New England Blog

White Columns // 1853

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The majestic Greek Revival house on Maine Street in Kennebunkport was built in 1853 for Eliphalet Perkins III, a member of the Perkins Family, one of the earliest families to settle in the area known today as Kennebunkport. Eliphalet apparently sold the home to his son, Charles, who moved in within the year with his new wife Celia Nott. The couple decorated the ornate home inside and out with furnishings still retained inside after the Kennebunkport Historical Society acquired the building in 1955. The home is now known as White Columns, and houses the First Families Museum. One interesting thing I noticed is the rounded arch windows in the pediment, an awareness to the Italianate style which took over in the 1850s-1870s throughout New England, though this home is quintessentially Greek.

The Cedars // 1900

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This shingled cottage was built in 1900 for Dr. Francis B. Harrington, a surgeon who worked at Mass. General Hospital in Boston. The stunning cottage was designed with double gambrel gables, a large piazza/porch overlooking the ocean, and a porte-cochere, which was likely added after the home was completed. The home was designed by architect Henry Paston Clark (1853-1927), a Boston area architect who was briefly associated with Henry Vaughan, a leading Boston architect who executed several significant institutional and ecclesiastical works in the Boston area. Clark would later become best-known for his Shingle-style and Colonial Revival works throughout New England and spent his final years in Kennebunkport, where he died.

South Congregational Church // 1824

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Built in 1824, the South Church in Kennebunkport Village looked very much as it does today, with the exception of the portico, which was added in 1912. In the early 19th century, architects were seldom employed in such remote areas therefore, builders often used manuals and examples of other churches in addition to their own experience gained from working the large shipbuilding yards adjacent to the Kennebunk River. The cupola, restored in 1991, is designed after an example by Christopher Wren and the steeple retains the original 1824 Aaron Willard clock with its unique wooden face, still keeps accurate time and rings on the hour. The church remains as an active space with a growing congregation in the summer months.

Captain George Nowell House // 1854

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Captain George W. Nowell and his wife, Frances, the daughter of the wealthy Capt. William Jefferds, built this elegant Italianate style home in 1854 that stands on Temple Street, next door to the Kennebunkport Post Office. George was a sea captain, following in his father’s footsteps and also invested in several of the ships he sailed, but had the fiscal foresight to insure his interests against loss. His prized ship was named “Tropic” and she was launched in 1855, less than a year after his house was built. On a cold December day in 1862, Nowell, captaining The Tropic left Philadelphia with a cargo of coal for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in San Francisco. She and her crew of 20 were never heard from again. George was not yet 40 when he perished. His youngest son, Frank, never met his father and was only 8 years-old when his mother passed in 1872. Shipbuilder David Clark bought their Temple Street home and George’s brother took his children to live in Bangor.

The captain’s reputation as a prudent and charitable man was recognized by Victoria, Queen of England. She awarded Capt. George W. Nowell, of the ship Tropic, an engraved spyglass in testimony of his humanity in rescuing her subjects, the crew of the Village Belle, of Nova Scotia. The telescope and a certificate, signed by the Queen, have been proudly protected by the Kennebunkport Historical Society.

The family home features bold corner quoins, bracketed door and window hoods, and paired rounded arch windows at the top floor.

Preserved Gardner Farmhouse // ca.1820-2024

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UPDATE: The Preserved Gardner House was demolished in 2024 by the Town of Swansea.

This old farmhouse in Swansea, MA, was built by 1820 for Preserved Gardner (1795-1873), one of five sons of Peleg Gardner, who owned much of Gardners Point. Preserved lived in the home until his death in 1873, and the home and acres of farmland were willed to his only son to live past childhood, Ira Gardner (1836-1901). Ira donated a large tract of land adjacent to the farmhouse to the town in 1882 for a cemetery, in which his father was buried. Later, the farm was purchased by Thomas D. Covel a bank president of Fall River who operated it as a gentleman’s farm and made the house his summer home. A ‘gentleman farmer‘ utilized their farms for pleasure rather than for sustenance or profit. After WWII, the land was purchased by the town to be used as a park and the property is still owned by the town. The Federal home with its veranda that wraps around the side has been neglected by the town for decades while the parks adjacent are maintained adequately.

The town has weighed various options for the home ranging from demolishing it, to preserving the front facade and converting it to a garage and storage shed (with a small museum on the second floor). I hate that idea personally. This seems like an ideal candidate for the town to allow a private individual or developer to move the home and restore it back to its original grandeur. Thoughts?

Hotel Touraine // 1897

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The Hotel Touraine at the corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets in Boston was built in 1897 as one of the most luxurious hotels in the city. Designed by the local firm of Winslow and Wetherell, the Jacobean Revival style building commands the well-trafficked corner opposite the Boston Common. Early articles described the hotel as “a large and sumptuously equipped house, with internal decorations in the style of the Chateau de Blois (a French chateau). Winslow and Wetherell appeared to have been inspired by the Louis XII wing of the Chateau, as many design elements of the hotel closely resemble it. The hotel was advertised as having 350 rooms valued at $2 a night up to $3 a night for a room with a private bath. Separate men and women’s parlors, a library, and elevator service made the hotel desirable for the upper-class Bostonians and visitors to the bustling Downtown area. The hotel’s rich clientele eventually began frequenting the larger hotels near Copley Square and the stature of the Touraine slipped with a changing Downtown character. By the 1960s, the hotel closed and was converted to apartments.