maine homes

Thompson Cottage // c.1892

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Who doesn’t love a good porte-cochere? In case you don’t know what they are, a porte-cochere is a covered porch-like structure at an entrance to a building where either a horse and carriage (historically) or car (today) can pass under to provide arriving and departing occupants protection from the elements. They are normally found on larger residences and institutional building where the wealthy frequent. The Thompson Cottage on Grindstone Neck in Winter Harbor was built around 1892 for James B. Thompson from Philadelphia. The original cottage was largely updated after Thompson’s death in 1915, the property was owned by Annie Cannell Trotter, who summered at another house in the colony with her husband Nathan Trotter, until his death.

Levis Cottage // c.1892

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Samuel W. Levis, a real estate agent from Philadelphia built this summer cottage on Grindstone Neck in the enchanting town of Winter Harbor, Maine in 1892. The Levis Cottage was designed by the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company’s favorite Philadelphia architect, Lindley Johnson, who designed a majority of the cottages and buildings in the summer colony. Samuel does not appear to have ever married nor did he have children. The property was later owned by Frances and Mitchell Rosengarten. The cottage is boxy in form with a stucco facade and clapboard siding on the sides. Local stone was used to construct the large columns at the first floor porch. The former recessed balcony at the second floor has been enclosed, but otherwise, the house looks near-identical to when it was built over 130 years ago!

Charles and Elizabeth Doremus Cottage // c.1892

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In 1889, the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company, bought 300 acres of farmland to build a residential summer colony as an alternative to the busy Bar Harbor across the bay. They hired landscape architect Nathan Franklin Barrett to design the subdivision of 198 cottage lots of at least one acre and arranged them on roughly parallel roads, with a primary road (Grindstone Avenue) running the length of the peninsula’s spine through woodlands to dramatic ocean views at the tip. The summer colony has many great cottages and chapels tucked away on rocky outcroppings with towering spruce trees all around. This charming cottage was built for Charles Avery Doremus and his wife Elizabeth Ward Doremus around 1892. Charles was a scientist, the son of chemist and physician Robert Ogden Doremus. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1870. He became a professor in chemistry and became a leading specialist on toxicology, often called into court cases to help solve crimes. Elizabeth was a playwright from Kentucky and her father and his brother owned plantations in Mississippi before the American Civil War. The couple summered at this cottage on Grindstone Neck until Charles’ death in 1925. It is a great example of a rustic Shingle style summer cottage.

Parker House // 1814

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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!

Jonathan Fisher House // 1796

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Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847) was born in New Braintree, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard College Divinity School. In the record of Plantation No. 5, (now Blue Hill), the selectmen voted to invite the Rev. Mr. Fisher to preach for four months in the summer of 1795. After his four month stint, the committee approached him, asking if he would stay and make the town his home, he accepted. He first built a primitive house which was outgrown by the time he had three children growing up in it! He had the current home built in 1814, attaching the original home as a rear ell (addition). Reverend Fisher died in 1847. His wife Dolly, died in 1853. At the end of the nineteenth century, Jonathan Fisher’s grandchildren decided to renovate the house. In 1896, they tore down the original house of 1796 and replaced it with a two-story addition to their grandfather’s 1814, giving it the current configuration. When the Fisher grandchildren who had been living there left Blue Hill, a number of local citizens concerned for the future of the building made arrangements that eventually led to the transfer of ownership of the house to a local non-profit foundation, the Jonathan Fisher Memorial, and made it possible for the house to be opened to the public. The Fisher House is open for tours in the summer.

Thomas Lord House // 1847

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This 1847 Greek Revival home sits in Blue Hill Village, Maine and it was built by and for local architect and builder Thomas Lord (1805–1880), who is credited with bringing the classical motifs seen in Greek architecture to Blue Hill. Mr. Lord had little formal education, spending much of his youth grinding bark at Ellsworth, sailing and working on his uncle’s farm. When he was 22, he apprenticed himself to a carpenter and began working for George Stevens in the shipbuilding yards of Blue Hill. From 1828 to 1880, Thomas Lord worked on 83 vessels, 84 dwellings, 12 school buildings, 14 meeting houses, 10 stern moldings and figureheads, 250 coffins and many barns and sheds. Lord is especially known in the area for his churches, including remodeling the First Baptist Church of Blue Hill in 1856. Just before building the house, Thomas married Matilda Carlton (1811-1898) and the couple had three children while living in the home. When Thomas died in 1880, Thomas Lord’s elder son, Roscoe Granville Lord took up residence here, where the 1900 census lists him as a painter. The home remains extremely well preserved and is one of the finer homes in the village of Blue Hill.

George Stevens House // 1814

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George Stevens (1775-1852) was born in Andover, Massachusetts and settled in Blue Hill, Maine. He became a ship owner and merchant, making a name (and wealth) for himself in town and he showed an interest in education for the growing village. He erected this home in 1814 for his family, which seemingly employed Asher Benjamin’s house plans in the Federal style, popular builder’s guidebooks at the time. With his eyes towards education, George Stevens sat on the board of trustees for the Blue Hill Academy which flourished under the guardianship of the local Congregational Church and trustee president Rev. Jonathan Fisher. He chafed under Congregationalist dominance and wished for a non-denominational local academy. In 1832, he offered to give a thousand dollars and a piece of land to the Blue Hill Academy. His offer included this provision, “The institution shall be put on a liberal scale that all denominations shall have equal rights and privileges.” The Academy trustees said, “no.” As a result, George Stevens provided in his will that after his death and that of his wife this homestead, 150-acres of land, and a large portion of his personal property should be used to establish an academy, an “alternative” academy. In 1891 the Maine State Legislature incorporated George Stevens Academy, leading the “Old Academy” to cooperate with the
new institution, merging their boards and finally becoming a non-denominational academy. The school continues as a highly respected academic institution and retains the name of its founder, George Stevens.