New England

Ripton Community House // 1864

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The Ripton Community House stands at the center of the rural village center of Ripton, Vermont, a town in the midst of the Green Mountains. The community house was built in 1864 and is an excellent late-example of the Greek Revival style in this part of the state. The building was constructed on land that was deeded by Sylvester Fisher in 1864 to the local Congregational Society with the proviso that a house of worship costing not less than $2000 must be erected within two years. The church was built and maintained by the Congregational Society until 1920 when it was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church to be used for religious, social and educational purposes. This restriction was removed in 1928 and it was deeded to the Ripton Community Club which made renovations and used the facilities for club meetings, social events, community dinners, square dancing and more. The club dissolved in 1964 and the building began to deterioriate for years until the town banded together to protect and applied for grants to restore the building to its former glory, what we can all appreciate today when driving through the quaint town.

The Old Hancock Tavern // c.1810

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Before the Centre Turnpike was laid out in 1808, better-connecting Middlebury, Vermont to towns east of the Green Mountains, visitors would have to travel hours longer to divert around the mountains. This new route cut right through the small village of Hancock, Vermont and the town prospered as a result. Along the route, this vernacular, Federal period tavern was built shortly after the turnpike aimed to take advantage of the new visitors driving through the town. This tavern/inn was operated for a time by a J. E. Wright as a hotel and the building has a perfect wrap-around porch.

Hancock Town House // c.1850

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Hancock, Vermont is located in Addison County, and sits on the east side of the Green Mountains. The land here was granted November 7, 1780 and chartered July 31, 1781 by Governor Chittenden, to Samuel Wilcox and 129 associates. Hancock grew as pioneers sought new land and opportunity after the Revolutionary War with some taking up farming and others engaging in the lumber trade. The population in the rural town reached its peak of 472 residents in 1830, a number it has never seen again – the current population is 359. As the town saw its largest growth in the early decades of the 19th century, the town officials decided to erect a joint Town House and Union Church to serve multiple uses. This structure, built in the Greek Revival style by around 1850, has two stories, with the ground floor historically housing town offices, and the second floor formerly housing a meeting space and church hall. The classically designed building has a box cornice, frieze, and molded corner pilasters. The double entrance doors have pilaster and entablature surround and the three-stage steeple has a clapboarded base with corner pilasters. The structure has survived generations and natural disasters and is a testament to this small, but proud town in rural Vermont.

“Beech Nut” // 1913

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“Beech Nut” is a stone cottage built at the top of Beech Hill in Rockport in one of the best hiking areas of Mid-Coast Maine. The hut was built in 1913 for owner John Gribbel (1858-1936), a Philadelphia-based industrialist, who had a summer estate, “Weatherend” in Rockport. He hired a Norwegian immigrant named Hans Heisted, an employee of the Olmsted Brothers, to improve the grounds at Weatherend, which included meandering paths, stone walls, and stone structures. Meanwhile, the Gribbels had started acquiring land on Beech Hill in 1909, and eventually accumulated holdings of more than 300 acres. To keep the masons and landscapers busy during the winter, Gribbel and Heisted thought to build a small hut a few miles away on Beech Hill, which would serve as the family picnic and tea shelter. The stone building features a unique sod roof which was typical of Scandinavian houses up until the late 1800s. Once complete, family and friends would visit Beech Nut to enjoy the fresh air and views of the Atlantic from atop the hill for the day. After successive owners, the property began to deteriorate until the 1980s, when developers began to swarm the open space for redevelopment. In 1986, the land around Beech Nut was put under conservation easement and was acquired in 2003 by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which then transferred it in 2006 to the Coastal Mountains Land Trust. In 2007, the hut was completely restored and serves as a respite after the uphill climb for visitors.

Megunticook Clubhouse // 1901

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As coastal communities in Maine’s mid-coast began to see more wealthy summer residents, these enclaves of cottages needed clubhouses and spaces to spend their summer days. In 1899, Philadelphian (and Rockport summer resident) Charles Wolcott Henry converted a section of his oceanfront summer estate at Rockport’s Beauchamp Point to a newly established golf club which quickly outcompeted all others nearby. Within a few years, Boston architect Charles H. Brigham, was hired to design this Craftsman style clubhouse that sits on an elevated site with an expansive wraparound veranda providing views of the new course and the Penobscot Bay. The rubble-stone foundation and walls clad in brown-stained shingles are well suited to the rugged coastal Maine site. The golf course, also designed in 1901, was planned by groundskeeper Thomas Grant as a 9-hole course. The recreational complex has been meticulously preserved and is a great example of a turn-of-the-century clubhouse in coastal Maine. The 1901 clubhouse is also said to be the oldest golf building in Maine!

Vesper Hill Children’s Chapel // 1960

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After the Tamarack Lodge hotel of Rockport, Maine, burned down in 1954, nearby resident Helene Bok began to envision what would be the best use of the charred landscape. Her project became the Vesper Hill Children’s Chapel, an absolutely stunning outdoor chapel that is open to the public. Her dream was to build a refuge that would be open for all people and “speak in and of itself of the beauty, goodness and truth of nature, life and God.” It is not clear to me who the designers were, but the structure and grounds are elegantly sited on the hill, overlooking the harbor in the distance. Helene planned the chapel to partially sit atop the rustic stone foundation of the former hotel on the site, with an open post-and-beam wooden structure above. After Helene’s death, Elmer Crockett, a designer for years on the Olmsted staff in Maine, oversaw the grounds and maintained a biblical herb garden. The chapel is today approached by a roofed stairway and surrounded by mature trees and locally harvested stones. It is truly a hidden gem in Mid-Coast Maine.

Rockport Spite House // 1806

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The story of “spite houses” are always so interesting!

Photo courtesy of Carolyn’s Shade Gardens

This large Federal style home in Rockport is a rare extant example of a spite house in Maine. The story goes… James McCobb, an Irish immigrant, arrived in what is now Phippsburg in 1731. Living in a log cabin with his Irish-born wife, Beatrice, he raised a large family of 10 children, among whom was Thomas McCobb (1778-1815), who became a sea captain. In 1774, James built a handsome Federal period house for his second wife, Hannah Nichols, with whom he had three children (twin daughters, and a second son, also named Thomas). He married a third time in 1782 to Mary Langdon Storer Hill, who had a son, Mark Langdon Hill, from a previous marriage, who ended up marrying one of McCobb’s daughters, one of the twins, who was a half-sister to Thomas. While Captain Thomas McCobb was away at sea, the Hills, which included Thomas’ half-sister/wife of Mark Langdon Hill, broke his father’s will and took the homestead for themselves. When Captain Thomas McCobb returned from his voyage and discovered what had happened, he vowed to build the most beautiful house in Maine and one that would dwarf the one he had been deprived of. The house was promptly dubbed “The Spite House”.

This house was built in 1806. Ironically, Captain Thomas apparently never married and left no descendants, as a result, when he died in 1815 in Boston, the house was given over to the Hill family. The house had fallen into disrepair and was purchased in 1925 by Donald Dodge of Philadelphia, who moved the house, to save it from demolition, over 85 miles by boat from Phippsburg to Rockport. He also transported a 1796 house from South Harpswell to be used in the construction of the wings that were subsequently added onto the Spite House. The property now sits on Beauchamp Point, not visible from the street, in a desirable enclave of summer residences, with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo courtesy of Camden Public Library

Enos E. Ingraham Store // c.1880

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This perfect historic commercial building sits on Pascal Avenue in Rockport, Maine, in a section of the village more-so dominated by residences than larger commercial blocks. That may be the reason for the Enos E. Ingraham Store having a certain small-scale and residential quality. The block was built sometime after 1875 and has been known as the Enos E. Ingraham Store, after the longtime owner of the same name. The Ingraham Store is Second Empire in style with the prototypical mansard roof, bracketed cornice, and projecting bay window.

Captain Ephraim Harkness House // c.1875

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Captain Ephraim H. Harkness was a young sea captain and Civil War veteran who built this large Stick style residence and detached stable in Rockport, Maine by 1875. Sadly, Captain Harkness would die just a few years after completing the home as he died from Yellow Fever while out at sea. The house has remained in an excellent state of preservation 150 years later, even including the stickwork and brackets, which are some of the applied ornament that is removed first in renovations on so many coastal homes.

John Achorn House // c.1855

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This stately Italianate style house is located at 46 Pascal Avenue in the quaint coastal town of Rockport, Maine. Built around 1855 by and for John Achorn (1825-1898) a ship-joiner and carpenter in town. Due to his profession in carpentry, Achorn is the likely culprit as the builder who designed the house and detailed the delicate pendant brackets, Palladianesque window, and the addition of the flushboard center bay.