Gilded Era Beverly, Massachusetts Mansion Trades at $18 Million

During the same years President William Howard Taft rented houses in the charming seaside town of Beverly, Massachusetts for use as his “Summer White House” (1909-1912), a grand Gilded Era residence was commissioned by and built for wealthy widow Marian A Sargent on several waterfront acres in the patrician town’s Prides Beach neighborhood. Freshly updated for a modern lifestyle, Sargent’s big old house was recently sold for $18.275 million, the highest amount ever paid for a single-family home in Beverly.

Designed by artist and architect George Canning Wales and dubbed Rock Edge, the hulking, imposingly handsome 17-room Georgian Revival mansion presides over 400 feet of rugged shoreline at the end of a long, gated and tree-lined driveway. Standing three stories tall, the palatial abode’s tapestry brickwork is complemented by limestone embellishments, a slate roof, and Tuscan columns.

The scion of two distinguished families — her maternal grandfather was banker, shipping magnate and two-time Congressman William Appleton; her paternal great-great grandfather was the Thomas Jefferson — Sargent used Rock Edge as a summer retreat from her primary residence in Boston. She died in 1924 and Rock Edge was sold in 1926 to politician and diplomat Frederick Moulton Alger of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The Alger family held on to the property until 1940 when it was acquired by its most illustrious owner, blue-blood socialite and pioneering athlete Eleonora R. Sears. The daughter of shipping magnate Frederick R. Sears and known as Eleo, Sears was a direct descendent of Thomas Jefferson, a lineage that made her the niece of Marian Sargent!

Besides being a socialite courted by the likes of yachtsman Harold S. Vanderbilt and Britain’s Prince Edward VIII — Eleo was an athletic phenom who exceled in tennis, squash and show jumping. She was also known for her feisty temperament, and she was known to post an armed guard on the beach to keep the hoi polloi from frolicking on her private stretch of sand. Her life was extraordinary enough, in fact, it was chronicled in Peggy Franck’s book “Prides Crossing: The Unbridled Life and Impatient Times of Eleonora Sears.”

Sears passed in 1968 and in 1971 her estate sold Rock Edge to John and Nancy Benevento. The Beneventos, whose fortune derives from a nearly 100-year-old family-owned construction materials and recycling concern, raised their family on the Rock Edge estate. John passed in 2000 and upon Nancy’s death in 2015, Rock Edge passed to their heirs. John and Nancy’s son Charlie Benevento soon tapped Linda Zarifi of Zarifi Design and together they embarked on an extensive, multimillion dollar renovation that sought to preserve the grandeur and classic proportions of the original house but also give it the sorts of creature comforts and up-to-date luxuries expected in homes of this price range.

Along with the intricate woodwork and wrought-iron detailing, there are bleached hardwood floors laid in a chevron pattern and 14 wood-burning fireplaces, each with an elegant mantelpiece. Large windows fill every room with light reflected off the water; French doors open many rooms on the main floor to a vast terrace set just above the rocky shoreline.

Formal living and dining rooms are complemented by a music room, a game room, and a dignified wood-paneled study. The kitchen alone spans 1,500 square feet, with two marble-topped islands, a butler’s pantry and a built-in dining banquette. A nearby sunroom makes for a particularly nice breakfast spot.

There are four bedrooms on the second floor, including the primary suite, which occupies a corner of the house with sweeping water views and comprises multiple walk-in closets. Even the mirrors in the gleaming marble-sheathed bathroom reflect the water. There are seven more bedrooms up on the third floor, as well as a spacious bonus wing above the five-plus-car garage. The grounds include a U-shaped bathhouse with several changing rooms, direct beach access, vast swaths of evenly mown lawn and near the entrance gates, a carriage house for staff or guests.

Painted bright white throughout the interior, the entire place is primed and ready for the next owner’s savvy team of decorators and designers transform the empty shell into a right proper and conspicuously huge home fit for a modern-day plutocrat.

The property was listed with George Sarkis of The Sarkis Team at Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The buyer was represented in the record-setting deal by Tracy Campion of Campion & Company Fine Homes Real Estate.