historic new england fall 2006

HistoricNEW ENGLAND

PRESENTED BY

THE SOCIETY FOR

THE PRESERVATION OF

NEW ENGLAND ANTIQUITIES

FALL 2006

PRESENTED BY

THE SOCIETY FOR

THE PRESERVATION OF

NEW ENGLAND ANTIQUITIES

FALL 2006

SARAH ORNE JEWETTAT HOME

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F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T

In this issue, we feature our historic sitesand collections, beginning with an eloquentessay on Sarah Orne Jewett by her biogra-pher, Paula Blanchard. Recent major do-nations to the Library and Archives of thearchives of three contemporary architectsdemonstrate our continuing effort to pre-serve New England’s rich heritage.

Historic New England also continuesto grow its membership as we inaugurate awonderful new preservation service and wel-come a new museum to our roster of his-toric houses. Our new Historic Homeownermembership category, described in detail on page 25, serves those who cherish their own old houses and want to make informedand sensitive choices in maintaining them.Members have access to the expertise ofHistoric New England’s preservation staffthrough online consultations and specialevents. The program guides owners throughconservation and renovation issues to helpthem preserve the distinctive features of theirold houses, whether built in 1750 or 1950.

In closing, I would like to welcomeHarold J. Carroll as our new Chair of theBoard of Trustees and to thank Janina Long-tine for her admirable service. Hal, a partnerin the Corporate Group,Gadsby Hannah LLP andan active Board memberfor many years, bringsexperience and commit-ment to the position.

SPOTLIGHT 1Our Newest Old House

PRESERVATION 8Caring for Your Basket Collection

MAKING FUN OF HISTORY 10From Fiber to Cloth

MUSEUM SHOP 24Savings for Members

LANDSCAPE 20The Life Cycle of a Country Estate

NEWS: NEW ENGLAND & BEYOND 25

ACQUISITIONS 26A Maine Island Inn

Except where noted, all historic photographs and ephemera are from Historic New England’s Library and Archives.

Sarah Orne Jewett at Home 2

Preserving the Present 13

V I S I T U S O N L I N E AT w w w. H i s t o r i c N e w E n g l a n d . o r g

HistoricNEW ENGLAND

Fall 2006Vol. 7, No.2

Historic New England141 Cambridge StreetBoston MA 02114-2702(617) 227-3956

HISTORIC NEW ENGLAND magazine is a benefit of membership.To join Historic New England, please visit our website, HistoricNewEngland.org or call (617) 227-3957, ext.273. Comments? Please callNancy Curtis, editor at (617) 227-3957, ext.235. Historic NewEngland is funded in part by the Institute of Museum and LibraryServices and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Executive Editor Editor DesignDiane Viera Nancy Curtis DeFrancis Carbone

COVER Sarah Orne Jewett at her desk in South Berwick.By permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University. bMS AM 1743.26(16)

Rem

Huy

gens

—Carl R. Nold

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1Fall 2006 Historic New England

reat yourself to a stroll down Chestnut Street inSalem, Massachusetts, and you’ll quickly discoverwhy noted English author P.D. James called it “oneof the most beautiful streets in America.” Desig-

nated a National Historic Landmark within the city’s McIntireHistoric District, Chestnut Street is also home to the StephenPhillips House which, on May 1, became the thirty-sixth museumin Historic New England’s five-state network of historic sites.

Rich with collections as diverse as Fiji throwing clubs, African woodcarvings,Native American pottery, early American furniture, and the family carriages andautomobiles, the Phillips House provides fascinating insights into the lives of fivegenerations of this prominent and well-traveled Salem family. Elegantly propor-tioned, the house fits perfectly with its neighboring Federal mansions. Step inside,however, and you’ll discover Federal details combined with the early twentieth-cen-tury decorative scheme of Anna and Stephen Willard Phillips, who purchased theproperty in 1911 and hired architect William Rantoul to remodel their new homein the fashionable Colonial Revival style.

Following the death in 1971 of Anna and Stephen’s only child, also namedStephen, the home became a house museum in 1973, and has been welcoming vis-itors from around the world ever since. The Phillips family collection comprisesmore than 11,000 objects, including an impressive art collection—an etching ofVenice by James McNeil Whistler, three watercolors by Frank Benson (who livedon Chestnut Street), and a watercolor painted in Rome by Maurice Prendergast.The archival collection encompasses photographs,books, and family and business papers, some datingas early as the 1700s. Behind the home, the nine-teenth-century carriage house showcases the family’sarray of personal vehicles, including three carriages,a sleigh, a 1929 Model A Ford phaeton, a 1924seven-passenger Pierce-Arrow touring car, and a1936 Pierce-Arrow limousine in original condition.

—Diane VieraChief Operating Officer

S P O T L I G H T

Historic New England invites you totravel to Salem this fall and visit this fascinating home. The Phillips House is open through October 31, Mondaythrough Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Toursare offered on the hour and half hour;last tour at 4 p.m. For more information,visit www.phillipsmuseum.org.

ABOVE A Hawaiian flag flies above the

entrance of the Phillips House, in

honor of the birthplace of Stephen W.

Phillips. BELOW Family portraits in the

Phillips House library.

Our NewestOld House

T

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THIS PAGE Charles H.Woodbury (1864–1940) painted this watercolor

of the front hall of the Jewett House to illustrate an 1893 special

edition of Jewett’s first novel, Deephaven. FACING PAGE, ABOVE The

prominent Jewett House overlooked the bustling town square.

Just visible in the center stands the smaller house where Jewett

grew up. BELOW A formal photograph of Jewett, c. 1880.

Sarah Orne Jewett

at Home

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Her grandfather, Theodore Fuber Jewett, bought thehouse in 1819, moved in with his young wife, andlived there until his death in 1860, having out-lived that wife and married three others afterher. A sea captain, shipbuilder, and merchant,he became one of the leading citizens of thetown, a trustee of Berwick Academy, and amember of the welcoming committee whenthe Marquis de Lafayette visited in 1825.

Sarah’s father was one of GrandfatherJewett’s five sons by two wives. A talentedphysician, he had early hopes of a city practice.But by the time he finished his medical studies,three of his brothers had died, and he himself was

Sarah Orne Jewett liked to say she was

made of “Berwick dust.”

thought to be weak in the lungs. His father begged him (orperhaps ordered him—one has the feeling that begging wasnot in Captain Jewett’s nature) to remain in South Berwickand establish a practice there. And so he did, bringing to hisfather’s house his own young wife. In due course, babiesarrived, and Captain Jewett decided that his son’s growing

family needed a house of their own, so he built themone next door, with communicating yards—the

house that is now the South Berwick Library.Sarah Orne Jewett believed that a house,

if it is lived in by the same family for a longtime, shapes its inhabitants as they in turnshape it: “One often hears of the influence ofclimate upon character; there is a stronginfluence of place; and the inanimate thingswhich surround us indoors and out make us

follow out in our lives their own silent charac-teristics. We unconsciously catch the tone of

every house in which we live, and of every viewof the outward, material world which grows familiar

he was born in South Berwick,

Maine, in 1849 in Historic New

England’s Sarah Orne Jewett House.S

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Historic New England Fall 20064

to us, and we are influenced by surroundings nearer and closerthan the climate of the country which we inhabit.”

Houses are important in Jewett’s stories; often a storywould begin with a house she saw or visited, which shewould then people with characters. She would grieve over afine old house or a snug farm she saw abandoned—and in thePost-Civil War period there were many of them. She wouldtry to find someone to adopt it, if only for the summer. Historic New England’s Hamilton House, also in South Ber-wick, was badly in need of repair when it went on the mar-ket in the late 1890s. It was a great pleasure to Sarah to beable to “find it a good home” with Emily Tyson.

Sarah Orne Jewett’s character was influenced by twoquite different houses, related so closely that the line betweenthem was blurred under common grass and trees. One boldlycommanded attention at the main intersection, as nearly aris-tocratic as New England democracy allowed; the other was apurely functional house of no pretensions whatever. One wasgenerously proportioned and ornamented, with big squarerooms full of light, its large front hall opening onto the publicsquare in front and the private garden behind; the other wasmuch more modest, a trifle pinched and dim in comparison,but a practical house for a working doctor and his family, its

side porch a constant thoroughfare for townspeople lookingfor his care. One was a “residence,” the other a house forchildren to clatter around in, and for artisans and farmers to be comfortable with, as they were comfortable with thedoctor who lived there.

Dr. Jewett was a man whose unassuming personalitybelied his ability and status. A professor of obstetrics and diseases of women at Maine Medical School, consulting sur-geon at Maine General Hospital in Portland, lecturer atBowdoin Medical School, and president of the MaineMedical Society, he was known in his own town chiefly as areliable family doctor who made his rounds with horse andbuggy. His mild, attentive manner invited reticent NewEnglanders to trust him with their private griefs. He was, asone medical colleague observed, “above all an understanderof men.” His gifts of intelligence, sympathetic understanding,and a modesty amounting almost to diffidence were passedon to his daughter, Sarah; they were as valuable to a writeras to a physician.

Sarah, then, grew up in a family compound whose twohouses expressed, to a remarkable degree, two prominentstrains of her personality. In her father’s house, she was one of “the doctor’s girls,” a child who—on account of ill

ABOVE LEFT Around 1900, Elise Tyson photographed Sarah Orne

Jewett peeking into the garden behind the Jewett House. ABOVE

RIGHT Tyson’s photograph of Jewett’s bedroom shows photographs

of Jewett’s mother, her friend Annie Fields (center), her riding

crops, and a painting by Sarah Wyman Whitman arranged over

the fireplace. FACING PAGE, ABOVE A daguerreotype of ten-year-old

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health—was often allowed to skip school and accompany her father on his rounds. Like him, she was known to virtu-ally everyone in town, as well as to the families of farmers in the countryside and fishermen and sailors along the coast.With her father, she was invited into the homes of judges andshipowners, widows and shopkeepers, schoolmasters andpaupers. In farm kitchens, she was only a little girl like anyother, petted or ignored as the case might be, free to ob-serve the remarkable variety of lives that made up the socialfabric of her community. Few occupations were more demo-cratic or less class-ridden than a medical practice in a smallMaine town.

She and her sisters, Mary and Caroline, were also in regular attendance at the West Indian store, founded by her grandfather and carried on by their uncle William. Sited obliquely across the street from her grandfather’shouse, the store was patronized by the townspeople as wellas by country people, some of whom would drive many miles from isolated farms in the fall to stock up on suppliesfor the winter. A place for socializing and for catching up on town news, it was a prime source of miscellaneous infor-mation for eavesdropping children.

Presiding over her grandfather’s house in Sarah’s earlychildhood was Captain Jewett’s third wife, Mary Rice Jewett,a forbidding old lady of whom Sarah was very much in awe.When she was on her deathbed and the family went nextdoor to pay their respects, Sarah (aged four) refused to goand remained huddled on the doorstep in the December cold,watching the lighted windows next door until her parentsreturned. Scared of her grandmother in life, she apparentlywanted to be nowhere near her when she left this world. The indefatigable captain soon took a fourth wife; and this new grandmother, Elizabeth Sleeper Jewett, made thechildren welcome. As Sarah grew into her teens her grand-mother became a friend and confidante; her second publishedstory, “Mr. Bruce,” is based on an anecdote told by hergrandmother.

Both Jewett families were fond of entertaining and feasting. Guests included a multiplicity of cousins; a spectac-ularly eccentric New Hampshire Supreme Court justice; apolitician and mill owner; and of course, retired sea captainsand their wives, world travelers all. The feasting and airingof sheets were managed by Sarah’s mother and grandmother,though the real work was done by hired help. A successionof young Irish women worked in the household for a year ortwo until they made enough money to move to the city orreturn to Ireland. There was a good deal of play and sharedwork between the Jewett women and the women in thekitchen, and the girls grew up listening to folktales and ide-alized memories of the Irish countryside, until it was almostmore familiar to their imaginations than their own country.

Grandfather Jewett’s household depended on HannahDriscoll, who lived with the family for at least twenty years.She was one of a vanishing species, a career housekeeper—anunmarried woman who more or less adopted a family andstayed with them most of her adultlife. In Sarah Orne Jewett’s novelsand stories, village housekeepersoccupy a special niche and exerciseconsiderable power in the family:Marilla in A Country Doctor issomething of a domestic tyrant;Serena in Betty Leicester is a womanof emotional strength and goodsense and helps Betty through a dif-ficult time; and Hetty Downs, in thestory “The Dulham Ladies,” pro-tects the aging Dulham sisters fromthe harsh realities of modern life.

The Jewett women joined who-ever was in the kitchen in the seasonaltasks of jelly-making in summer andsausage-making in the winter. Inmidwinter, the family pig would be

Sarah, taken at about the time when she used to accompany her

doctor father on his rounds. BELOW Household staff member Katy

holds Togo the cat, 1910.

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ABOVE The guest room, c. 1900, by Elise Tyson. When Sarah and

Mary moved into Grandfather Jewett’s house in 1888, they kept

much of the furniture he had bought in Portsmouth about seventy

slaughtered and the meat consumed immediately or packedin barrels of snow. Extra roasts were given to families who had not yet killed their pigs, who were expected to return thefavor. The Jewett sisters continued some form of the compet-itive sport of sausage-making as late as 1899, when Sarahteased her sister Mary about going “pigging” (that is, to buya pig) on a raw-boned horse so as to “ensure a much more‘near bargain’.”

The Jewett houses, of course, had more space aroundthem than they do today, with pastureland behind the barnand nearby hayfields and orchards where a young girl could roam by herself. Sarah was a solitary child by prefer-ence. She disliked school and book learning, and was always glad when illness (she suffered all her life from rheumatoidarthritis) gave her an excuse to play truant. She was neverindoors when she could be outdoors, and what she lovedbest, aside from going with her father on his rounds, was to explore the woods and fields on her own. She would take a book along and settle down somewhere and read, her back against a fencepost or a tree. She fed small animalsfrom her hand, collected butterflies, and came to know oldtrees as if they were distinguished citizens. In an 1891 letterto Annie Fields describing her discovery of a huge old hop-hornbeam tree, she seems as pleased as if she had been intro-duced to royalty.

When she was very young she had selected retreats athome. She liked to sit under the big lilacs in her grandparents’front yard, hidden from view, and look up at the sky throughtheir leaves. The loft in her grandfather’s barn, piled withsails and other seagoing paraphernalia, was a favorite play-ground. Sylvia, in her story “The White Heron” and Nan, inA Country Doctor, both are drawn in part from Sarah’schildhood self.

An expert horsewoman in adulthood, she went onexploring and discovering obscure roads and trails in South Berwick until a driving accident forced her to stop.Her companion on short drives was often John Tucker, sta-bleman, friend and general factotum. His love of horsesequaled that of the sisters—which is saying a great deal—andthey regularly visited the barn and consulted with him overfeeding, doctoring, and pasturing. He often appeared at thedoor during breakfast with the hint that there was some fine surf at Wells Beach, and it was a perfect day for a drive.The morning’s writing schedule could not withstand thatkind of temptation. Both Sarah and Mary also drove longdistances alone or in convoys with friends. A woman drivingby herself clearly had nothing to fear, and at least two of Jewett’s stories (“The Green Bowl” and “The LandscapeChamber”) involve women on driving tours.

The Jewett sisters were often away on visiting junkets,though one of them always had to stay home with their semi-invalid mother. Frequent train service made it easy to travel

to Boston for an afternoon of shopping. So reliable was themail service to Boston that the Jewett women, proud of theirgarden and especially of their prolific lilacs, would sendboxes of flowers by mail to Sarah’s friend and companionAnnie Fields in Boston, who would fill her house with themand share the overflow.

In 1887, Grandfather Jewett’s house finally passed toMary. The sisters and their mother immediately began exten-sive renovations to restore it to what they believed it hadlooked like early in the century, moving in in June 1888.Sarah lived there about half of every year and spent the balance of her time with Annie Fields. An established andprolific author by then, and having the physical and socialgrace that characterized all the Jewett women, she seemedperfectly suited to the house as if she had lived in it all her life.

While Mary and Mrs. Jewett each took one of the largerbedrooms, Sarah chose a small bedroom next to the backstairs, overlooking the side yard and her old home. Outsidethe window was a huge elm, an old friend of Sarah’s fromchildhood. Its foliage must have shaded out a lot of sunlight,but it added to the sense of privacy, and she loved to look outinto its branches. The room itself is set apart from the rest of

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years earlier, to give the rooms an old-fashioned look. ABOVE The

Jewett sisters were both accomplished horsewomen. In this c. 1901

photograph,Mary is at the reins,while Sarah, in the background,sits

the house in time as well as location. Secluded, modest, andrather dim, it seems archaic, as if from an earlier time.

We are told that Sarah’s writing desk was at the end ofthe spacious upper hall, next to the window where she couldwatch the comings and goings in the square. If that is true,she did her writing in a rather public place, at a major inter-section, both indoors and out. That, too, is in character, forher stories were fed by the people she could see passingbelow. It is surprising how sociable she became as an adult,given her childhood love of solitude. The daily writing shedid at that desk included hundreds of letters to friends. Themonths she spent with Annie Fields each year, in Boston orManchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, were largely takenup with visiting or being visited. Very little work got donethen, though she could deal with the reading of galleys. Itwas South Berwick that provided both the solitude and thehuman material she needed for writing.

On her fifty-third birthday, in 1902, Sarah, Mary, and afriend went for a drive. Coming down a hill, the horse stum-bled, and Sarah was thrown out of the buggy. She hit herhead and probably cracked a vertebra. For several years shewas plagued with racking headaches, dizziness, numbness inher fingers, and inability to concentrate. Nevertheless, she

recovered enough to continue enjoying the house and gardenand friends until she suffered a stroke in the spring of 1909.She died in the house where she was born, leaving the lilacsgreen and all the chairs in their places, as she had said shehoped to do. She also left us nineteen books, one of which,The Country of the Pointed Firs, is an American masterpiece.

Mary and their nephew, Theodore Eastman, in their turnleft the house to the Society for the Preservation of NewEngland Antiquities, now Historic New England. In spite ofyears and the imprint of thousands of feet on its old floors,the old house still has power to evoke, in Sarah’s words, “thestrong influence of place” on the lives that were lived there.

—Paula Blanchard

with Emily Tyson, who had recently purchased the Hamilton House

at Sarah’s urging.

Paula Blanchard is the author of Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and HerWork as well as biographies of Margaret Fuller and Emily Carr. Thisessay is abridged from a talk given in South Berwick in 1999.

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hether your prizedbaskets are new orold, simple precau-tions can help keep

them in good condition. Despite theirorigins as utilitarian objects made foreveryday use, baskets can become brit-tle with age and are easily damaged bypoor storage or display conditions.Handle your collection with care andwith clean hands. Avoid lifting a basketby its handle; use both hands and sup-port it at its base.

The examples shown here werelikely household items used by theiroriginal owners rather than part of acollection. Some were doubtless locallymade for service use; others are prob-ably Native American in origin. Nativetribes produced a variety of decoratedbaskets for sale to tourists, which can be identified by characteristic weaving

techniques, materials, patterns, andshapes. Northeast Indian baskets bytribes like the Penobscot and Passa-maquoddy, for example, are tradition-ally made out of pounded ash splints orbraided sweetgrass.

Where you display your collectioncan make a big difference in how long it stays in good condition. Baskets, likemost artifacts made of organic materials,benefit from low light and heat levelsand moderate, consistent relative humid-ity. Avoid displaying them on win-dowsills and in other sunny locations.Some dyes used on basketry, whethernatural or synthetic (including thoseused on applied porcupine quillwork),are among the most light-sensitivematerials found in museum collections.Direct sunlight can also be hot, whichwill accelerate embrittlement; a tem-perature below 77 degrees F is recom-

P R E S E R V A T I O N

W mended. Likewise, keep your collectionaway from the kitchen’s greasy fumesand the bathroom’s high humidity.

When storing your baskets, takecare to protect them from light, dust,high temperatures, moisture, insects orrodents, and most importantly, fromstructural harm. Baskets should neverbe stacked inside one another or placedon top of each other. Baskets kept indamp storage for long periods candevelop mildew discoloration, which isnearly impossible to restore. When youput a basket in storage, it is best to sup-port it both inside and out. Stuff deli-cate baskets with acid-free tissue andplace them in boxes with tissue or pack-ing material around the outside to givethem further support and protection.

Dust is an inevitable problem inhomes as well as museums. The appear-ance of your collection will be greatly

Caringfor your basket collection

Photographs by David Carmack

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material that mayhave been carried in thebasket can provide important evidenceof the basket’s previous life.

For deeper cleaning where needed,dampen a white 100% cotton cloth(cotton diapers work well) or cottonswab very slightly with clean coldwater and blot gently; then let the bas-ket air dry completely. Test all colors(dyed areas) first in a small inconspicu-ous place to ensure there is no colortransfer. Avoid any painted areas, as thepaints may be water soluble or looselybound. Never soak a basket in water,which can cause differential shrinkageand make the stitches pop and swell.As with dirt residues, some stains mayhint at the previous use of the basket;oils, pigments, tide lines, and foodresidues may all add to the historic andmonetary value of the object. Theseparticles can be analyzed by experts toreveal the object’s hidden past.

improved by gentle dusting. Cover yourvacuum cleaner nozzle with gauze ornylon screening attached with a rubberband or tape to prevent detached fibersor decorative elements from beingsucked into the machine. With a soft tomedium natural bristle brush, gentlydislodge dust, directing it towards thevacuum nozzle and taking care not toscrub it deeper into the fibers.

Cleaning the interior of an old,historic basket is a more delicate mat-ter. If your basket may have been pre-viously used and that history is impor-tant to the value of the piece, do notclean the inside. Traces of food, grain,or any other

hair roller clips. Avoid usingundue force on the object; it isbetter to live with a distortion than torisk damaging the piece.

At this point, remove the spongesfrom the bag and leave it slightly opento allow the basketry fibers to grad-ually adjust to the humidity in theroom. After an hour, remove the bag.Leave the blocking in place for severalhours more to permit the swollen fibersto adjust slowly into their new posi-tion. If possible, use internal supporteven when the piece is on display tohelp it maintain its intended shape foryears to come.

The greatest impact you can haveon your collection is not individualtreatment but providing it with an over-all safe environment. For more seriousproblems, including major deforma-tion, splits and tears in the fibers, or forpotential replacement of lost elements,contact a professional conservator.

—Michaela NeiroAssistant Conservator

Acid-free tissue, archival boxes, cardboard,and other storage materials can be found at University Products. (800) 628-1912(www.universityproducts.com)

In many cases, baskets were madeto be flexible; however, age, embrittle-ment, or improper care can distort theoriginal shape. Minor distortions canbe improved by temporary humidi-fication and reshaping. First, dustthe basket as described above toavoid any penetration of dirtinto the plant material. Place it inan airtight plastic bag slightly larg-er than the basket. Depending onthe size of the basket, take one or twowet (but not dripping) sponges andspray them with Lysol to inhibit mold.Place them in the bag with the basket,taking care that they do not actuallycome in contact with it. Close the bagand wait approximately three hours oruntil the basket begins to feel moreflexible—this is called conditioning. Becareful not to over saturate the atmos-phere in the chamber; watch for con-densation on the bag or the basket.Once the basket is conditioned, you cangently manipulate it into its correctshape and let it stand until the humiditygradually dissipates.

Badly misshapen objects may needto be reshaped gradually. Begin block-ing by gently inserting a stuffing ofpolyester wadding, balloons, bean/sandbags, crumpled tulle or whatever suitsthe particular shape and strength of theobject. Return the basket to the humid-ity chamber, wait an hour or so, adjustthe shape, then add more blocking.Continue in this manner until the bas-ket has been eased back into its origi-nal form (or as close as you feel com-fortable with). You can reshape the rimby lining it with thin cardboard or stiffblotter paper held in place with light

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M A K I N G F U N O F H I S T O R Y

Plant flax seeds Remove seeds to plantnext year

For thousands of years,

out of natural materials

10 Historic New England Fall 2006

The process of turning the raw

material into thread or yarn so

it can be woven into cloth is

complicated and can take many

steps. Let’s look at how early

New Englanders turned a plant

called flax into clothing and

other household textiles.

like cotton, wool, silk, and linen.

do you know?This is a heckle, a tool used to prepare flax fibers so they can be spuninto thread. You start with a hank of tangled flax fibers and pull itthrough the sharp spikes of a large heckle to comb out snarls and shortfibers. Repeat this process with a medium and then a fine heckle. Whenthe fibers are thoroughly combed, they are ready to be spun into threadon a spinning wheel.

Fibers that are tangled or too short for spinning into fine linenthread are called “tow.” They can be used to scrub dishes or stuff pil-lows. Sometimes tow was made into cloth for sacks or for clothing forslaves or servants.

When flax is combed, the longsmooth fibers look like blond hair.

Linen Processing Harvestfully grown flax stems

••

• •

•

•

Boys with short scruffy blond hair were called “tow heads.”

Put flax in waterto rot the bark

Dry flax inthe sun

Beat flax to break and

loosen the bark

�

Can you guess what this is?

Girls with long blond hair were sometimes described as “flaxen haired.”

Flax, illustrated inJames Sowerby’sEnglish Botany,1804. Courtesy,Arnold ArboretumHorticultural Library

people have made fabric

13858 8/25/06 4:14 PM Page 10


There are many patternsa weaver can make bysimply varying the “overone” and “under one”sequence. This one iscalled “basketweave.”Color the vertical threadsin one color and the hor-izontal ones another toreally make the patternstand out.

Scrape barkoff with awooden knife

Pull flax throughheckle, separatinglong fibers fromwaste matter

Dye thread

Weave thread into cloth for linens

and clothing

Find these detailsfrom the picturesin this magazine. !Challenge

weaving

••

• Spin long fibersinto thread

••

People used to think that thePuritans and early New Englandersdressed only in somber blacks andgrays, but actually they wore avariety of colors. They made brightblues, greens, and reds with thetime-tested dyes that their Euro-pean forbearers had used. All theirdyes came from nature—the fer-mented leaves of indigo, lichensscraped from rocks, and evencochineal, which is made from thedried bodies of a tropical insect!

To learn how to make your ownnatural dyes at home, visitwww.HistoricNewEngland.org/kids/dye

Answers can be found on page 12.

�

dyeing

�

Answers for the quiz can be found on page 12.

spinningAll young girls in Colonial America had tolearn how to spin. How much do youknow about what it took to be a“spinster?”

1. Wool fibers can range inlength from two to sixinches. How long do flaxfibers get?

2. How many yards could an experienced spinner spinin a day?

3. Where and when was the spinningwheel invented?

4. When did Colonial women turnspinning into a political protest?

13858 8/25/06 4:15 PM Page 11


M A K I N G F U N O F H I S T O R Y

ished weaving, and continue. As the weaving fills the straws,gently push it down to the strings, but always leave someyarn on the straws to keep the loom straight.

When you have woven to the knot at the other end ofyour warp, cut or unwrap the tape and gently slide thestraws off the warp yarn; make another overhand knot atthat end to secure the weaving. Tuck in all the loose ends.

—Kathleen CorcoranSchool and Youth Program Coordinator

Materials:Three to five plastic soda strawsYarnTapeScissorsLarge needle or piece of wire

Cut the straws down to five inches in length. This is yourloom. Cut a piece of yarn for each straw to make the warp.(The yarn lengths should be a bit longer than you want yourfinal project to be; fourteen inches will be enough for a book-mark.) Thread a piece of yarn through each straw with alarge needle or twisted piece of wire so that a half inch ofyarn sticks out at one end, with the longer strands hangingout the other end. Fold over each short end of yarn and tapeit to the straw.

Gather the long strands of yarn together so that they areeven and tie them together with a knot at the end. Now youare ready to weave. With another length of yarn, your weft,tie a knot around the middle of the first straw. Hold all thestraws upright in your hand with your thumb in front (as ifyou were holding playing cards) and with your other hand,wrap the yarn over and under each straw, until you haveused all of the weft yarn. Cut another piece (perhaps of a dif-ferent color), tie a small knot to the end you have just fin-

Weavingo n a S t r aw L o o m

Answers to quiz on page 11. 1. Up to three feet 2. Over 3,000 yards, which isenough to cross the length of a football field 30 times! 3. The first spinning wheelwas invented in India over 1,000 years ago. 4. In the late 1760s, some Colonialwomen protested British taxes by boycotting cloth imported from England. Theyorganized spinning bees and spun their own yarn for cloth.

Answers to challenge puzzle on page 11. Top row: 22,5, 26. Middle row: 21, 6,20. Bottom row: 24,9, 25.

Weaving is one of the oldest crafts in the world.There is great variety in types

of weaving and kinds of tools—from complicated machinery to the simplest hand

looms—but the basic principles are the same. The loom is strung with threads to

make a warp, and fibers like wool, cotton, or linen, called the weft, are woven

under and over the warp to create the fabric.

You can make a simple loom with plastic straws to create a bracelet, head-

band,bookmark,or belt.The best thing about the straw loom is that you can take

it anywhere and use it over and over again.

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ecently, prominent Boston architects Rem Huygens (now of Georgia),James McNeely, and Frederick A. (Tad) Stahl each made the decision toentrust Historic New England with the long-term stewardship of his professional archives.

From its early years, Historic New England collected architectural drawingsand related materials in an effort to document New England buildings and sites.Today, its nationally significant holdings of more than 20,000 drawings preserveon paper a record of a large number of New England buildings of all types. Thecollection is a primary resource for anyone interested in the architectural history ofthe region or a specific building or the work of a particular architect.

The archives of Rem Huygens, James McNeely, and Tad Stahl now join thework of more than four hundred other architects practicing from the late eigh-teenth century to the present, including Samuel McIntire, Asher Benjamin, EdwardShaw, Gridley J.F. Bryant, Little and Browne, A.W. Longfellow, Peabody andStearns, McKim, Mead, and White, Ogden Codman, Jr., Frank Chouteau Brown,Eleanor Raymond, and Walter Gropius, as well as lesser-known practitioners.

The collections of Huygens, McNeely, and Stahl not only provide importantinsights and information about the work of their creators, but they also signifi-cantly strengthen Historic New England’s ability to document the material cultureof New England in the last third of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

—Lorna CondonCurator of Library and Archives

R

Preserving

With the selection of architectural drawings and

photographs presented on the following pages,

Historic New England’s Library and Archives cele-

brates the gifts of three important and unique

collections of architectural records.

the Present

Monika Pauli

John Hagan

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REM HUYGENS, FAIABorn and educated in the Netherlands,Rem Huygens came to the United Statesto work with Marcel Breuer, opening hisown practice in New England in 1958.More than five hundred of his projectshave been built here and abroad. His workhas received numerous awards and beenpublished worldwide.

“Architecture is the art of buildingwell. Indigenous artisans have longbeen able to make buildings of beautyand integrity because they followedstrict rules governing structure, form,proportion, detail, color, and orna-ment. We may have forgotten that ruleshave to be understood before they canbe broken to advantage.

Architecture deserving of its namewill always search for the nature of thething at hand, and so be modern. It will find expression in the most fitting, direct, and articulate manner. It is good to remember that the word ‘radical’ suggests searching for the root of a thing.

The commitment to build well willtax all one’s resources. Therefore, asJoseph Conrad said, ‘work that aspires,however humbly, to the condition of artshould carry its justification in everyline.’”

“The artistic act is always one

of great precision.”

Nick Wheeler

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FACING PAGE Building 149, Navy Yard, Charles-

town, Massachusetts BELOW, TOP Harwood

house,Essex,Connecticut BELOW, CENTER Grieco

house, Rockport, Massachusetts BELOW, BOTTOM

Beinecke house,Williamstown, Massachusetts

Renderings by Rem Huygens

LEFT Tregurtha house, Darien,

Connecticut BELOW Hazard ski

house, Franconia, New Hampshire

BOTTOM RIGHT Mauran house,

Providence, Rhode Island. Exterior

view appears on inside front cover.

Patz-Lisanti, Inc.

Steve Rosenthal

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Historic New England Fall 2006Historic New England Fall 200616

“I have pursued my career

with the greatest pleasure

and good humor.”

JAMES MCNEELY,AIA Jim McNeely was educated at Yale andcame to Boston as project architect for a community mental health centerdesigned by Paul Rudolph. In 1974, hefounded his firm, now McNeely & PauliArchitects. Ninety percent of the firm’swork is on Beacon Hill or in the Back Bay.

“Architectural design is the means toan end. My career has been focused onmy neighborhood.

Soon after I moved to Beacon Hill,SPNEA nominated me for the BeaconHill Architectural Commission. Theneighborhood was changing and I pre-dicted that this urban jewel would lurefamilies back to the city from the sub-urbs. I imagined that a practice couldbe built around these demographics.

I co-developed the first purpose-built condominiums in Boston. I trans-formed Temple Street into a land-scaped pedestrian way. Our firmdesigned a basketball court underCambridge Street, enlarged squashcourts at the Union Boat Club, andredesigned the local firehouse into acommunity center. We have renovatedtwo hundred houses, most for singlefamilies.

I have pursued my career with thegreatest pleasure and good humor.”

Eric Roth

Eric Roth

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17

LEFT Louisburg Square and Pinck-

ney Street, Beacon Hill, Boston

TOP RIGHT Suffolk University

Ridgeway Building, Boston RIGHT

Beacon Hill interior, Boston

BELOW View along Hancock Street

showing the Ridgeway Building

with an underground basketball

court and Historic New England’s

headquarters, Beacon Hill, Boston

Renderings by Monika Pauli

FACING PAGE McNeely house, South Freeport, Maine

BELOW Temple Street, Beacon Hill, Boston, laid out in

1737, redesigned 1979

William Owens

Cervin Robinson

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FREDERICK A. (TAD)STAHL, FAIATad Stahl studied at the Graduate Schoolof Design, Harvard University, andreceived his Masters in Architecture atMIT. He was Principal at Stahl AssociatesInc., 1961–99 (inactive 1976–1982);President of Perry Dean Stahl & Rogers,1976–82; and since 1999 has beenExecutive Architect, Burt Hill.

“My work is based on respect for theprinciples of geometry and the laws ofphysics. I am a modernist and ration-alist, convinced that the superficialappearances of objects are manifesta-tions of intrinsic order. In each project,I try to develop systems of relationshipin accordance with universal principles.

To me, all architecture is a unifiedfield. ‘Historic’ buildings were contem-porary in their own time. Periods andstyles should not distract us from dis-passionate examination of their under-lying order.

I favor buildings that employ onlythe means necessary to demonstratetheir intrinsic logic. Successful designconveys a strong sense of inevitabilityand indulges in nothing arbitrary;complexity consists in further refine-ment of the central thematic lines andrelationships, as in music. Harmonies,counterpoints, and rhythmic figures,grounded in universal principles, arethe source of energy and delight.”

“Architecture of integrity and

fidelity to universal principles,

with contemporary relevance”

Phokion Karas

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FACING PAGE, ABOVE 141 Tremont Street, Boston FACING PAGE

BELOW State Street Bank Building, Boston THIS PAGE, TOP

LEFT Old City Hall, Boston RIGHT Oriental Tea Company,

Boston BELOW Park Street Ministries Building BELOW, RIGHT

Depiction of Faneuil Hall Marketplace with pair of original,

no longer extant Alexander Parris buildings.

Renderings by John Hagan

Phokion Karas

Phokion Karas

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he Lyman Estate, The Vale, in Waltham,Massachusetts, although much diminished fromits original historic farm acreage, is surroundedby a landscape that is a rare example of late eigh-

teenth-century American garden design, fashioned after thegreat park-like settings of English aristocratic country homes.For over four generations, the prominent Lyman family ofBoston cultivated and maintained this property. The out-buildings, including greenhouses and a serpentine brickpeach wall, all date back to the Federal era. The survival ofbuildings and landscape from this early period is nothingshort of extraordinary, given their location near what was to become an industrial area and in what is now a denselysettled suburb. The evolution of the estate—through growth,redefinition, maintenance, and ultimately, divestiture—echoes similar stories of other large family-owned estates fac-ing suburban transformation during the nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries.

The Vale was built during the years after the Revolution-ary War, when Waltham was still a small agricultural town.

Theodore Lyman (1753–1839), the family patriarch whomade the original purchase, belonged to the prosperous classof urban-based New England merchants, many of whomchanneled their wealth into the construction of elaboratehomes as pastoral retreats. In the longstanding tradition of the“ferme ornée,” these expansive properties typically combineda mansion and pleasure gardens with working farmland.

After purchasing his first 150-acre farm in Waltham in1793, Theodore went on to acquire several other neighboringproperties, establishing a pattern of large-scale land acquisi-tion that continued through the next generation. By the timehe died in 1839, the estate constituted 379 acres. His eldestson, George W. Lyman (1786–1880), with significant resourcesof his own, purchased even more land, until the acreage of TheVale reached its peak size of four hundred acres in the 1870s.

As a Waltham landowner during the mid-nineteenth cen-tury, George faced challenges that were fundamentally differ-ent from those of the preceding generation. Waltham’s strate-gic location along the great county road leading to Boston,straddling the Charles River, led to the town’s transformation

T

L A N D S C A P E

The Life Cycleof a Country Estate

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FACING PAGE This oil sketch of The Vale, c.

1820– 1830, offers clues to its early environs,

including the First Parish Meeting House (at

left) and the farmhouse (at lower right).

During its initial phase of growth, the estate

expanded to include these and other neigh-

boring properties. THIS PAGE In his handwrit-

ten notes on this early surveyor’s plan of

Waltham, dated 1822, Theodore Lyman

offers to build a new public road from the

town to the First Parish, replacing the his-

toric way that previously crossed in front of

the mansion: “I will give the land from the

meeting house common to the county road,

as far as my ground extends, build a good

stone bridge and make and fence a hand-

some [durable?] road.” Historic New

England Library and Archives.

FACING PAGE This oil sketch of The Vale, c.

1820–1830, offers clues to its early environs,

including the First Parish Meeting House (at

left) and the farmhouse (at lower right).

During its initial phase of growth, the estate

expanded to include these and other neigh-

boring properties. THIS PAGE In his handwrit-

ten notes on this early surveyor’s plan of

Waltham, dated 1822, Theodore Lyman

offers to build a new public road from the

town to the First Parish, replacing the his-

toric way that previously crossed in front of

the mansion: “I will give the land from the

meeting house common to the county road,

as far as my ground extends, build a good

stone bridge and make and fence a hand-

some [durable?] road.” Historic New

England Library and Archives.

13858 8/25/06 4:19 PM Page 21


At the upper left, The Vale’s main farm complex and the

several family residences are visible, not far from the industrial

smokestacks and the rapidly expanding settlement of Waltham.

ABOVE LEFT The sturdy granite double-span bridge,presumed to have

been financed by Theodore Lyman, remains in use today. ABOVE

RIGHT “Bird’s Eye View of Waltham”, drawn by O.H. Bailey, c. 1875.

led to a gradual shift from predominantly agricultural landuse to seasonal residential and recreational use.

In 1881, shortly after George died, occurred the first andmost drastic of “takings” from the estate by various publicand private entities, which would forever alter the Lymanproperty. The Massachusetts Central Railroad built a newstretch of track through the middle of the estate’s historicfarmland, in clear view of the mansion. From this pointonwards, the property management strategies of George’stwo successors, Arthur T. Lyman (1832–1915) and his son,Arthur Lyman, Jr. (1861–1933), focused on maintenance,and as much as possible, protecting farming as a disappear-ing way of life.

As early as the mid-nineteenth century, the family hadbegun turning over parcels of the estate’s land to adult chil-dren. George Lyman bequeathed nearly one hundred acres tohis two daughters, Sarah P. Sears and Lydia W. Paine, both ofwhom had already established households nearby. Otherfamily properties on former estate acreage were later deededto Ronald Lyman, in 1917 and 1943, and to Susan LymanWearn, in 1951. Altogether, total property distributions tofamily amounted to half the acreage of The Vale at its peaksize, or about two hundred out of four hundred acres.

from an agricultural community to a pioneering industrialcenter. In 1813, the Boston Manufacturing Company opened ahighly innovative water-powered textile mill in Waltham,and as more manufacturing and job seekers came to thislocation, the town grew steadily. In view of resulting en-croachments upon The Vale, the Lyman family’s involvementin the textile industry is ironic: Theodore constructed the firstdam at the future mill site (known at the time as Eden Vale)in 1785; George served as a treasurer of Boston Manufac-turing’s direct successor, the Lowell Textile Mills; and familyinvolvement in the textile business continued for generations.

In the mid-nineteenth century, George entered intoagreements with his neighbors over co-management of waterresources and provisions for control over nearby residentialdevelopment, which exemplify the changing concerns of largeestate ownership at that time. In response to nearby physicalchanges—the expanding road system and the establishmentin 1843 of Waltham’s first rail service—George redefined theproperty’s perimeters to assure greater control over privacy,access, and natural resources. He consolidated the property,redefined its land use (selling off farm land to the east), andreoriented the estate’s physical layout around three nearbyfamily residences, which he built for his grown children. This

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Ms. Gregory researches historic cultural landscapes and has recently com-pleted an extensive study of The Vale’s working farm and estate property.

ABOVE LEFT Haying at The Vale.The farm’s livestock inventories, from

the earliest, around 1830, through the end of the nineteenth cen-

tury, consistently list a pair of oxen. Even while local agricultural

activities waned, the later generations of Lymans sought to contin-

ue and protect farming as a disappearing way of life.

ABOVE RIGHT Fritchoff Nelson, an estate gardener, proudly displays

varieties of grapes grown in The Vale’s historic greenhouses.

Grapevine production on the estate dates back to the early nine-

teenth century, with ancient vines still tended at the site today.

Historic New England. In 1972, Susan L. Wearn donated anadditional 2.7 acres of adjacent land.

Since 1951, suburban and institutional neighbors havedeveloped much of the surrounding open space, and increased traffic on nearby roads has further isolated TheVale from its historic neighborhood. Despite this fragmenta-tion, clues to the former reaches of the property are evidentif one pauses to take in the beautiful old stone walls, or thetowering beech and maple trees that have endured in thisarea. Across the street, at the Robert Treat Paine Estate, onecan traverse on trails through The Vale’s historic woodlots,now maintained as open space by the City of Waltham.Further recognition of the changing historic boundaries ofthe Lyman Estate deepens our appreciation for the survivinglandscape within a growing community, and one family’slongstanding efforts to preserve it.

—Mary Gregory

In the twentieth century, as land values and taxes weredriven up by population pressure and suburban develop-ment, it became increasingly difficult to maintain the estate.Probate and deed records from the 1930s and 1940s revealthat the family faced significant tax reckonings on the estatefrom state and local government. For legacy taxes owed onArthur T. Lyman’s estate, the Commonwealth of Massachu-setts held a lien against a 26-acre parcel of The Vale’s farm-land until 1942. In 1935, the City of Waltham threatened toput most of the estate up for public auction due to delinquentproperty tax payments. Eventual payments forestalled thissevere action, but ten years later, by eminent domain, the citytook five acres to build a new municipal incinerator.

Divestiture continued after Arthur Lyman’s death in1933, including sales of acreage to non-family members. For-tunately, this occurred alongside efforts to protect and main-tain parts of the historic property, including the pleasure gardens surrounding the mansion house and associated outbuildings. In 1951, through an intermediary, the fivegrown children of Arthur and Susan C. Lyman, representa-tives of the fifth generation after Theodore, deeded the houseand remaining grounds, including twenty-nine acres, to theSociety for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now

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M U S E U M S H O P

To order, please call 617-227-3957, ext. 237. Shippingcharges and applicable taxes apply. Special member pricesavailable through February 2007, while supplies last.

A Country DoctorSarah Orne JewettAs the main character enters a medicalcollege, she finds she must choosebetween marriage and a career as a doc-tor. America is on the verge of change,and this courageous young womanfinds a new world opening to her. HC $14.00, Special Member price$11.00

The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other StoriesSarah Orne Jewett Edited by Alison EastonThis novel weaves stories, conversa-tions, friendships, and events to create amasterful portrait of life in a Mainecoastal town, capturing a way of lifethat seemed timeless but was on thebrink of disappearance. The edition in-cludes ten of Jewett’s best short stories.SC $8.95, Special Member price $7.00

DeephavenSarah Orne JewettReprint of the 1893 edition of Jewett’sfirst novel, Deephaven, with fifty-oneillustrations by Charles Woodbury andMartha Oakes, tells the story of twoyoung women who leave Boston for asummer to explore the very differentworld of southern Maine, Jewett’shome territory. HC $25.00, SpecialMember price $20.00

American Writers at HomeJ.D. McClatchyThis book provides insights into authors’ lives, presenting the homes of Alcott, Dickinson, Emerson, Irving, Jewett, Longfellow, Melville, and Welty,among others, along with biographical information. The architectural stylesrange from Frost’s austere New England farmhouse, to Twain’s extravagantmansion in Hartford, to Hemingway’s Spanish Colonial villa in Key West,Florida. HC $50.00, Special Member price $40.00

Sarah Orne Jewett, An American PersephoneSarah Way ShermanSherman portrays Jewett as a modern Persephone, whodivided her life between the male-dominated world beyondthe home and the female community, where friendships andmother-daughter relationships provided emotional suste-nance. SC $25.95, Special Member price $20.00

Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing GenderMargaret RomanJewett wrote of breaking free from therestrictive norms of behavior tradition-ally assigned to men and women. Romananalyzes how Jewett’s characters strive to eliminate narrowly defined male-female relationships. HC $34.95,Special Member price $30.00

An Island GardenCelia ThaxterA facsimile of the first edition, publishedin 1894, about the garden on Apple-dore Island created by Jewett’s friend,Celia Thaxter. With a gold-stampedcover by Sarah Wyman Whitman and aslip case. An excellent gift. HC $35.00,Special Member price $28.00

Savings for memberson books related to Jewett and other writers

13858 8/25/06 4:20 PM Page 24


News New England & Beyond

Submit your kitchen photographsHistoric New England’s exhibitionteam invites members to send inrecent photographs of their kitchensfor the upcoming America’s Kitchensexhibition. Pictures may be roomviews or include people to show themany different activities that takeplace in the room. The photographswill become part of the Library andArchives collection, and many will beincluded, along with images fromacross the country, in the “Kitchensof Today” segment of the exhibition.Please submit your pictures beforeOctober 15 to be considered forinclusion in the exhibition and in theaccompanying book. For more infor-mation or to send a digital image (300dpi), please contact Joanne Flahertyat (978) 521-4788, ext. 718, or at [email protected].

Historic Homeowner membershipDo you own a historic house in New England?Do you want to be sure that decisions you makeabout maintenance or updating are in keepingwith its historic character? Historic NewEngland offers a new membership category foryou. Historic Homeowner members receiveadvice on how to conserve and maintain the dis-

tinctive features of their old houses as well as tips on everyday needs,concerns, and problems. Benefits include online consultation on designor construction proposals to ensure compatibility with a home’s his-toric character or on selecting historically appropriate paint colors;online or telephone access to Historic Homeowner staff for two addi-tional technical assistance requests; two electronic newsletters on his-toric house maintenance and resource issues; invitations to two mem-bers-only historic house workshops and events; and all the benefits ofhousehold membership in Historic New England.

Annual dues are $200—sign up before the end of the year, and youcan join at the inaugural rate of $100 in exchange for providingHistoric New England staff with feedback. Please call (617) 227-3956,ext. 273, for information.

England hopes soon to move forwardwith the project’s final phase—treat-ment of the Lincrusta-Walton in thelarge double parlor.

The “Fund a Foot” campaign toraise funds for the project seeks dona-tions at the following levels: $100 for afoot’s worth of conservation; $500 for afrieze; and $1,000 for a floor-to-ceilingsegment. Please call (617) 227-3956,ext. 247, for more information or tomake a donation.

Fund a FootIn the 1880s, when Henry Bowenrefurbished his summer home inWoodstock, Connecticut, he installedten different patterns of Lincrusta-Walton wallcovering in the stair hall,dining room, and double parlor.Today, Roseland Cottage has the largestselection on public display in NewEngland of this once-fashionableembossed wallcovering. Extensive con-servation of the wallcoverings in thedining room and entry hall was com-pleted in 2005, and Historic New

13858 8/25/06 4:20 PM Page IBC

A C Q U I S I T I O N S

141 Cambridge StreetBoston MA 02114-2702

Presented by theSociety for the Preservationof New England Antiquities

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDBoston, Massachusetts

Permit No. 58621

vival structure erected on the samefoundation, which opened in 1917.

—Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.Director, Maine Historic Preservation Commission

ABOVE The ocean side of the first Islesboro

Inn, Islesboro,Maine,designed by the Boston

firm of Wheelwright & Haven. Rendering

delineated by R. Clipston Sturgis, 1888. Gift

of Andrew Spindler-Roesle.

carved oak furniture, framed etchings,and oriental rugs, resembled the fur-nishings of a private home.

So successful was the inn in itsinaugural year, with its rooms fullybooked, that it was expanded the fol-lowing year, again in the late 1890s,and once more in 1913. At the close of the 1915 season, the hotel was de-stroyed by fire. A new company wasformed to rebuild it, resulting in thesecond Islesboro Inn, a Colonial Re-

his drawing by a youngarchitect working forWheelwright & Havendepicts the Islesboro Inn,

one of the finest hotels catering to thecarriage trade around the turn of thetwentieth century. During this period,developers were buying up tracts of landalong the Maine coast, opening resorthotels with amenities like golf courses,carriage roads, and yacht moorings,and selling adjacent cottage lots to theirguests. The Islesboro Inn was devel-oped in 1889–90 by the Philadelphia-based Islesboro Land and ImprovementCompany, which owned approximately1,500 acres of shore frontage on thisbeautiful Maine island.

The design combines Tudor Re-vival with Shingle Style features setupon a massive stone foundation, witha piazza and pillared porch overlookingthe bay. The drawing depicts guestsbeing greeted by staff at the entrance,surveying the view through a telescope,and walking a dog—suggesting an at-mosphere of relaxation and discreetluxury. The reception rooms, with their

A Maine Island Inn

T

13858 8/25/06 4:20 PM Page BC

historic new england fall 2006

Documents