Wilson Eyre

Whelen Cottage // c.1891

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For the last cottage on Grindstone Neck, I present the stunning Whelen Cottage. Charles S. Whelen (1850-1910), a banker and philanthropist who served as one of the directors of the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company and as one of several of its stock agents in Philadelphia, purchased a house lot for him and his wife Migonette Violett. The couple did not hire Lindley Johnson, like so many other cottage-holders did, but they worked with esteemed architect Wilson Eyre to design the home. The Whelens were typical of the type of person who chose to summer on Grindstone. While comfortably well off, they were not in a financial position to commission the sort of cottages built on an ever increasing scale in Bar Harbor. The property left the Whelen’s ownership in 1897, and the house was altered and enlarged in 1900. The large porte cochere, porch, and additional rooms added at this time by William Winthrop Kent, an alumni of H. H. Richardson’s office.

McCrea Cottage // 1891

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In 1891, Laura Denby McCrea, a wealthy widow based Philadelphia, sought to maintain her social standing all year by building a summer cottage on Grindstone Neck, a summer colony in Winter Harbor, Maine. She was one of the first to build a cottage here, and she hired renowned architect Wilson Eyre to furnish plans for the rustic home. The Shingle style house is dominated by its massive gambrel roof and was historically clad entirely with wood shingles (asphalt shingles have since replaced cedar at the roof).

Henry C. White Estate // 1913

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White Estate, c.1970, taken by Wayne Andrews

Henry Cooke White (1861-1952), the patriarch of an extremely artistic family, purchased undeveloped land on a coastal part of Waterford, Connecticut in 1891. When passing through the area he found a vantage point overlooking the water, he was overwhelmed by the panoramic view of Long Island Sound, writing in his memoirs, “…I was convinced that this was my Promised land.” Not long after, he built a summer cottage on what became known as White Point the following year. The Whites wintered with his parents in Hartford until they built a year-round home in Waterford in 1913, designed by Wilson Eyre, a Philadelphia architect, after he was inspired by Charles Lang Freer’s home in Detroit. The rustic Shingle style house was constructed of ashlar stone masonry with shingles above, which is sited perfectly on the rocky shoreline. Also on the site is a boat house and garage (which I could photograph from the street) in similar detailing. Henry‘s son and grandson both followed his footsteps: Nelson Cooke White (1900-1989), who was born at White Point, and inherited his father’s love of the sea, became a noted marine and landscape painter; and Nelson Holbrook White (1932-) who was taught by his grandfather and later studied in Italy how to perfect his painting.