Hard Telling Not Knowing each week tries to answer your burning questions about why things are the way they are in Maine — specifically about Maine culture and history, both long ago and recent, large and small, important and silly. Send your questions to [email protected].
The most famous house in Maine lies tucked down a quiet ocean peninsula in Knox County, overlooking the mouth of the St. George River.
The Olson House in Cushing was the setting for one of the most beloved pieces of art in American history: “Christina’s World,” Andrew Wyeth’s iconic 1948 painting. The austere Colonial farmhouse, which Wyeth’s wife, Betsy, said loomed “up like a weathered ship stranded on a hilltop,” was the home of siblings Christina and Alvaro Olson, with whom the Wyeths developed a close relationship.
Andrew Wyeth sketched and painted the siblings and their home for decades, with “Christina’s World” — featuring Christina, unable to walk due to a degenerative muscle disorder, crawling through the field, reaching up as if to grasp her home with her hand — the culmination of those years of work.
By the time Alvaro Olson died in 1967 and Christina Olson died in 1968, the painting had been cemented in the pantheon of great American art, as recognizable as Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” or Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” The house itself was a national icon, and when it went up for sale it was quickly snapped up by a seemingly unlikely buyer: Hollywood film producer Joseph Levine.
Levine, a Boston native, produced important films like “The Lion in Winter,” “The Producers” and the box office smash “The Graduate.” In 1956, he introduced a worldwide audience to movies featuring the character of Godzilla, and in the early 1960s turned Sophia Loren into a global movie star. By the time he bought the Olson House, he was a multi-millionaire, and a hard-charging Tinseltown dealmaker — a far cry from the farmers and fishermen living in tiny coastal Cushing.
In addition to being a shrewd businessman, Levine was an avid art collector, and saw the Olson House as a prime opportunity to preserve a piece of art history and create a destination for art lovers worldwide. After an extensive renovation, Levine opened the house to the public in 1971 as the Olson House Museum, showcasing Wyeth’s paintings.
Almost immediately, however, conflict began to arise between Levine and the visitors to his museum, and the year-round residents of Cushing, which then hovered around 500 people.
In the two years of Levine’s museum being open, throngs of tourists descended on the house, which is only accessible by narrow, winding country roads. A New York Times article said visitors tossed candy wrappers and chicken bones out their car windows. As many as 700 vehicles would arrive at the house on some particularly popular days. Neighbors retaliated by erecting a fence and building a dirt hill between their property and Levine’s — something that enraged Levine.
“They are going to plant trees on it to obstruct the view from the river. Only a [expletive deleted] would do that. I’m going to sue. If all the money in the world can get that hill torn down, it will be done,” Levine told the Bangor Daily News at the time. “I got [famed trial lawyer] Louis Nizer to defend [my film] ‘Carnal Knowledge’ and I can’t even run a little museum? I’ve made 487 films and I can’t even run an [expletive deleted] museum?”
Wyeth himself was ambivalent about the museum in general — pleased the house was preserved but not a fan of all the publicity and hubbub in his quiet little town.
“I’m delighted Levine has preserved the farm, but it’s all difficult for me. The Olsons meant a great deal to me, and they’re gone,” Wyeth told the Associated Press in 1971. “Now I see the paintings and plaques there, and a person would have to feel uncomfortable unless he has no modesty at all.”
After two years open in Cushing, Levine made the decision to close the Olson House Museum for the season in 1973, facing increasing opposition from the town. In 1974, Levine had hoped to reopen the museum, and invited a crew from “CBS Sunday Morning” to film a segment at the house. On camera, he dropped the ultimate threat against small town Mainers, by stating that if he couldn’t make it work in Maine, he’d float the house on a barge to New Jersey. A Cushing resident wrote Levine a letter, saying they’d rather see the house burn down than go to New Jersey.
Eventually, by the end of 1974 Levine said he would, instead, donate the house to the state of Maine, to be operated as a state historic site. By 1975, however, that had not yet come to pass, with Levine arguing that the state had done nothing to facilitate the transfer or prepare to operate the site. Levine withdrew his offer, and the house stayed in his hands.
In 1986, the year before Levine’s death, he sold the house to John Sculley, then CEO of Apple Inc. Sculley owned the Olson House for five years before donating it to the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland in 1991. The following year, the Farnsworth opened the Olson House to the public.
Instead of offering unlimited entries to the house, as Levine had, the Farnsworth offers limited tours booked on the hour — a compromise that allowed people to see the home that inspired a great work of art, and preserved the peace in an otherwise tranquil coastal village.
The Farnsworth Art Museum’s Olson House is closed for interior tours for the 2024 season due to an ongoing restoration project, though walking tours of the grounds are available.
