was described as a fine physical specimen, modest and retiring, genial and philanthropically minded; beloved and respected by all.
The estate remained in the hands of Liberty Bigelow's widow, Harriet A. Bigelow. In this house, the Melrose Hospital Association was organized on July 28, 1893. Mrs. Bigelow was a strong supporter of the hospital and gave much of her time and money to it. From this beginning, the hospital has grown into the large private institution that it is today.
At Mrs. Bigelow's death in 1898, her daughter, Katherine, inherited the estate. She was married to Decius Beebe, descendent of a wealthy family and a member of the firm of Lucius Beebe and Sons of Boston, which had extensive interests and tanneries in New England.
Mr. Beebe’s forbears came to this country in 1650 and settled in New London, Connecticut, where the family became large landowners and prominent in the community. As the years went by, the sons and grandsons struck out on their own in various business enterprises. In the 1830's, Lucius and Junius Beebe set up business in New Orleans as Commission Merchants. At about this time, steam power for ships came into use and a steam railroad was developing throughout the east and south. Both of those methods of transportation were a boon to the Beebe business which prospered beyond imagination. About 1844, they opened an office in Boston and later one in New York City.
After the Boston store opened, Lucius Beebe moved his family to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they lived for a few years. Later they moved to Melrose for about a year. Here, Decius, was born on May 2, 1852. The family finally settled in the adjoining town of Wakefield where the father, Lucius, purchased the Forrester estate located on the east shore of Lake Quannapowet.
After Decius finished school, he entered his father's firm in Boston. In 1879, he married Katherine Bigelow, only child of Liberty and Harriet A. Bigelow. Their marriage was blessed with eight children.
Decius and his twin brother, Marcus, with another brother, Junius, continued to operate the leather business very successfully, and the Beebe name was well recognized throughout the trade. Decius was also active in local financial affairs; was President of the Melrose National Bank from its incorporation in 1892; was a trustee of the Melrose Savings Bank; and was a generous contributor of time, talent and money to the Melrose Hospital.
Decius died on September 23, 1915, at the age of 63 and his wife, Katherine, remained in the house until her death in 1928. Two maiden daughters continued to live there until the death of the remaining one, Selinda, in 1963. On November 19, 1963, the property was acquired by the City of Melrose and turned over to the School Department for use as its Administration Building. It served this purpose for more than thirty years until the city decided to use the restored and greatly expanded Beebe Estate barn as the Milano Senior Center, and to move the Council on Aging offices to the main house.