February/March 2016 | view this story as a .pdf

This impressive Cumberland Foreside estate, once owned by the Paysons, has a complicated  trajectory.

By Colin W. Sargent

When Marion Payson (1896-1999) looked out the windows of her Cumberland Foreside estate to see the new Central Maine Power station on Cousin’s Island across Broad Cove, she called up CMP and sent paint to the plant at her expense so they could brush the bottom half like the island and the top half like the sunset. Or at least that’s how another Payson story goes.

It is a miracle of elevated perspective if she thought she could do this, and an even deeper miracle that CMP complied.
If you live on Route 88 and are a Payson, you get to do things like this, mixing roaring plenitude with intimate gesture.
Both of which come together in her house at 179 Foreside Road, for sale for $2.450M with 9.5 oceanfront acres.
Designed by society architects Perry, Shaw & Hepburn (with A. E. Hodson the builder) and completed in 1938 with grass tennis court and equestrian stables, this is one of those Georgian Colonial Revivals most travelers suspect exists along Route 88 but haven’t dared to sneak a peek at. The name Perry, Shaw & Hepburn rings a carillon of bells. John D. Rockefeller used them to envision, restore, and design all of Colonial Williamsburg. They designed the Jordan Marsh store in Boston.
The extended Payson family along Foreside Road and Cumberland, some of whom owned the New York Mets, worked with nothing but the best.

If Bette Davis and Gary Merrill had had a shot at buying this place instead of Witch Way in Cape Elizabeth, they’d have snapped it up no matter how bumpy the ride, because inside and out it looks like a movie set of the iconic gracious ‘country home’ that haunted souls in Manhattan dreamed of owning. Walking through the interiors of this house makes you feel as if you’re in a movie like Home For The Holidays or Holiday Inn.
But this house wasn’t available. Marion and her husband, Phillips Payson, were perfectly happy with their winters on 188 Pine Street in Portland (close to Waynflete) and summers here on the Foreside. Besides, they had to oversee the starry equestrian career of their daughter Merrill, who competed in jumping contests on her chestnut stallion Skyrocket (16.5 hands tall) between classes at Waynflete and Smith College. Merrill’s older brother Eliot took to the air, too. He went to St. Paul’s School and Williams College. In World War II, he flew P-51 Mustang fighters in combat. A career executive at S.D. Warren–some of it in the ad game–Eliot Brown Payson died in Falmouth at age 90 on September 2, 2012.
Merrill Payson Robbins died here in Cumberland on April 22, 2012 after having been predeceased by her husband, Dr. Peter Robbins, who himself was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School after winning the Bronze Star for bravery under fire as a Navy surgeon assigned to a Marine Corps battalion during the Korean War. Masters of the Universe, Maine-style.
Merrill and Peter’s son, Peter E. Robbins, was first casually described to me by a Falmouth resident as “an accountant.” That’s strictly correct. Harvard grad (Economics) Peter E. Robbins, CFA, is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of H.M. Payson. He’s also co-manager of the Payson Total Return Fund.
We’ve touched on the “Who,” but there’s plenty of “What” about 179 Foreside Road. It’s very much in the news. When the Paysons’ heirs sold the entire larger parcel that includes this house in 2014–over 104 acres, including a stunning sand beach and dock–to developer David Bateman (who envisioned, restored, and marketed Fort McKinley and Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island); his son, Nathan Bateman; and Yarmouth designer/developer Peter Anastos, the trio of investors established 179 Foreside LLC and quickly negotiated with the Town of Cumberland to create a lofty new development above the mansion close to Foreside Road called “Spears Hill.” Driving along Route 88, you can see the sign.
What’s in it for us? the Town asked.
To secure the Town’s permission for this development, which involves selling 10 luxury lots (at press time, five are sold) and building luxury homes worthy of their elegant views of the ocean and cove, “[The investment trio has] sold the beach to the Town, along with the long strip of oceanfront land fronting the house below the lowest stone wall, and is donating $150,000 to improve the original dock, a figure that will be matched by the Town, in order to allow association members to have a level of access beyond the public [a private float off the dock] where they can tie up their dinghies,” says Teddy Piper of the David M. Banks Real Estate Team of Re/Max By The Bay, who makes it clear that the real-estate firm represents the developer in the sale of this mansion. The pristine sweep of sand is “contiguous with Wildwood Beach,” Piper says.
The beach’s status as public property creates a stunning new public attraction for Cumberland. Presently, visitors can’t park cars at sand’s edge, but you can unload your friends and coolers and then jog back after parking on Route 88. Which is John Q. wonderful but not a situation necessarily anticipated by the Payson heirs.
Nonplussed, members of the heirs filed lawsuits, with the Portland Press Herald in hot pursuit of the details:
“Cumberland now owns what is supposed to be its first public beach, but the former owners are trying to block the town’s controversial, voter-approved plan in court. A development company, 179 Foreside LLC, bought 104 acres of the Payson estate in Cumberland Foreside on Friday, then immediately sold 25 acres of prime woodland and Casco Bay waterfront to the town. Voters decided in November to borrow $3 million to finance the deal. Following contentious local campaigns, the vote was 2,372 to 2,126, or 53 percent in favor. Town officials hope to allow limited public access as early as Memorial Day [2014], though the heirs of Marion Payson filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to block public access to the beach.”
Long story longer, the Payson heirs didn’t win that aspect of the contest, though there are follow-up court disputes. None of which reduces the beauty of the mansion at 179 Foreside Road as a dream structure itself. In a sense, the process unveils it. I lived for several years in Falmouth Foreside, and I’d never seen it before. But the longer you look at it, the more unforgettable it is.
Enough pre-tour whispers. Let’s go inside.

Walking through lush gardens to the front door from the newly created road to the beach, the house and its symmetry start things off right. Inside–and it’s a mark of any truly great house in the Foreside–visitors can see blue water sparkling through the windows of the entire house. With 16 rooms and nine bedrooms tucked within 7,888 square feet of unmatched charm, this house on Spears Hill is a decorator’s paradise.
For those who are disappointed with a single floating spiral staircase, there are two. The entertaining rooms, including entry and salon, are high formal Georgian in dreamy, creamy paint. After the stunning center hallway, there’s a completely paneled, pickled library with built-ins and wood-burning fireplace that is the envy of all who see it. Looking for privacy? There’s a telephone room.
Annunciators, original tiling, inimitable millwork by artisans, and porcelain fixtures in the baths lend to the sense of time travel. Flying two floors up a stairwell, a wallpaper pattern with a bird motif is in perfect condition. It’s likely original and likely from a top-notch decorator who oversaw finishes and touches during the original construction. As a counterpoint, the eat-in kitchen with island is airy, snappy, and remodeled with stainless appliances and Deer Isle granite counters. Generous window seats put guests in contact with the outdoors and the mammoth views, the lawn spilling down from an original slate terrace to stone walls near the waterline.
Near but not to the waterline. Another concession to the Town. But really, from this incredible house, it’s de facto shorefront. The listing sheet says “2,000 feet of waterfront shared, 0 feet of waterfront owned.”
Upstairs, six bedrooms charm with wood-burning fireplaces, some with entire walls in exquisite high-register ‘country’ wood paneling with matching crown molding, the other walls in plaster. Even the fragrant, russet attic has a bay window that lights up the space with striking, unforgettable views.
Marketed separately is the original Payson guest cottage, on 2.35 acres. I’d never have thought a guest cottage could be a steal at $625,000, but if you want to be part of something magical without the burdens of administering the entirety of something magical, look no further. The window seats are adorable, the kitchen with island brilliantly scaled. Wood paneling in the living room with fireplace is so warm and friendly it rekindles the lost memory of how charmant–how Payson–the world used to be. n