Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
A Falmouth estate built around one of Maine’s oldest homes is on the market for $2.2 million.
Though York Estate is now a sprawling 6-bedroom, 7-bathroom property with nearly 5,450 square feet of living space — including an in-law apartment — the original home at 338 Foreside Road was originally a small, dormered cape, according to listing agent Lucy Tucker, a broker with Keller Williams Realty.
Other New England states still have homes built in the 17th century, but the oldest home in Maine only dates back to the early 1700s.
“It was built by a renowned ship builder, [Edwin] York, as a second home for his family,” Tucker said. “The cape was too small, so in 1883 they added a Victorian addition to it, which included a lot more bedrooms, a wraparound porch and that beautiful mansard roof.”
Some original features of the cape are still intact, Tucker said, including its wide plank pine floors, three wood-burning fireplaces with classic mantels and coffered ceilings. The home is completely renovated and up-to-date, she said, so a new owner wouldn’t need to take any rehabilitation efforts on.
The home’s newer additions include a custom kitchen, the in-law apartment and, outdoors, a perennial garden, patio and hot tub. That in-law apartment was built for an aging relative to live in in the 1980s, Tucker said, but has since served as a guest house and a stream of revenue for the homeowners as an Airbnb.
York Estate is located on Falmouth Foreside, a pricey oceanfront community that is close to the town landing and beach, but also only a 15-minute drive from downtown Portland. Its $2.2 million price tag is “very fair,” Tucker said, compared with other homes that have closed recently in this neighborhood. But the cooling of the real estate market, and the uniqueness of this historic-yet-updated property, means the home will probably sit on the market for a while.
“The market is definitely shifting in the higher price point,” Tucker said. “I think the interest will be strong, but it’s not your cookie-cutter colonial home in a family neighborhood. We’re prepared to wait for the right buyer.”
