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.
Maine has one of the nation’s older housing stocks, so it should come as no surprise that many homes for sale have long and storied histories.
We rounded up four homes on the market right now from South Berwick to Machias that were built centuries ago. They’re largely on the pricier side, which reflects both the high median sale price of Maine homes right now and the cost of renovating historic properties. Even ones that are less expensive to buy will need renovation to restore them to their former glory.
“There’s a lot less people out there looking for older homes than there are people looking for newer or modern homes,” Brandon Elsemore, a real estate agent with Keller Williams based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said. “People get a little scared … thinking they’re inheriting 250-year-old problems.”
A former hotel and brewery in Machias, $350,000
This historic property in Machias, known as the Clark Perry House, is an ornate home built in 1868 for Perry, who was one of the largest property owners in town at that time. His home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its unique architecture, described in its nomination form as “a well-preserved example of the Italianate style” in a remote region.
Since Perry’s death in 1888, the home has served as a hotel, and in more recent years was a brewery and bar. The property is on a 1-acre in-town lot and has undergone a beautiful exterior renovation effort, but renovation work is needed to restore its 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom residential section, Deanna Newman, the property’s listing agent said.
An old Army hospital on Great Diamond Island, $250,000
The city of Portland is looking for a residential developer to breathe new life into an old army hospital it has owned since 2019 on Great Diamond Island. The vacant property was the hospital for Fort McKinley on the island.
The sprawling hospital complex was constructed in 1903 and staffed by a medical detachment unit and the Army Nursing Corps up until 1947. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places and once included an operating room, dentists’ office and kitchen, according to the Fort McKinley museum.
The property was supposed to be sold to a developer who wanted to turn it into condos earlier this year, but that deal fell through, Sara Reynolds, the property’s listing agent, said. That is why it’s back on the market.
A Harrison home that was once extra hotel lodging, $629,000
This 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom farmhouse for sale in the western Maine town of Harrison was built in 1850, listing agent Pam Sessions said, and for a number of years was owned by a local hotel.
The Hotel Harrison was built in 1906 and could accommodate 100 guests, Martha Denison of the Harrison Historical Society, said. The men who built and operated the hotel acquired this home on Naples Road at the same time and used it as a residence to accommodate the hotel’s manager and any extra guests, Denison said. When the hotel closed in 1964, the home was returned to private ownership.
The property includes water views, a right of way to a shared waterfront and dock on Long Lake, a barn and garden beds, Sessions, an agent with Bearfoot Realty, said. Parts of the second floor are unfinished and would need restoring.
The South Berwick home of a prolific Maine judge, $975,000
This 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home in South Berwick was built in the late 1770s by Benjamin Chadbourne, a local judge and Massachusetts congressman credited with founding Berwick Academy, the oldest school in Maine.
His ancestors were heavy-hitters, too. Chadbourne’s great-grandfather, Humphrey, was a wealthy Englishman who inked one of the oldest deeds in U.S. history by buying property from a tribal chief, according to the Old Berwick Historical Society. Benjamin Chadbourne’s father, William, constructed one of the first water-powered sawmills in North America.
The Chadbournes have owned the property since and had a professional historic restoration company come in and painstakingly renovate the property in the 1990s. But the youngest generation of the family are no longer local and cannot care for it, Elsemore said.
“This is the first time the property has been on the market in its 250-year history,” Elsemore, the property’s listing agent, said. “It’s definitely beautifully cared for.”
The home includes plenty of historic accents, a barn that serves as a garage and antique shop, and a well-manicured garden area.
“Despite its age, it’s in great shape,” Elsemore said.
