A storied history

A family parts with a Wellfleet home that once hosted great literary figures

The birthplace of Lorenzo Dow Baker (left), a ship captain who became known as ''The Banana King,'' is up for sale in Wellfleet. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)

Among the most coveted invitations in Wellfleet during the summers of the 1950s and '60s were the jovial cocktail parties thrown by Judge Francis Biddle and his wife, Katherine Garrison Chapin Biddle, at their vacation home on Bound Brook Island.

The Biddles hosted what amounted to a powerhouse literary salon, with Conrad Aiken, Arthur Schlessinger, Edmund Wilson, and Mary McCarthy among the regulars. The Biddles, however, had one rule: No one could read aloud his or her own work, only the work of others.

"Everyone in town knew about the parties," said Helen Purcell, 87, a member of the Wellfleet Historical Society, who can still recall the collection of beautiful china Katherine Biddle used when she entertained. "And if one was lucky enough to be invited, they just loved being there."

Situated on 10 acres within the Cape Cod National Seashore and a short walk from Cape Cod Bay, the Biddle property is now for sale for $3.62 million.

The home was built around 1795 and Bound Brook was really an island until after the Civil War when the land was gradually filled in to accommodate the coming of the railroad. The unmarked sand road, framed by tall oaks and pitch pines, is remarkably as it was when the Biddles first traveled to their summer retreat. The winding, hilly lane is so narrow that there are several spots where you can turn in to allow an oncoming car to pass. Most times the only indication of homes buried in the woods are weathered wooden name-bearing signs nailed to trees.

The Biddle property has four buildings clustered together away from the shore, as was customary during the 18th and 19th centuries. The home itself is an old-timey modest Cape property of weathered shingles and red trim. But a path behind the main house leads to a ridge that offers magnificent views of the bay and the wonderful rolling dunes of the National Seashore.

The property also has an impressive pedigree.

The Biddles themselves were a well-read couple with literary successes of their own. Francis Biddle was the US attorney general during most of World War II and the primary American judge at the Nuremburg war crimes trials. In addition to his memoirs, Biddle authored books on US politics. And Katherine Biddle was a published poet and prolific writer of essays and reviews on poetry.

It was also the birthplace of Lorenzo Dow Baker, a 19th-century ship captain and merchant who became known as "The Banana King."

His genius was in realizing that if picked green, bananas shipped from Jamaica would arrive in the United States ripe, instead of spoiled. He and entrepreneur Andrew Preston started a banana market in Boston, and their business would later morph into the United Fruit Co., the colossus that came to symbolize US Colonial capitalism in Latin America. It has since evolved into Chiquita Brands International.

Among the many critics of United Fruit was American novelist John Dos Passos, who early in his career was a passionate social critic and sympathizer of leftist causes. In the second volume of his trilogy U.S.A., "1919," which depicted the growth of American materialism, Dos Passos wrote, "United Fruit . . . United Thieves Company . . . it's a monopoly . . . if you won't take their prices they let your limes rot on the wharf; it's a monopoly . . ."

That book was published in 1932. In what has to be one of the great ironic coincidences in American literature, three years later Baker's sons sold the Wellfleet property to . . . John Dos Passos.

Dos Passos's wife, Katharine, who believed her husband was spending too much time partying in Provincetown, was the driving force behind buying the house.

"She thought the secluded Wellfleet property would be a good place for him to focus more on work," said Stephen Biddle, 56, grandson of Francis and Katherine Biddle.

While living in the house, Dos Passos finished "The Big Money," the last volume of his trilogy. To mark the book's publication, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine in August 1936.

The following year began a difficult time for Dos Passos. During the Spanish Civil War, his close friend, Jose Robles, a Spanish political exile, was executed by communists. The killing prompted a political transformation within Dos Passos, as he veered rightward, causing a deep split with his friend Ernest Hemingway. Dos Passos became a writer of nationalistic themes and a Republican, who at the end of his life praised President Nixon's extension of the Vietnam conflict into Cambodia.

It's unknown precisely why Dos Passos sold the Wellfleet property in June 1937, although his personal upheaval was likely a contributing factor.

When the Biddles bought the property in 1948, remarkably little had been done to change the original footprint, save for a more modern kitchen added by the previous owner. And there have been few updates in the 60 years the Biddle family has owned it, aside from a small expansion in the living room.

Wide pine floorboards, some painted shades of blue or red, run throughout the house and there are three original fireplaces on the first level; the dining room windows are encased with interior paneled pocket shutters that date back to the early 1800s.

The living room is lined with built-in shelves, packed full with political editions, novels, and poetry volumes that bring to mind the literary greats who sat in the room.

One of the outbuildings is a former stable Francis Biddle used as his study.

According to Stephen Biddle, the post-and-beam structure was also inhabited for extended stays by his grandparents' close friend, French poet and diplomat Saint-John Perse, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960. Nearby is an old sheep's barn the Biddles converted into a guesthouse with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. (This house is actually on a parcel separate from the main house, however, the family has listed both parcels for sale together.)

The fourth building is known as the "Delight Cottage," a rustic two-room cottage believed to be older than the house.

Stephen Biddle said the family believes the shed "would have been used for cutting and boiling whale blubber."

When a review was done of the property by the Historic American Buildings Survey decades ago, it was determined the structure had evidence of salt damage, indicating it had once been located close to the beach and moved.

A worn wooden sign hangs about the cottage door proclaiming "Delight." Francis Biddle picked the sign from a trash can in front of a decaying building in Provincetown. The family later learned the Provincetown building had been a brothel long ago, its "Delight" sign hung prominently on the building, beckoning young sailors and fishermen.

Listing broker Larry Peters of Prudential Cape Shores Real Estate said he thinks the property would make an ideal artists colony, or some other educational retreat. By today's standards the buildings need updating and structural repairs. But Peters and many other townspeople believe the property is a treasure and hope its historic integrity will remain intact.

Yet there is nothing to protect the home from being razed for one of those modern mansions atop the Cape dunescape. Because it is a historic property, Peters said, the Town of Wellfleet and its historical society could try to match the price a teardown buyer would pay.

"If they couldn't come up with it, then the town would have to grant permission for the teardown," Peters said.

However, the large number of teardowns in recent years has so alarmed residents that there is a big push to enforce stricter building codes within the National Seashore.

At Town Meeting on Oct. 27, Wellfleet voters will be asked to approve zoning changes that would limit house sizes.

Letting go of the house is hard for Stephen Biddle, whose life in Quakertown, Pa., makes extended stays in Wellfleet impossible.

"When you think of all of the interesting, accomplished people who lived and spent time there, it's amazing," he said. "It's hard to leave that all behind."