October 2018 | view this story as a .pdf

An old soul reimagined: The Samuel Fickett House, née Harrow House, is the true heart of Stroudwater.

By Colin W. Sargent

Stroudwater isn’t just a picturesque hamlet. It was a world center of the timber trade to provide masts for the King’s ships. Here at the fork of the Fore and Stroudwater rivers, Mast Agent and ranking New England militia officer (for the “East,” what’s now Maine) Colonel Thomas Westbrook (1675-1744) built Harrow House on the highest point of land, surrounded by garrisons. In 1795, shipbuilder Samuel Fickett repurposed Westbrook’s ancient Harrow House foundation to create a monumental Federal palace on the same spot. Lovingly curated by Lynn Abood, that’s what’s for sale today.

At $534,000, this showcase at 1190 Westbrook Street is interesting. Some condos in downtown Portland are priced higher.

With vistas of the Stroudwater River and its lily pads, the lushly landscaped .66-acre lot includes a majestic weeping willow tree with the widest girth we’ve seen in Portland. The 1.5-storey barn is mesmerizingly classic against the “echoing green,” inviting visitors inside with its great red sliding door and russet beams. (What an art studio.) The ell’s long covered porch to forever lets you sit and enjoy these gardens, stopping time.

“The ell was added on in 1812 by a shipping merchant’s crews [on tap for such work since sailing was restricted by the Embargo of 1807, followed by the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, that led to the War of 1812],” Abood says. “The cobblestones in the driveway were harvested from St. John Street when Union Station was torn down. The owners at the time, Charles and Elizabeth Horton, brought 2,500 of the cobblestones here, pickup load after pickup load.”

Ha! Union Station might have been torn down, but thanks to the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy, it’s with us still.

“I bought this house in 1998,” Abood says. She’s researched, understood, and preserved the property remarkably. With its smart clapboards painted in Seagull Gray, it’s ready to take flight. “But it wasn’t until six months ago that I discovered the bean oven! I removed some plaster and then some bricks, and there it was,” lovely with its time-stained original dome.

Rich with eye-popping architectural details (including “Indian” shutter recesses), the rooms have grand proportions, even the six bedrooms. Have a yen for efficiency? There’s natural-gas heating, with hot water off the heating system. Looking for a magic address close to the Jetport, the Mall, and Downtown but seems like it’s in the middle of the country? You’ve found it. This historic mansion beckons like a place out of a storybook. With luck, you can buy it in time to enjoy Thanksgiving here. Taxes are $7,296.