Grange Halls have long been vitally important buildings in agricultural towns all over New England and are becoming threatened due to shifting development patterns and dwindling membership. The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry was established in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. Communities all over built grange halls where farmers and residents could meet and discuss prices, trade, and share tips for larger crop yields. The Willow Grange Hall in Jefferson, Maine was built in 1901 and is a vernacular building which remains a community meeting hall to this day.
Built in 1857, Winter Harbor Light is one of Maine’s enchanting historic lighthouses dotting the rugged coastline. The lighthouse was built by the United States government to aid navigation for the local fishing fleet, an important piece of the local economy there. The light tower, built in 1856, is a round brick structure topped by an original octagonal lantern house with an iron walkway and railing around it. A brick single-story workroom projects from the tower. The keeper’s house is a two-story wood-frame structure, which was built in 1876 (along with the ell) to replace the original keeper’s house. The light was decommissioned in 1934 and sold into private hands, but in its seventy-six years of service, nine keepers and their families lived on the island. It remains a visual landmark on its small island in Mt. Desert Narrows on the drive along the Schoodic Peninsula in Acadia National Park (Winter Harbor side). What are your favorite lighthouses in Maine?
Barncastle, located in the Town of Blue Hill, Maine, is an elaborate and distinctive house. Designed by George A. Clough and built in 1884, the building is a sprawling complex in the Shingle style with additional eccentric details. As Blue Hill and other coastal communities of Down East Maine saw popularity as summer colonies of wealthy city-dwellers flocking to the rugged coastline, many new residents either built new “cottages” or renovated older (often ancestral) homes. Effie Hinckley Ober (1843-1927) who was born in town, married Virgil P. Kline, personal attorney to John D. Rockefeller, and for thirty years worked as attorney for the Standard Oil Co. of Ohio. Effie founded the Boston Ideal Opera Company in 1879 and traveled with the group extensively, retiring in 1885, upon that time, she would move into Barncastle for summers (then named “Ideal Lodge” after her opera company). In 1884, before her retirement, Effie hired her childhood friend, architect George A. Clough, who was born in Blue Hill and worked in Boston, to completely redesign her ancestral home. Clough’s design engulfed a smaller Cape Cod-style house owned by Effie’s mother Mary Peters Hinckley Ober Atherton, a descendant of early Blue Hill settlers, creating an absolutely elegant Shingle-style summer cottage. The house is highly visible on a main street, but what many do not see is the arch-and-turret link between kitchen wing and carriage barn. “Barncastle” is now home to an elegant inn and restaurant!
Wrapping up this series on a tour of buildings in Blue Hill, Maine, we have two stunning old homes left!
This landmark Federal style house was built sometime between 1812 and 1816 by Robert Parker, whose wife was a daughter of Joseph Wood, one of the first two white settlers of Blue Hill. The home is significant not only architecturally, but for its connections to a number of old settlers to Blue Hill and their families.
By the turn of the 20th century the farming, mining and granite producing town of Blue Hill had been discovered. Writers, artists, musicians, and wealthy urban families from all over the East Coast found inspiration or retreat in many coastal Maine communities including Blue Hill, building “cottages” to summer at. Not all those who arrived to Maine were ‘from away’, as many built new or renovated their old ancestral homes to be occupied when seeking the peace and tranquility of coastal Maine. The Parker House was no different. In 1900, it was renovated in the Colonial Revival style as a summer home for Frederick A. Merrill and his wife, Elizabeth, residents of Boston. The couple hired George A. Clough, who worked as the first City Architect of Boston, but grew up locally in Blue Hill. Mrs. Merrill was descended from Mrs. Robert Parker’s sister. The current owner, the Merrill’s great-grandson, has undertaken a restoration of the house which pays homage to its Colonial Revival past. The stunning house can even be rented!
Architect George M. Harding built this boxy Italianate style house as his personal residence on Deering Street in Portland, Maine. Harding was very busy in the late 1860s after the destructive Great Fire of Portland in 1866. He designed some of the finest commercial blocks Downtown, including the Rackleff Block and Woodman Block, both excellently preserved landmarks in town today. For his own residence, he pulled out all the stops, with bold proportions, carved trim details, and a center tower capped with a mansard roof. The tower was removed in 1956, but the rest of the house is just stunning. Architect-designed houses for their own residency are always fun to find!
Francis Ashby Waldron (1816-1898) was born in Buckfield, Maine to an old New England family. He moved to Portland for job opportunities and worked as a merchant, eventually establishing Waldron and True with business partner Samuel True. The firm was engaged in dealing grain, salt, corn, and more. After a few years of profits, Francis had this Italianate style mansion built on the fashionable Deering Street just west of Downtown. The property was passed down to his children after his death in 1898, and it remained in the family until 1950. The house originally had a prominent belvedere at the roof, but it was eventually removed. The former Waldron House is now maintained as a law office.
Why is commercial architecture from the second half of the 19th century so perfect? This structure in Downtown Portland is known as the Printer’s Exchange Building and was built in 1866, amongst the ashes of the buildings lost in the Great Fire of 1866. Charles Quincy Clapp is credited as the designer of the structure, which is Italianate in style with the paired round arched windows set into larger openings. The rounded corners are a really subtle but splendid touch in the design. The building got its name as it was home to the Eastern Argus and the Portland Daily Press, among other newspapers who rented the space from owner, Horatio Nelson Jose. I really like this one!
Another of Portland’s stunning mid-19th century commercial blocks is the Thompson Block, built in 1868. The structure is one of the most high-style commercial buildings in Maine and is in a great state of preservation. The building was designed by George M. Harding, a VERY busyarchitect after the disastrous Great Fire of 1866, which destroyed much of Downtown Portland. The building stands three-stories tall with a polychrome slate mansard roof providing a full fourth floor, a subtle and great way to get extra height without making a building too overbearing. The mansard is broken up at the facade by dormers with round-arch windows and keystoned and eared hoods. If only all cities held off urban renewal, we would have so many more structures like this!
Talk about a unique church! The Mariner’s Church in Downtown Portland was built in 1828 and is modeled after Faneuil Hall in Boston and East India Hall, Salem, Massachusetts; and was the first Greek Revival building in Portland (with some lingering Federal flair). It also for many years was Portland’s largest building! Its concept was that of a place of worship and education center for seamen of the port city between their voyages on the open sea. The ground floor was designed to house shops for merchants whose rent would support and maintain the building. The structure is virtually unchanged from how it looked nearly 200 years ago and showcases the importance of the sea to the port towns and cities of New England!
Probably my favorite building in Portland, Maine is the former Custom House building, an imposing granite building located a stone’s throw from the Portland Harbor. It was built to accommodate the city’s growing customs business, which, by 1866, was collecting $900,000 annually in customs duties—making Portland one of the most significant seaports in the country. The building is typical of the notable designs completed under the direction of Alfred B. Mullett, Supervising Architect of the Treasury from 1865 to 1874. Constructed between 1867 and 1872 (due to delays in obtaining granite for the upper stories) the U.S. Custom House combines elements of the Second Empire and Renaissance Revival styles and is one of the best preserved custom houses in New England. The interior custom hall is especially remarkable.
Buildings of New England 