February/March 2018 | view this story as a .pdf

Meet three waterfront stunners and discover the stories that surround them.

By Colin W. Sargent

A World Away

Long ago, “Faraway,” at the tip of Eastern Point, was a fully realized Arts & Crafts statement on Greening Island, in Southwest Harbor. With 4.75 acres and 1,500 feet of deep shorefront, Philadelphia investor Sabin Woolworth Colton, Jr., a member of the New York Stock Exchange, knew he’d secured a big slice of unforgettable here for his family.

“The architect was Horace Wells Sellers of Tilden, Register & Pepper of Philadelphia,” says listing agent Story Litchfield. “The fabulous house dates to 1901. “It was in the Colton family for over 100 years. Mrs. Colton was lovely but older, and her grown daughters were okay with her decision to sell it in 2006. It wasn’t going to work for them.”

Going Green

The second owners are Irving ‘Irv’ Bailey, financier and founder of Chrysalis Ventures, and Cathy Bailey, a diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to Latvia. They completely renovated, but carefully preserved, Faraway, with its floorboards of fir and paneling fashioned from underwater cypress. What a challenge to update this estate without ruining it!

A Legend Reborn

“When I sold Faraway to the Baileys, there was no electricity, only gaslights,” Litchfield says. “The Coltons had a small generator for the vacuum cleaner or hairdryer– that was it. Solar power now drives a huge generator. There are no electric bills at all.It’s off the grid, yet fully functional.”

The finishes and “the architectural integrity” transport you to Edwardian times. “And some furniture is original, including a Stickley dining room table and chairs that were designed for the house.

“The living room, dining room, entry foyer, and library all have large granite fireplaces, as do many of the seven bedrooms. The large, floor-to-ceiling living room fireplace was made of native pink granite boulders with a long granite mantel.”

Asked for the source of the granite, she says, “The fireplaces are all beach stones, probably right from the island. There’s 1,600 feet of waterfront because it is Eastern Point–all stone and ledge. I’m sure the stones are from here.”

Navigational Landmark

Faraway is so beloved to passing yachts that “old charts show this house. You’re half a mile from both Northwest Harbor and Southwest Harbor, so it’s private but not far away. It’s a great dock, fairly protected.”

Asked about her favorite place, Litchfield says, “The porches are wonderful because some are open and some are enclosed,” offering beauty whatever the weather, including mesmerizing views of the 130-foot pier.

A Generational Retreat
Children will be wild for “the tree house. There’s a huge swing. There are enormous copper beeches. It would be a great house for a large family or a family that’s going to come and go and wants peace and quiet, but also vibrant access to Northeast and Southwest Harbor.” So, do you dare? This stunner will forever be embody the golden age of Mt. Desert.

Priced the highest of the three homes we’re featuring, it has the lowest taxes: $24,053.34.

Romantic Rockport

Listed for $7.5M on Beauchamp Point in Rockport, this completely restored seaside bungalow at No. 99
Calderwood Lane soars at ocean’s edge with its 1904 styling.

When this structure was going up, so were the Wright Brothers with their Wright Flyer II at Kitty Hawk.

Since then, this nostalgic cottage–thoroughly modernized–has really taken off.

A Gift of Joy

The house was built by Edward Bok, editor-in-chief of the Ladies’ Home Journal, and his wife, Mary, for “their daughter as a wedding present,” says realtor Scott Horty.

Mary Curtis Bok was the sole heiress of Portland’s print magnate Cyrus Curtis, who published the Ladies’ Home Journal. As editor of Ladies’ Home Journal, Edward ignited world interest in the ‘home-as-castle’ with his advocacy of domestic architecture. In fact, Bok coined the term “living room” (in a feature called “The Living Room is Born), and the Ladies’ Home Journal turned the “bungalow” style into a worldwide rage. According to Theodore Roosevelt, Edward was “the only man I ever heard of who changed, for the better, the architecture of an entire nation, and he did it so quickly and effectively that we didn’t know it was begun until it was finished.”

Born in Holland, Edward won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for biography for his The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years Later. “The Boks were significant philanthropists in Camden,” says Scott Horty. “Boks still own an adjacent property.”

Near and Dear

Surrounded by lichen-stained stone walls, this luxury cottage is an eye-popping point of departure, with 358 feet of bold waterfront, four fireplaces, hardwood floors, cook’s kitchen, central air, more decks than an ocean liner, and a 1,900-square-foot green-shingled guest cottage nestled in the trees that’s an architectural attraction all its own. The entire estate’s 1.91 acres include a dock and deeded rights to a stone beach, plus a three-car garage.

Try and Beat These Views

What really sets it apart: The sweeping decks look out to bright blue views of the islands. Built-ins include a hardwood covered ceiling in a salon, as well as a library with paneling, window seat, built-in arches, and ceiling medallions. There’s a spacious feel here, with 5,470 square feet, four bedrooms, and 4.5 baths.

Come Outside

Nestled in woodsy surroundings, this sheltering getaway offer priceless privacy. For a lucky couple on the porch swing–with views of Hog Cove Ledge, and in the smoky distance, North Haven Island–time stops.

Taxes are $61,674.

Seaside Seclusion

The Walnuts is a 1900 Shingle Style masterpiece designed by John Calvin Stevens for Arthur Homer, the younger brother of Winslow Homer. It’s steps away from the studio where Winslow Homer painted Weatherbeaten. Talk about shelter from the storm–and prying eyes.

“I’ve never been inside,” says author Earle Shettleworth, Jr., a rarity for a scholar who keeps exacting files on all John Calvin Stevens houses as part of his research. The road is blocked off to discourage random passersby. And a private police “force” patrols the neighborhood to enforce the privacy.

But who wouldn’t want to crack the secrets of this walnut, with .87 acres directly on the ocean with its own sandy beach?

A Sneak Peek Inside

A sweeping deck with gallery looks to the rocks and islands in the distance. Too much breeze? Duck into a covered porch that turns a corner, with a rustic tongue-in-groove ceiling.

Views from the massive living room telescope through a large picture window framed by dark beams below a coffered wood-and-plaster ceiling. The Walnuts boasts three fireplaces, one of which, in the library, features a brick and tile hearth surrounded by pickled paneling. The dining room has a bank of windows with views up the coast. Striking green crown molding and trim set off the white walls.

Dining room too formal? Try the breakfast room with casement windows that let the salty breeze in, with views to forever. The pickled paneling is carried on here, too.

Ten bedrooms give the house a bit of that twentieth-century dormitory feel that used to be so popular.

A Real Classic

Still, of all the roughly 18 Stevens designs out here, The Walnuts may be the most evocative. It’s accurate to think of it as the fruition of the first blush of the Homer connection to Maine, because it was young Arthur who convinced his brothers, and his parents, to come up from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and see the part of Maine he’d fallen in love with.

“The three brothers, Winslow, Charles Jr., and Arthur, went to John Calvin Stevens. Each commissioned Stevens to do a cottage,” Shettleworth says. “Winslow’s was called Kettle Cove. The one for Charles Jr. is absolutely unaltered. The third one is The Walnuts. That’s largely unchanged as well.”

As for the neighborhood, see the August 2017 story “Inside Maine’s Exclusive Prouts Neck Community” in The Wall Street Journal.

Taxes are $82,526.