historic mansions of wiscasset

Yesterday, my mom and I met in Wiscasset, the beautiful halfway point between Camden and Portland, to tour some of the old captain's mansions there.

First up is the Nickels-Sortwell House.  The house was built by Captain Nickels in the early 1800s.  Construction was completed in 1807, just before Thomas Jefferson placed an embargo on international trading and caused serious economic distress in the formerly wealthy seafaring town.  Because of this regional depression, the Nickels were forced to sell the home in 1814.  For about 70 years it was an inn, until a wealthy family from Cambridge, MA, the Sortwells, purchased the house in 1899 to serve as their summer home.  The Sortwells took great pride in restoring the house to its original grandeur throughout the early 1900s.  When the Sortwell's daughter, Frances, died in 1956, she deeded the house to Historic New England.  The house is still furnished with the Sortwells' belongings, with the exception of one of the downstairs rooms, which has been reinterpreted to reflect how Captain Nickels would have used the space.

Front view of the Nickels-Sortwell House

The home is built in the high Federal style, with impressively ornate mouldings, especially on the first floor.  As you work your way up to the third floor of the house, things become less and less fancy, because not as many people saw these floors.  The siding on the front and water side of the house was done in a way to give the feeling of expensive masonry, but is, in fact, wood.  On the inland facade and back of the house, the siding looks like the traditional clapboard. Also, the windows decrease in size as you go up in height to give the impression of grandeur, while having lower ceilings in the upper levels of the home.   In the front hall, a grand curved staircase leads up the three levels of the home.  Apparently, there was once a chandelier that hung in the stairwell.  It was set up on a pulley system, so people could raise and lower the chandelier as they went up and down the stairs.  

The other home we visited was Castle Tucker.  Located nearby and also constructed around 1807, the Castle Tucker was commissioned by a judge, Silas Lee.   He was very wealthy as well, however, had heavily invested in the local shipping industry, so was also financially devastated by Jefferson's Embargo.  After he passed away in 1814, his wife sold the house.  For about 35 years the house had various owners and entered into a state of disrepair.  In 1858, it was under foreclosure (or the equivalent of that in 1858), when Richard Tucker, Jr. was informed by his father (who also lived in Wiscasset) that he would be stupid not to take advantage of the opportunity to buy this house.  Richard Tucker Jr. was a retired, successful ship captain and had recently married Mollie, who was only 16 (he was 41). 

Side view of Castle Tucker

When they first purchased the house, Richard Jr. dedicated himself to decorating it in the Victorian style and bought many furnishings from Boston. Richard Jr. continued traveling the world for extended periods of time, while Mollie was left at home to care for their children and take care of the home.  She apparently often contemplated divorce.  The family hit rough economic times during the depression in the 1890s and did many things to raise money to keep themselves afloat.  Mollie raised pigeons in a back area of the house, which she then sold to nearby hotels as squab.  They also rented out rooms in the house during the summertime.  They would advertise in papers in Boston, specifically avoiding the fact that they had no indoor plumbing.  Because of their financial difficulties, the house remains largely the way it had been when Richard Jr. and Mollie originally purchased it in 1858.  One of their granddaughters, Jane Tucker, gifted the house to Historic New England in 1996.  She continued to live there and give tours of her family's home until 2003. 

Front view of Castle Tucker

In case you don't already know from reading my blog, I love, love, love old houses like this.  I had always wanted to go into the Nickels-Sortwell House (Castle Tucker is on a side street and I didn't even know it was there) and was so excited to finally get the chance to see inside these homes. It is just so fascinating to imagine a life back then and to learn about when different modern-day necessities were added, such as plumbing and refrigerators.  With your only source of heat being fireplaces and having 12 foot ceilings and a mansion.  Of owning dozens of beautiful tea sets imported from all over the world and actually serving tea every day at 4 pm to friends and family, as Mrs. Sortwell did.  Of having butlers and maids and cooks and nannies who all lived with you.  I really enjoyed my step back into time.   

It really interests me how the histories of these two houses start out so similarly, both being built in 1807 and being sold by their builders in 1814, only to go through various states of disrepair. I was so impressed by the world traveling they had done.  Both homes had a relatively large amount of furnishings from Asian countries.  They contained books in many languages and the Tuckers would actually translate books for extra money. Both have also now wound up in the hands of Historic New England.  Yet they both have such different feels to them and both wound up there in very different ways.   

stone house

Just look at this awesome house in Portugal!

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in such a unique place? 

The pictures are by Feliciano Guimaraes and I found them on A Cup of Jo.  

there is a house

There is a house for sale in my hometown that's quite a show stopper and has been featured as inspiration on some of the blogs I read.  Now, obviously, if somebody wanted me to live here, I wouldn't complain, but at the same time, I'm a bit torn about whether or not I like the decor.  Let me give you a tour and let you decide for yourself:

I mean, holy cow, just look at that property.  That view is pretty increidble. Could it get any better? Actually, yes it could, check out the view from this angle:

Yup.  That's a view of Portland Headlight, only one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world.  You know, and it's just hanging out outside your living room. Now that is incredible.  

So yes, given just the two pictures featured above, I am in love with this house.  Even if it is suffering from a bit of a steroid addiction.  If I owned it, I'd let everyone I know come and live in it (okay, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people), so I wouldn't feel lonely.  I bet I could even get lost in there! 

So, the house is for sale, but the thing is, everyone keeps talking about how well it's decorated, and that, my friends, is where the blog world and I disagree.

Take this master bedroom, for example.  Yawn.  I don't know if they tried to make it look impersonal to make it easier to sell, but for such a grand house, this bedroom is so...vanilla.  (I really like vanilla too.)  Really though, carpet? A serious lack of any color, and look at all of that space! Who needs that much space between their bed and their absurdly huge non-flats creen tv.  I mean, come on, if you live in a $4 million house, I'm pretty sure you can afford a flat screen.

Now, don't let the view distract you! Don't do it! Okay, you can, but just for a minute, and then focus on the room.  Why isn't that table round? Why do those chairs look so uncomfortable?  And I get that granite is cool and all, but it makes this table look so impersonal. I just want some warmth.

Another room that's not really inspiring me...well, other than the view. Where the bedroom was empty, this room is so crowded! And the furniture looks teeny too. I don't know, it just leaves me wanting something more. 

Now, there are a few redeeming qualities on the inside of this house.  Here's the first one:

Holy cow that fireplace is AWESOME! It's so big! And so...stone! I would for sure surround it with big comfy couches and put a way more colorful/warm painting above it.  This room has so much potential.

Now, in general, I'm not a huge fan of dark moulding.  It looks so formal and intimidating, but it also has a regal air about it and if ever there was a house that demanded something regal, I'm pretty sure this one was it.  I really like the exposed beams in the ceiling too.  I'd be tempted to paint the moulding white, or some other color and top it with a vibrant, but classic wallpaper to make this hallway more fun/airy, but I'd also be worried about losing the integrity of the woodwork if I were to do such a thing. 

Finally we have the kitchen.  Again, I feel like in a house as grand as this one, it's a bit of a let down.  But it does have nice bones.  I do like white cabinets and I like that they're trying to pull off a vintage feel with the hardware. I just think the kitchen looks too busy, the hardware is too square and it contrasts too much with the cabinets.  All I see when I look at this space are black spots. I wish the countertops were granite all the way around and not just on the island....maybe they could take the granite off of that unfortunate table in the breakfast nook and replace a counter? Ha, juuust kidding. But there is certainly potential here for something wonderful.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this house with you.  If you don't agree with me about the interior, then it's pretty exciting to look at.  And even if you do agree that the interior could do with a little re-vamping, the house itself is still unbelievable. Plus if you could afford to buy the house, you could probably afford the interior designer to go with it. 

aaaah i'm in love

Dan's parents are visiting Maine this week and we're having a blast.  Last night, Dan and I showed them this really cool house that's for sale.  We always slow down to admire it when driving by.  It's in Rockport (Camden's southern neighbor), for sale for $399,000, was built in 1850, has 3886 square feet that are made up of (in part) 7 bedrooms, 1 full bathroom, 1 three quarter bathroom, and 1 half bathroom and is listed "for the creative and adventurous buyer." Until today, the best I could get was looking at the little flyer I grabbed from the for sale sign.

Today when we drove by, Dan's mom had us stop so we could peek in the windows.  When Dan, his mom and I were out back looking into what should be a kitchen (but is in fact just a big, empty room with plywood floors), his dad knocked on the window at us....from INSIDE the house!! Turns out the front door is unlocked! So, we all snuck in and looked around.

I. am. in. love.  The good and bad thing about this love is that there's no way it could ever be mine.  Unless the sellers would consider accepting a $100 down payment, that is.  Dan always tells me not to get my hopes up about things and at least with this, even I know it would be absolutely absurd to even think about somebody buying this house for me.  So, instead, I will just dream about how I would decorate it if it were mine.  And that is almost as fun as actually decorating it.  And certainly comes with a bigger budget and fewer headaches. Would it be creepy if I became a squatter and just decorated it as if I owned it?

Although it would take a lot of money to make this house live-able (boring things like new windows to replace the ones that are original to the house, new electrical system, probably new plumbing and parts of a new roof, just to name a few),  I still do believe it would be a great investment for somebody who had the time and money to fix it up.  It would be relatively easy to add in more bathrooms and the closet space was surprisingly not terrible.  The molding is absolutely gorgeous.  The floors really aren't in bad condition.  And most of all, the blank slate is a total dream.

I guess my only absurd hope (in this situation) is that the unbelievably lucky people who do end up buying this house will let me decorate it for them.