A dilapidated mansion built more than a century and a half ago by the shipwright Franklin Treat in the Waldo County town of Frankfort is on the market.
While the 4,305-square-foot building at 9 Main Rd. South boasts elegant features such a mansard-style roof and a foundation made of locally sourced granite, its five-figure price tag — $80,000 — reflects the extreme and expensive work that would be required to bring it back to life.
“The materials used and craftsmanship can still vaguely be seen but decades of abandonment and lack of maintenance have taken a rough toll on this former beauty,” according to the listing.
Or as listing agent Suzanne Chase put it, “It’s a total gut job.”
The three-story, six-bedroom home was built in 1864 and now sits on one acre of land.
Treat, a Maine shipbuilder and merchant, had it designed by the Boston architect Calvin Ryder, according to Down East magazine, with en vogue features that included a grand staircase, plaster crown moldings, arched windows and the mansard roof, which is steeply pitched on two sides.
The granite in the foundation came from Mount Waldo and Mosquito Mountain, Chase said.
Treat later sold his home to Louisa T. Peirce, wife of the late granite baron George Albert Peirce and great-aunt to painter Waldo Peirce. From there, it passed through several other owners before it was abandoned for more than 20 years.
Finally it came to Dana Geel, who had goals of restoring it as a bed-and-breakfast and was known for having elaborate yard sales on the site in recent years, Down East reported. But after Geel’s death in 2022, it was passed to a relative, Robert Geel, who runs the Thornhedge Inn in Bar Harbor, according to Frankfort town clerk Heather McLaughlin.
Now, it suffers from water damage and structural deterioration, according to Chase. Some of the floors are not safe for bearing weight, the granite foundation has shifted and the roof is crumbling. There is no heating aside from a fireplace. It also has broken windows, uneven front doors and an overgrown lawn.
While it could be an exorbitant, multi-year task, some locals are holding out hope that someone will put in the work to finish the job Geel originally set for himself.
An area resident recently shared the property listing on a community Facebook page, calling it a “ghost house.”
“Someone please save this house,” he wrote.
