200 YEARS OF MAINE HOUSING A Guide for the House Watcher By Frank A. Beard Maine Historic Preservation Commission Illustrated by Phoebe McGuire State Planning Office 200 YEARS OF MAINE HOUSING A Guide for the House Watcher By Frank A. Beard Maine Historic Preservation Commission Illustrated by Phoebe McGuire State Planning Office The original preparation of this report, published by the Maine State Planning Office, was financially aided by a special comprehensive planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Second Edition (revised) published by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission with matching funds provided by the Maine State American Revolution Bicentennial Com- mission and the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, Department of the Interior under the provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. of species seen and becomes interested in points Contents Introduction of identification and individual habits, SO does the architectural devotee interest himself in stylistic details and the human motivation they The Early Period 5 "You can tell a lot about a man by the house he represent. lives in." Although this sentiment is probably The Georgian Style 7 less true today than formerly, nevertheless man's Whiffen comes to the conclusion that no guide to dwelling places speak eloquently of the human architectural styles can ever be as precise or as The Federal Style 7 dimension in the changing circumstance of accurate as a good bird book. Nevertheless, in history. general terms it is possible to provide a kind of The Greek Revival Style 8 basic outline to help the "house watcher" in There has always been an aura of romance about making educated guesses about what his is look- The Gothic Revival Style 10 old buildings and particularly old houses. People ing at. enjoy looking at them and in spite of inconven- The Italianate Style 11 ience and expense, people derive satisfaction This booklet, then, is offered as an aid, however from living in them. Both of these interests are, superficial, to the Maine "house watcher". All The Mansard Style 12 of course, enhanced if some connection can be the major American architectural styles are well established between a building and an important represented in Maine and, in some cases, by some The Queen Anne Style 12 historic event or person. of the finest examples. But beyond the "great houses" are the thousands of more modest struc- The Octagon House 13 Beyond this, however, there seems to be an in- tures which either in whole, in part or in some creasing interest in and awareness of houses and tiny detail reflect a human impulse for design The Stick Style 13 details of houses as abstract architectural entities. which, if properly understood, can be Coupled with this is a growing curiosity about fascinating. The Shingle Style 14 why certain kinds or styles of houses emerged and later receded in popularity. Put another way Happy "house watching"! The Later Styles 14 in an imaginary conversation: "Look at that Greek Revival house. I wonder why anybody wanted to live in a temple in the 1840's." Note Marcus Whiffen, in his wonderfully helpful book, American Architecture Since 1780, A Guide to The illustrations in this booklet are intended the Styles, suggests that there is a similarity simply to give a general impression of the various between the popular awareness and interest in styles mentioned in the text. They do not neces- architecture and the impulse that has made bird sarily represent specific examples and it should watching such a fascinating hobby for many. Just be remembered that considerable variety can as the bird watcher identifies and assembles lists exist within a given architectural style. 3 American Indian was caught between the ambi- One such is the McIntire Garrison in York which The Early Period tions of the two warring powers and forced into probably dates from 1707. This is, indeed, of a tragic and bloody involvement which eventually sawn log construction, a technique introduced There seems to be no general agreement among spelled the end of the life style he had developed by exiled Scots defeated at the Battle of Dunbar historians as to the exact nature of the houses over thousands of years. in 1650. Sheathed with clapboards, it is, built by Maine's earliest white settlers. Those however, in keeping with the style of other New pioneers who first appeared along the coast in In the southwestern part of Maine in which lay England frame houses of the period, a style the very early 1600's were, for the most part, the bulk of the meagre English population, con- heavily dependent on 17th century English temporary visitors; either fishermen summering flict with the Indians, who for the most part models. Other garrisons of similar design existed on the off-lying islands, drying their catches be- sided with the French against the interlopers in considerable number in southern Maine and fore a return to Europe, or those who established from the south, resulted in the temporary des- served not only as dwellings and defensive strong small trading posts. The first attempt to truction and elimination of virtually all points but also as local taverns. found a permanent settlement at Popham in settlements by 1690. There remains in Maine no 1607 failed after a disastrous winter, but by the house dating from the first seventy years of By far the larger number of dwellings of the early 1620's small villages had begun to cling to the European occupation! There are, in fact, no more 18th century were much humbler than the gar- coast at such places as Pemaquid, Winter Harbor than ten or twelve buildings in Maine which can risons and fall mostly into that very general (Saco), Cape Porpoise, Wells and the York- be accurately dated before 1725. category, the Cape Cod house. By this is simply Kittery area. meant a nearly square or oblong house of one story with a gable roof. The Cape Cod, as the Nothing whatever remains of the homes of these commonest type of house in basic form, has per- first pioneers. There are those who speculate that sisted ever since although adapting itself to rough log cabins provided the first temporary various changes in proportion, in interior arrange- homes but it seems more reasonable to guess that ment and in external decoration. It is the lineal small one or two room timber structures not ancestor of the simplest so-called ranch style unlike those supposed to have existed at house found by the thousand in modern housing Plymouth and Salem were the rule. After all, developments. It is the house that the four-year- most of the earliest settlers in Maine as well as old draws on the blackboard. Massachusetts were English and brought with them the same building traditions from rural In early eighteenth century Maine, the Cape Cod areas or fishing villages in their homeland. house was usually of three, four or five bays along the front, that is, two, three or four win- The second half of the sixteenth century saw the dows and a front door, centrally located in the beginning of more than one hundred years of common five bay variety. These early Capes were intermittent conflict between England and low-ceiled SO that the leaves came down nearly France which in North America was translated to the tops of the windows giving them an un- into a war for empire. In Maine, the northeastern usually snug look. The windows themselves frontier of English colonization, the native The Garrison tended to be smaller than in later periods and 5 As the Cape evolved in the latter part of the rural architecture. This was simply the rather eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth haphazard addition of outbuildings to the centuries it became larger and more substantial. original house, frequently connecting it with the Instead of one, it became two rooms deep with barn. These structures might consist of a summer chimneys at either end. Federal and, later, Greek kitchen, a milkshed, tool shed or sometimes Revival decorations and motifs were applied simply an enclosed passageway. both externally and internally and many were built of brick rather than of timber construction with clapboard or shingle siding as in the early period. In not a few cases an entire Cape Cod house was raised up to admit the addition of a new ground floor. Whatever other styles and shapes of houses later emerged in Maine's architectural history, the Cape Cod house has remained with us particu- larly in rural and suburban areas. The Cape Cod By the mid-eighteenth century, the permanence of settlement having been established and with neither door nor windows had any significant rural prosperity, though still largely at the sub- decoration around them. The interior usually sistence level, increasing, larger farm houses began consisted of two principal rooms on either side to appear. These were generally of two or two- of a central chimney with a kitchen along the and-a-half stories with large central chimneys or back, sometimes in an attached shed and occa- chimneys at either end. The front door of these sionally under the extension of a saltbox roof. gable roofed, oblong houses was centered on the Under the roof was a loft lighted by small long side with usually two bays of windows windows at either end which in later versions of symmetrically placed on either side. These large the Cape became a half story with dormer barnlike structures were sparsely decorated and windows. represented honest utilitarian practicality. North Berwick's Old Morrell House of 1763 and the One of the earliest known Capes in Maine is the Deacon Livermore House, built in Livermore in Richard Hunniwell house in Scarborough, built 1788-93 are typical examples. in 1702 or 1703. This little dwelling with its asymmetrically placed windows and open loft After 1780 the phenomenon known as 6 poignantly expresses the stark simplicity of "extended architecture" began to appear and pioneer life in Maine. later became an established feature of Maine The Georgian Style quoins sometimes decorate the corners of Georgian houses to give the effect of stonework The Federal Style and add to the grandly massive impression of the Although beautiful, if sometimes vernacular, building as a whole. The Federal or Adamesque Style followed a details of prevailing decorative styles frequently logical transition from the Georgian. Like the appeared in farmhouses and small urban The following Georgian houses in Maine serve as latter, the basic shape of the Federal house is rec- dwellings, it remained, as always, for the major examples of the style stretching over four tangular and box-like, though in many cases architectural trends to flower fully in the houses decades: there is greater height in proportion to width, of the prosperous and the prominent. Beginning three full stories being not uncommon. Also like in the 1750's successful merchants, sea captains The Tate House (1755), Portland; the Bowman- the Georgian Style, strict symmetry is adhered and large landholders began erecting homes Carney House (1761), Dresden; the McCobb-Hill- to on the facade. The roofline tends to be more worthy of their station in life and grand houses Minott House (1773-74), Phippsburg; the subdued, a low hip being the most common in what is now called the Georgian Style made Hamilton House (1787), South Berwick often hidden by a balustrade. their appearance in coastal or near coastal communities. The feature of Federal architecture which most clearly distinguishes it and contributes to its These almost square formal houses with hip or great popularity is its delicacy and lightness, the gambrel roofs were built with strict symmetry in opposite of the relative heaviness and solidity of design. The interiors were spacious with broad Georgian buildings. Most Federal houses have central halls and ample staircases with landings porticos, often semicircular, supported by widely between floors. In general the gound floor con- spaced slender columns. The emphasis is on the sisted of pairs of large rooms on either side of the horizontal with narrower and taller windows, and hall heated by back to back fire places in two sometimes with pilasters running the full height chimneys or by pairs of chimneys at either end of the building between bays. Exterior moldings of the house. Usually of two stories, some and decorative carving are delicate, often Georgian houses, however, made use of space following natural forms. Far more than the under the roof by using prominent dormers. Georgian house, curved forms are used in semi- eliptical fanlights over doorways, in tall Palladian Externally, Georgian houses exude a feeling of windows centering second stories, and in the por- mass and solidity in keeping with their sub- ticos mentioned above. stantial builders. The front doors are commonly flanked by rather heavy pilasters or columns and Federal floor plans differ little from the both doors and windows are often surmounted Georgian, but interior details of moldings, by triangular Greek or swan's neck pediments. chairrails, fireplaces and other decorations are Pediments and cornices are frequently underlined smaller scaled and of lower relief. The skill of the by dentils (toothlike projections). Wooden The Georgian Style woodcarver is called upon in its fullest extent to 7 achieve a feeling of restrained and formal The Greek Revival Style houses and the more restrained use of Greek delicacy. stylistic elements in more modest homes. Two of the finest examples of Federal Style The temple form is a clear and unabashed architecture are to be found in Maine in the Greek Revival architecture may well be the most attempt to reproduce, within the limits of McClellan-Sweat Mansion of 1800-01 in Portland profoundly influential, longest lasting and most climate and practicality, Greek temples on the and Wiscasset's 1807-12 Nickels-Sortwell House. pervasive of any single style in American architec- Maine landscape. These houses are generally Covering a period roughly from the end of the tural history. Its forms and uses can be found in rectangular blocks or groups of blocks placed Revolution through the first two decades of the houses and in other buildings from the 1820's adjacent to one another. The facades feature a 19th century, this style is also beautifully exemp- to the 1860's. Its various modes and details were flat triangular pediment supported by a classical lified by the James Kavanagh House (1803) at applied not only to the great mansions but also order of columns forming a portico the width of Damariscotta Mills, the John Holmes House to the humblest Cape Cod farm dwellings. the building. The walls, whether of wood or (1802) in Alfred, unusual because of the two brick, tend to be flat in limitation of the flat story colonnade of slender columns on three Although based on the traditions of ancient stonework in the originals. Some of these temple sides, and the late Federal Colonel John Black Greece it was an expression of the emerging na- houses are prostyle, having columns only across House built in Ellsworth in 1824-27. tional feeling in America and the ideals of the the front, while others have columns on more new liberalism in the Western World. The prestige of classical Greek civilization had had a profound effect on the development of the principles of 1776 and 1789. In America, the founding fathers had discovered a basis for their convictions in the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers and the political traditions of the Greek city states. Coupled with this, the modern Greeks, subju- gated by the Ottoman Empire, began in the early years of the 19th century to develop, through Western influence, a self-consciousness of their own heritage. Beginning in 1821, a movement for Greek independence developed with strong sup- port from liberals and romantics in Europe and America. This resurgence of the "Mother of Democracy" aroused enormous sympathy in the United States and profoundly influenced the literature, art and architecture of the period. Greek Revival architecture appears in Maine in The Federal Style two basic forms, the temple style for the grander The Greek Revival Temple than one side. Common decorations found in the changes in design or detail. Simple gable roofed mind. The frieze (the flat band under the pediment and elsewhere include the anthemion, houses sprang up everywhere with the gable cornice) tends to be quite wide and this feature the palmette, the wreath, and for banding, the facing the street and the front door in the gable is carried up into the gable. Also wide are the Greek fret. end, usually to one side rather than in the center. vertical corner boards which are sometimes This emphasis on the gable end was clearly the pilasters with some decoration. Doorways are Endless variations on the temple theme can be result of the orientation of classical Greek usually flanked by pilasters or recessed columns. found including houses where the typical temple structures with the main entrance under the pedi- Frequently the cornice molding is carried com- structure is surrounded by pilasters rather than a ment. Many older houses were rearranged, in pletely around the building SO that on the gable porch and colonnade. The magnificant James P. fact SO that a gable end entrance could be ends it creates the impression of the triangular White House of 1840 in Belfast is an example of achieved. Only Capes, for the most part, retained Greek pediment. Columned porches of one kind the possible complexity of the Greek theme. A the traditional location of their front doors. or another also appear on many houses of the rectangular facade, with typically broad friezes period. under the boxed cornice has a central bay con- But even the Cape succumbed in other ways to sisting of a pavilion in two stages, each with the Greek influence as did most other domestic Rather than cite individual examples of the paired Ionic columns supporting a Greek lintel. architecture. The Greek Revival house today is simple domestic Greek Revival Style, it is per- The main roof is hipped and surmounted by a easily distinguishable if a few points are borne in haps better to say that it is the first major style tall octagonal cupola with Ionic columns, exemplified throughout the state. It is found on virtually every older city street and is represented Among the notable temple style houses in Maine in a major proportion of rural homes in the are the Charles Q. Clapp House (1833) in Port- Maine countryside. land, the Samuel Farrar House (1836) in Bangor and the very early (1830) Peter Grant House in Farmingdale. In the transition from the Federal to the Greek Revival Style, elements of the latter were often added to houses of the earlier period, particular- ly the addition of columns or colonnaded porches. Also wide entablatures containing one or more of the classical elements frequently replaced the more delicate Federal cornice arrangement. Of perhaps even greater importance than the temple house, in terms of Maine architecture, was the application of the Greek theme to houses of all kinds. This resulted in several major The Greek Revival Style 9 The Gothic Revival Style frame. Pinnacles and battlements abound and Like other important styles, elements of the lancet windows are not uncommon. Gothic Revival were seized upon, often in verna- cular form, to decorate houses whose basic The emergence of the Gothic Revival Style in the In basic structure the Gothic Revival House may design was not of the style. Most typical was the 1830's marks the beginning of what may be be symmetrical or asymmetrical but features a use of ornately cut scrollwork boarding to called "picturesque architecture" in Maine and vertical emphasis in steep pointed gables. Usually decorate gables, leaves, doorways and other America. Typical of the Victorian era was a these gables contain barge boards cut in ginger- architectural details. Appropriately enough, this romantic desire to recapture elements of the past bread patterns. In some larger houses a tower or is frequently referred to as "Carpenter Gothic". or to reproduce the art and architecture of con- turret may be present and frequently a veranda, temporary Europe to which Americans increas- though these features are less common in Maine. ingly turned for guidance and inspiration. The ornate decoration of these houses is, of Unlike the Greek Revival which was at least in course, an attempt to capture in wood the part motivated by political and patriotic elaborate stone carving of the medieval models. instincts, the Gothic Revival and later limitations and adaptations of European styles were almost The exteriors are frequently of vertical board and purely an intellectual phenomenon. batten construction and generally painted one color. Sometimes, however, a half timbered While the Gothic Revival as applied to churches effect is achieved with exposed timbers of con- and other large buildings was based upon the trasting hue. The overall effect is indeed one of great English medieval monuments, in domestic otherworldiness to suit the striving for the pic- housing it was largely adapted from rural cottage turesque. and country house architecture in the mother country. Of profound influence in the popular- Excellent examples of the Gothic Revival Style ization of this style was Andrew Jackson in Maine are the Gothic House of 1845 in Port- Downing, an American architect, who espoused land and the Henry Boody House of 1849 in the English cottage as an ideal residential design. Brunswick. The Godfrey-Kellogg House of 1847 In The Architecture of Country Houses and in Brunswick shows the style in a rural setting Cottage Residences he presented designs for with other buildings on the grounds in the same Gothic houses and also houses in Italian and Gothic mode including even the dog house! other European styles. His works captured the popular imagination whetted, as it was, by the An exception to the above description but falling romantic trend in literature and the arts. very much into the Gothic Revival pattern of thought is the great stone country house called The Gothic Revival house typically displays Oaklands in Gardiner. Designed in 1836 for pointed arch windows and doors with windows Robert Hallowell Gardiner it is basically a Tudor 10 sometimes containing double arches within the inspired building impressive both in size and The Gothic Revival Style mass. The Italianate Style tower placed off-center and usually in a corner. the country. This is the Morse Libby House or The facades feature projecting or receding verti- "Victoria Mansion" in Portland, built between cal planes which are individually symmetrical. 1859 and 1863. This elaborate brownstone struc- Styles derived from other European models are Wall surfaces are usually smooth but quoins are ture, maintained by the Victoria Society of more difficult to distinguish and describe. Italian, common at the corners. The roofs tend to be of Maine Women, is not only notable for its exterior French, Baroque, and other elements often inter- slight pitch but subsidiary gables may occur. Bay but also for the High Victorian opulence of its mingle and sometimes are present in houses windows are common. There is nearly always a interior decoration and furnishings. whose basic structure does not fall in any of veranda and frequently a colonnaded recessed these categories. porch. Details of this style, such as the use of brackets and Italianate porticos, abound in Maine. Many The most impressive Italianate houses are usually Maine is fortunate to have what is generally con- a simple Greek Revival house, for example, now nearly square with a low hip or gable roof and sidered the finest Italian Villa Style residence in is ornamented with sometimes rather incongru- broadly overhanging leaves. The roof is frequently ous Italianate decoration. surmounted by a centrally located and highly ornamented cupola. Occasionally a triangular pediment tops the projecting center of a facade with pilasters running down either side of the central bay. Porticos, porches and balconies appear and horizontal projecting elements, including the leaves, are supported by single or paired brackets. Windows and other openings tend to be narrow and tall and may be round- arched singly or in pairs, topped with a straight cornice molding, square headed, or with a classic triangular lintel. Window types are often mixed on the same house. The Italianate house tends to yield a strongly three dimensional effect. The Thomas J. Southard House (1855) in Rich- mond and the less ornate Low-McEvoy House (1857) in Bangor are representative of the Italianate influence. An even grander variation is the Italian Villa Style with its asymmetrical emphasis. These structures often are surmounted by a square The Italianate Style 11 The Mansard Style The Queen Anne Style In the early 1850's Louis Napoleon, who as The development of the Queen Anne Style in the Napoleon III had established the Second Empire last quarter of the 19th century marked the cul- in France, began the construction of additions mination of Victorian complexity in architecture. to the Louvre in Paris. This great building had While Italian and French houses represented a originally been designed in the 17th century by trend toward what might be termed "reality", the great architect, Francois Mansart who created Queen Anne structures exemplified a return to a roof style with nearly perpendicular sides. The the yearning for the picturesque which the earlier 19th century additions continued the use of this Gothic Revival had satisfied. The style itself had feature. Americans at mid-century were capti- little or nothing to do with the architecture of vated by the apparent rebirth of Napoleonic the reign of that early 18th century English mon- glories and over the next two decades eagerly arch after whom it was named. If any precedent adopted the mansard roof (as the name was at all can be found it might more properly be Americanized) as a symbol of high European said to lie in Elizabethan or even late medieval fashion. traditions. Very generally speaking, the Mansardic or French The Queen Anne house is characterized by Style house, as it was then called, is an Italianate irregularity - irregularity of plan, of shapes, of house, previously described, with a mansard roof. planes, of color and texture. External surfaces The steep pitch of the visible part of the roof is vary greatly from one section to another and surmounted by a curb and is invariably pierced may include some half timbered effects. Win- by dormer windows. Frequently a square tower, dows of many shapes and styles appear on a also mansardic, is present, usually centrally lo- single building with the exception of the pointed cated at the front. The tower roof may also have Gothic arch. Upper stories may project and roofs dormers and is sometimes topped with a are high and irregular with prominent gables. filigreed wrought iron crest. Chimneys become important features often with designs in cut or molded brick. Terra cotta The mansard house, like the Italianate, is inserts inscribed with intricate designs and some- strongly three dimensional in feeling and boldly times dates are placed within gable areas or in modeled. But it also yields a greater feeling of other prominent locations. Individual architec- height due to the roofline which effectively adds tural details are most commonly of classical a story to the structure. origin but are relatively small as they exist within the entire pattern of the structure. The later 12 The Mansard or French Style Queen Anne houses are often featured by a The Octagon House The Stick Style The Octagon house is really not a style but a Although relatively few examples exist in Maine, form of architecture. Born in the facile mind of the Stick Style of the 1870's is important as Orson Squire Fowler, phrenologist, author of the forerunner of subsequent developments in books on sex and family relations and man of modern architecture. Growing in part out of the many other parts, the Octagon house was not Gothic Revival tradition, the Stick style was a widely accepted. Small numbers of them were conscious effort to return to the realities of built, however, in the 1850's and 60's when structure and a revolt against what was con- Fowler's book, A Home for All or, The Gravel sidered to be superficiality in High Victorian Wall and Octagon Mode of Building, became architecture of the late 19th century. popular. The basic octagonal form was treated in various styles including Greek Revival, Gothic Revival and Italianate. Examples in Maine exist in Wiscasset, Biddeford, Farmington, Bangor, Bucksport, Limington and Oakland. The Queen Anne Style round or octagonal tower or turret in one of the front corners. It is apparent that the designer of a Queen Anne The Stick Style house walked, as it were, on the brink of a precipice. With the employment of great care and discernment the result of his work might be The Stick Style house is marked by the external a building of considerable charm and interest. exposure of structural members, vertical, hor- With lack of taste and judgment it could become izontal and diagonal. While not half timbered in a chaotic hodgepodge. the Elizabethan sense, principal timbers are evident on outside walls and an extension of the roof truss system is often exposed in gable ends. 13 The Octagon House Porch roofs and overhangs are supported by simple square posts and plain diagonal bracing. The Shingle Style coloration ideally suited to blend with natural surroundings. This emphasis on straight, attenuated structure oriented features is clear justification for the In the 1880's what might be termed the excesses The interiors, particularly on the ground floor, stylistic name. of Victorian architecture culminating in the are characterized by open spaces with broad Queen Anne style were brought to an abrupt end doorways carrying the eye easily from room to by the emergence of the Shingle Style. This truly room. This generous arrangement facilitates the radical departure introduced new freedom and flow of both air and people. openness into the design and planning of American homes. Summer homes had begun to A particularly fine example of the Shingle Style spring up in scenic areas along the Maine coast is the C. A. Brown Cottage on Cape Elizabeth and this return to nature brought with it a desire designed by Stevens in 1886-87. for simplicity and informality in living styles. The awareness of natural surrpundings engen- dered an awakened interest in the suitable siting of homes on the landscape and the use of natural materials in construction. Led by John Calvin Stevens, Maine's foremost architect, home designers, drawing in part from New England models of the 17th and early 18th centuries, began to develop simpler and quieter houses with cleaner lines - houses with spacious interiors and pleasing all-encompassing rooflines. The Later Styles The upper story walls of these houses are typ- ically shingled, with rough cut stone being used The early 20th century saw a return to earlier for the ground floor, although often they are forms with the Colonial Revival Style. This drew shingled throughout. Windows are frequently heavily on 18th century Georgian and Federal small paned and sometimes appear in bands models but represented a relatively infertile per- across a wall. The roofs are hipped, gable or gam- iod in architectural development. Later styles, brel but of moderate pitch and often sweep with the exception of the Prairie Style born of down in unbroken line from ridge to the ever the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright and of which present veranda. The gable ends are typically only one example exists in Maine, are numerous broad and expansive. The overall emphasis of the and not yet easy to classify or assess in 14 The Shingle Style Shingle style house is horizontal with subdued importance. A Word of Caution While great numbers of houses built between 1700 and 1900 are easily identifiable as repre- sentative of the styles described, many others are transitional in design or have had elements of one or more styles added to them. Still others fall into no recognizable style at all, being the result of designing whim not based on current or past fashion. When you are not sure, you can speculate endlessly. This is part of the fun of "house watching". 15