December 2018 | view this story as a .pdf

This John Calvin Stevens townhouse is ready to welcome a new family to the West End.

By Colin W. Sargent

Welcome to the “club.” Your family will adore living in this 1890 Queen Anne townhouse commissioned by Portland merchant shipping prince George S. Hunt–an ancestor of Oscar-winner Helen Hunt. Listed for $985,000, the western half of the Hunt Block (335 Spring Street) checks off many of the essentials required for perfect digs in the heart of the West End.

Designed by John Calvin Stevens and decorated with ivy, this family home base is steps from Waynflete and features a private brick driveway. Massive double doors open to hand-painted wallpaper flying up the stairwell. On each side of the staircase is a parlor. The right parlor features a nearly room-sized bay window. The left parlor glows with a fireplace. Quarter-sawn oak floors conduct you to the dining room with fireplace and on to the eat-in kitchen with cork floors and views of the enclosed back yard so cloistered you can use the hot tub in the middle of the city. New owners will surely be comfy with the recently added slate roof, central air on the first and second floors, four walk-in closets, four bedrooms, and five baths.

The detail here that gets your heart racing is the curved gallery crowning the second-floor landing. Was this a rare case of anima rising for Stevens, who in my mind is memorable for his right angles?  To misquote Wallace Stevens, “Rationalists wear square hats. Dreamers wear sombreros.” Actually, John Calvin Stevens partnered with Albert Winslow Cobb on the Hunt Block. Maybe Cobb threw in the curves.

“We bought it from Peter and Carol Merrill,” says Melissa Tomback, founder of Breathe Deeply Doula.

Listing agent Erin Oldham, Ph.D., says the eventual buyer will probably come from “Philadelphia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts.”

Is that you, dreamer?  This townhouse is as good as it gets. Taxes are $11,388.