Radio Script #1057

Little Talks on Common Things
September 21, 1975

During recent years there have been rather exhaustive studies of Maine architecture carried out by individuals and organizations interested in our visible historic heritage. A feature of Maine’s participation in the National Bicentennial will be an impressive exhibition at Colby College of pictures and drawings depicting Maine architecture since colonial days. Much of the progress made in these recent investigations is due to the tireless, expert work of E. D. Shuttleworth, a young Colby graduate, now employed by the State in its heritage activities.

Adding to our information is a recent publication of the Maine State Museum, entitled “The Historic Architecture of Maine”.

As we begin the 28th year of this program, a year that includes the Bicentennial period, it is appropriate that we consider some of our state’s historic buildings.

It is generally recognized that geography and natural resources have strong influence on architecture. Maine’s northern climate, requiring solid foundations, thick walls, and preferably cellars, was accompanied by suitable materials: fieldstone, granite, and abundance of white pine. The pattern of early settlement, and the need for community protection were also strong influences.

The earliest buildings were rather crude. Even when frame houses replaced log cabins, they were simply built, though their huge beams and wide boards made for firmness and solidity. The repeated Indian wars, from the middle of the 17th century through the first quarter of the 18th, caused those early wooden structures to disappear. Only stone buildings, like a few at Kittery, survive.

Of Maine’s earliest attempt at settlement, the ill-starred, brief stay at Popham, nothing is now visible above the ground. Kittery, Maine’s first incorporated town in 1647, was lucky to survive at all its successive Indian raids. As late as 1690 there were only four inhabited English communities in all of Maine: Kittery, York, Wells and Appledore. The last was a small settlement on one of the Isles of Shoals off Portsmouth. After the Indian destruction during Queen Anne’s War, thus ended in 1713, Appledore had disappeared, and only Kittery, York and Wells remained. The result is that Maine has not more than a dozen buildings that were built before 1725.

The most common structure of any size in the Maine wilderness in the 17th century was the garrison house, to which the settlers fled for protection when warned of a coming Indian raid. As many as twenty were built in what is now York County. The garrison house was a log building, but not made like a log cabin. It was usually two stories high, and built not of round logs, but of logs sawed square and fitted snugly together with clay-filled seams. The logs were dovetailed at the corners to make the wall as weather-tight as possible.

Still standing in York is the McIntire garrison house built in 1707. It was an improvement on the earlier structures, because it was sheathed with clapboards and shingles. It was 2-1/2 stories high with a gabled roof. It is typical of the old garrison houses, in that it had overhangs on all four sides, enabling the defenders to fire down upon enemies approaching to set fire to the place – a common Indian method of attack.

The same construction was used in the early 19th century Maine blockhouses, as is shown by surviving Fort Kent, built in 1837 in the so-called Aroostook War, a result of Maine’s dispute with Canada over the boundary.

We in the Kennebec Valley are familiar with one surviving main building of one 18th century fort and the blockhouse of another. In Augusta, the major barracks structure of Fort Western has been restored as a museum, and in Winslow stands a blockhouse of Fort Halifax, said to be the only survivor of all the original 18th century blockhouses. The Fort Western building is an impressive structure, 100 feet long, 2-1/2 stories high, and divided into three sections.

The Treaty of Paris in 1763, granting to England all of French Canada, ended the dangers caused for a century by collusion of French and Indians. The major Indian menace had ceased even earlier, when many tribes, especially those of Central Maine, retreated to Canada. After the Treaty of Paris all raids ended, and the building both of garrison houses and their surrounding log cabins ceased. Framehouses became common.

As for early stone buildings, long thought to be the oldest in Maine is the Old Gaol at York. For a long time it was supposed to have been built in 1653. It is now believed that the present structure dates not earlier than 1720, but that a cruder jail stood on the same site. At any rate, the present building, even if it is not more than 255 years old, is a substantial structure. It is built of what is known as ashlar masonry, is 30 by 18 feet and 8 feet high. It originally had only one cell, enclosed by heavy oak planks.

Of course the most common building in 18th century Maine was the frame house, even when it was a public building, larger and more commodious than a family dwelling. The basic parts – posts, front and rear ends, chimney plates, etc. were large, often 10 to 12 inches square. They were put together with mortise and tenon and trenailed. Joists, rafters, and studs were of smaller lumber. The boards were usually sawed in the crude mills on small streams or by up-and-down saw in the saw pits. But sometimes they were broad-axed and smoothed by hand. Most of the great beams were never in a sawmill. In plenty of old houses still standing the axe marks are still visible, showing that those beams were hewn by hand.

By the first quarter of the 18th century, lime plaster had come into use. Earlier foundation walls were made of fieldstone rubble. Roofs were shingled, and chimneys were built of soft brick held together by mortar of poor quality. The result was many disastrous fires.

The house usually had a small entry wlith stairs near the chimney. The ground floor had only two rooms, a combined kitchen and dining room, and a parlor in which was often a bed. The second floor bedrooms were always called chambers. As late as my own boyhood days in the last decade of the 19th century, an open attic over the back half of our house was called the open chamber.

Cellars seldom extended under the whole house, and they were used principally for food storage. In fact, some public buildings, that had no need to store food, had only partial cellars. That is true of Waterville’s First Baptist Church on Elm Street, built in 1826.

An 18th century house was often enlarged by adding a rear addition with sloping roof, called a lean-to. The common size of the main house was 30 by 20 feet, though a few were as large as 38 feet. A standard two-story building of this kind is Jefford’s Tavern at York.

Until about 1800, most Maine houses were not painted. Linseed oil was then unknown. When paint was used at all in the 18th century it was likely to be red, made from available ochre (iron oxide) thinned by fish oil. Shingles were often dipped in fish oil to retard rot .

The Cape Cod house, little used in Maine until the 19th century, became the commonest form of dwelling during the first half of the century. It is invariably a single-story house, and the chimney is sometimes at one end, not in the center. Often only the front had clapboards. A typical example is the Joseph Sewall house in Stroudwater, built in 1743. More elaborate Cape Cod houses are the Chapman Hall house in Damariscotta, about 1800, and the Thorndike-Conway house in Camden, 1780. Even before 1800 Maine had what folks still call a set of buildings, namely, a complex of house, sheds, and barn all attached together. An early example is the Miles Cobb farmhouse in Warren, built in 1788.

The early church buildings, always called meetinghouses, were rectangular, usually with two tiers of windows, gabled roof, and inside gallery. At first they had no spires, but occasionally did have a short four-sided tower. Some architecture historians contend that meetinghouses came to be called churches only when they were built with high steeples, which of course became common in the 19th century. The development is illustrated by what happened in Waterville. The town’s first meetinghouse was a rectangular building with no tower, erected in 1794 where City Hall now stands. However, the town’s first denominational church building was the First Baptist, built in 1826 with a high steeple. Fine extant examples of the old spireless meeting houses are the Walpole Meetinghouse, 1722; the one at Harpswell, 1757; and the German Lutheran Meetinghouse at Waldoboro, 1770.

After the Treaty of Paris in 1763 made more permanent building possible, Maine got many houses with low hipped roof and central hall, and a big staircase with two right-angle turns. Identical back-to-back fireplaces were in adjoining rooms. The more sumptuous places were called mansion houses. Fine examples are Kittery’s William Pepperell house, 1720, and Stroudwater’s Tate House, 1755.

Maine’s oldest courthouse is the currently restored building at old Pownalboro, now the town of Dresden. It was built in 1761.

After the Revolution, especially nearer the dawn of the 19th century, houses of the wealthy became more elaborate. What architects call the Federal style was an adaptation of the British manor houses of the period, characterizing elegance rather than strength. It was a period of the great three-story mansions, many of them made of brick on solid granite foundations, but some of the most impressive were still made of wood. An outstanding example is Montpelier at Thomaston. The present house is not the original, built in 1794, but is an exact replica of it.

When General Henry Knox died in 1806, his Montpelier was considered the handsomest and most sumptuous dwelling in the whole Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its seven bayed front was 56 feet across. Broad steps led to a fan-lighted entrance. The interior had a great oval entrance hall, 30 feet long, with a 13 foot ceiling, and the entering visitor faced a double, flying staircase.

Only slight departures from the Federal style are the renowned Black House at Ellsworth, built in 1824, and the Nickels-Sortwell House at Wiscasset, 1807.

Now our time is up, but next week I’ll tell you more about some historic Maine buildings.

Year: 1975