maine architecture

Kewaydin Cottage // 1900

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Every good summer cottage needs a name, and this charmer in the Cape Arundel Summer Colony of Kennebunkport, Maine, is no exception! This is “Kewaydin” a massive summer home built for Eben Caldwell Stanwood Jr. (1856-1906) a merchant and later banker of Boston, Massachusetts. Stanwood hired the Boston firm of Chapman & Frazer to design the cottage, which blends Shingle style and Queen Anne elements in a rustic composition that has such great curb appeal! The use of cedar shingles and rubblestone chimneys, paired with the vergeboards and complex roofline with dormers, makes this one of the gems of Kennebunkport!

Pine Haven Cottage // 1902

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Pine Haven Cottage sits on a rise overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the Cape Arundel summer colony in Kennebunkport, Maine. Built in 1902 for Thomas Brodhead Van Buren, Jr., a silk importer in Manhattan as a summer home, the cottage was designed by Henry Paston Clark and his partner, John W. Russell in an eclectic example of the Shingle style with gable roofs, vergeboards, stone foundation, and a prominent porch that has since been enclosed.

John Andrews Jr. House // c.1808

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John Andrews Jr. (1747-1844) was born in Essex County, Massachusetts to John Andrews Sr., a church Deacon, merchant, and blacksmith. John Jr., was a fisherman and would later move to Arundel by 1783 (now named Kennebunkport) and built this stately Federal style residence in the village. The house was built sometime between 1783 and 1810, with my best estimate dating the house (at least in its current form) to around 1808 as the high-style entry is similar to what is seen in Asher Benjamin’s plan books of the early 19th century, like the American Builder’s Companion, which provided builders with plans for elevations, cornices, entrances and windows, and any other features of a house built at the time.

S Road Schoolhouse // 1860

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The S Road Schoolhouse is the last-remaining one-room schoolhouse in the charming coastal town of South Bristol, Maine. The structure was built in 1860 as the District Five School for the Town of Bristol (South Bristol set off and incorporated as a separate town in 1915). This building replaced an earlier schoolhouse on the site that was on the 1857 Map of Lincoln County. By 1895, enrollment was about 16 but rose to the mid-twenties after other schools closed in the early 1900’s. The school is said to have closed in 1943 following the death of the teacher here, it never reopened. The South Bristol Historical Society recently restored the building following a successful capital campaign, gathering funds from members and town citizens, preserving this lasting remnant of days past.

Walpole Meetinghouse // 1772

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The Old Walpole Meetinghouse is a rare extant example of a Colonial meetinghouse in New England. The building is located in South Bristol, Maine, in the village of Walpole, and was constructed in 1772. The Walpole Meetinghouse is a little-altered example of a late colonial church in Maine (and one of the oldest actively used churches in the state.) The building originally housed a predominantly Presbyterian congregation of Scottish immigrants, but as the presbytery was based far away in Boston (Maine at this point was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) the congregation eventually became Congregationalist. The Georgian-style building is clad in wood shingles, originally stained painted a brownish yellow to blend in with the birch leaves as to camouflage it among the trees. The building was painted white in the 20th century. It is one of a few extant meetinghouses in New England that utilized shingle siding instead of the quintessential New England clapboards. It is said that these are still the original shingles. Inside, the doors all enter the single main chamber, where the ground floor is dominated by a series of box pews and the elevated pulpit is sited at the north wall. It is maintained by the South Bristol Historical Society, and is still used occasionally for summer services.

Hiram Lodge 39, Knights of Pythias // 1895

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Another of the extant, significant vernacular buildings in the small town of Hiram, Maine, is this large frame building on Main Street. Hiram Lodge #39, Knights of Pythias, was organized in 1883 and a building was constructed on this site around that time. The first meeting hall was destroyed by fire in 1895, and soon-after replaced by this large lodge building, which is possibly the largest wooden building in town!  On the destruction of that first “hall” by fire in 1895, the Lodge hired Alva Ward to build what is probably the largest wooden building extant in Hiram. The Knights of Pythias Hall is important as a remnant of Hiram’s earlier commercial prosperity, with general store on the first floor, a large hall on the second floor (where dances, theatrical performances, and public suppers were held), and the lodge hall on the third floor.

Mount Cutler Grange Hall // 1875

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The two-and-a-half story Mount Cutler Grange Hall in Hiram, Maine, is a plain but important vernacular structure near the western end of the town’s Main Street. Originally organized in 1875 by local farmers, the local grange was able to dedicate its present building in late December of that year. Attributed to local builder James Lot Hill, the clapboard-covered frame building has a three-bay facade and retains its original windows. Once the site of grange store, the well-preserved structure still displays a fine late-nineteenth century sign above its first story. Little changed over the years, the Mount Cutler Grange Hall remains an important part of Hiram’s social fabric, but appears vacant or largely unused. Hopefully some life can be brought back to this significant building (and other abandoned Grange Halls in New England).

Mount Cutler School // 1882

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The cross-gabled, two-and-a-half story Mount Cutler School was built in 1883, possibly by local builder James Lot Hill, and is a well-preserved example of a district school in Hiram, Maine. A very late example of the Greek Revival style utilized for an educational facility, the structure displays a gabled facade with closed pediment highlighted at the center by a diamond-paned triangular window. The building, used solely as a grammar school (except from 1922-30 when a two-year high school operated in one room) replaced a similar structure which burned in February of 1883. The Mount Cutler School served the youth of Hiram from 1883-1967 and again in 1974-78. Its second floor now houses the collections of the Hiram Historical Society and it has been preserved ever since.

Hiram Public Library // 1915

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Located on a slight rise above Main Street and across from the sprawling Hiram Village Cemetery, this one-story library with walls of textured concrete blocks was dedicated in August of 1915 and has been a center for cultural activities in the town of Hiram, Maine, since that time. The Soldier’s Memorial Library was built with funds provided largely by Virginia Barker Jordan, a granddaughter of local businessman Benjamin Barker. Also instrumental in organizing Hiram’s first free public library was Llewellyn A. Wadsworth, local poet and cousin of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Beyond the unique use of concrete block construction for a library, other interesting exterior architectural features include the wide-flaring eaves with exposed rafters and the bands of windows on the first story walls, which hint of the Arts and Crafts/Bungalow styles. The library building was designed by Boston architects Robert Wambolt and Amos A. Lawrence.

Hiram Village Store // c. 1850

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Hiram is a small, rural town in Oxford County, Maine, and has a handful of notable old buildings. The town was incorporated in 1814 and was occupied by white settlers as early as 1774. The land here has long been heavily wooded and the town’s name was inspired by the biblical King Hiram of Tyre whose kingdom was set among “timber of cedar and timber of fir.” The town’s two villages, Hiram Village and South Hiram, grew along the Saco River, and are typical rural villages built around industry and modest frame dwellings. This commercial building is one of the larger structures in Hiram Village and it dates to the mid 19th century. The structure was owned by Thomas B. Seavey, who purchased a store built on the site as early as 1816, from a Simeon Chadbourne. The store was enlarged and became a major hub of the sleepy town in the 19th and 20th centuries, but like many such structures, struggled due to changing of shopping habits and rural decline. The building, with its vernacular and Greek Revival lintels, appears vacant today.