A quirky property with a storied history — and a windmill — is on the market in midcoast Maine.
The three-story colonial home at 2 Back Shore Road in the quaint harbor village of Round Pond was built in the 1830s as the Morton House Hotel, according to listing agent Randy Miller. In the decades since, the property has been home to numerous businesses including an antique importer, art gallery and a southeast Asian-inspired home decor store, Miller said.
“It’s just such a unique property,” Miller, a global real estate advisor with Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty, said. “It’s a historical building, and the character and the charm is just there.”
The 6-bedroom, 2-bathroom home, which sits on a 2-acre lot, does have a charming storybook quality. Ivy crawls along its walls, teeming bushes of flowers overrun the yard and shaggy trees partially shroud the house from street view. Inside, many of the property’s 19th century features, including original doors, floors, fireplaces and wainscoting, endure. There’s a pond out back.
And then there’s the windmill, which works, though its only real function is whimsy, Miller said. The addition was built by one of the property’s current owners, Miller said, an artist who admires French culture and architecture and associated windmills with the country.
“He wanted that other part of the property to look like it was in France,” Miller said. “So it has really, really unique windows that I’ve never seen before, and the windmill out front.”
Though Round Pond residents are keen to see the property restored to its former glory, Miller said it’ll take an invested buyer to get it done. The 3,400 square foot home is listed for $625,000, but a great deal more in renovations is needed to restore it, he said. The property’s electrical, septic and heating systems all need an upgrade, and the plaster needs redoing, too.
The property has generated a lot of interest from potential buyers, but Miller said it has been listed since last summer — the longest he’s ever had a property sit on the market. It’s because of the extent of those needed renovations, he said.
Interested parties have floated using the property as a single-family residence, or reopening it as an art gallery or artists’ retreat, Miller said. Many are interested in turning it into a short-term rental business, given its quirks and desirable midcoast location.
“As they say in this business, the bones are good,” Miller said. “It’s all there, but it’ll take the right person with money and innovation to do it.”
