01907magazine

UNREAL
estate
What’s to become of historic White Court mansion?
IBY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
n 1895, a beautiful
260,000-square-foot
acreage overlooking
the ocean on Littles
Point was purchased
and a white-pillared
summer mansion with
extensive sloping lawns
and old-fashioned
gardens was erected.
Today, the sprawling
mansion is best
known as the former
home of Marian Court
College. Soon, it will
be turned into condominiums.
For much of the past century, the
estate has played a major part in Swampscott
history.
James L. Little of Boston purchased
the large plot of land overlooking the
Atlantic in 1847. When it was sold to
Frederick E. Smith of Dayton, Ohio,
almost 50 years later, the existing structure
was demolished and the glorious
White Court was built.
In 1925, President Calvin A.
Coolidge and his wife, Grace, payed $1
to spend the summer at the home. Town
residents proudly remember Grace taking
the family's dog, Rob Roy, for a daily
walk past the New Ocean House hotel
on Puritan Road, said town historian
Lou Gallo. Others recall the United
States Marine Corp encampment staged
at Lincoln House Point.
"He lived in Massachusetts for quite a
while before national politics, so he knew
his way around the North Shore," said
Gallo.
When Coolidge used the opulent
White Court as the Summer White
House, it sparked interest in the town's
already strong reputation as a vacation
spot. But the summer of 1925 was the
only season the president and his wife
spent basking in Swampscott sun. His
fun was ruined later that year by rumrunners
and a missing $50,000 worth
of liquor. This was during the height of
Prohibition.
"That winter, if I remember correctly,
there were rumrunners who used to store
alcohol out on the points," said Gallo.
"They confiscated some alcohol that was
stored in that house, which started a
whole big thing in town. They removed
the liquor to the police station and then
it disappeared. The chief lost his job and
Coolidge decided not to come back."
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