By Evelyn Waugh
For over a century, the Wedding Cake House was touted as “the most photographed house in Maine,” according to New York’s Compass American Guide. But the distinctive hand-carved frosting gilding this homage to the Duomo di Milano appears on the verge of collapse. She is welcoming no admirers now. The mansion at 104 Summer Street discourages visitors with a “No Trespassing” sign and appears vacant.
TALK OF THE TOWN
“It’s been completely unoccupied for a year and a half, in a terrible state of disrepair,” says Hana Pevny, owner of the Waldo Emerson Inn next door.
“It certainly needs some love,” says Julie Larry of Greater Portland Landmarks.
Sarah Hansen of Maine Preservation says members are concerned for the beloved attraction’s future. “Its complex estate ownership issues seem to have led to its current state.”
HOLLYWOODLAND
“It was 1954,” and Jimmy Barker “was a young man just back from the Korean War,” wrote Laura Dolce for Seacoast Online in 2010. “A Kentucky native, [he] had traveled to spend a week that August with artist Channing Hare. At a cocktail party given by Hare and attended by film actress Claudette Colbert [Oscar winner for It Happened One Night, with Clark Gable], the artist talked about a house he had been trying to buy for five years. So the next day, Hare brought Colbert and Barker to ‘the Wedding Cake House.’”
It was love at first sight. The 1815 structure on the Kennebunk River had been “given to George Washington Bourne by his parents, as a wedding present.” That’s how [it came] to be known as the Wedding Cake House.” Dolce, now the executive director of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel Chamber of Commerce, described a photo she saw in the library: “…A young Barker stands with Hare and Colbert, not knowing that while Hare would never own the home, someday it would be his.”
IT WAS MEANT TO BE
In 1998, the house was listed for $699K. Barker purchased it for $650,000 that
November, according to town records.
“Too much,” some observers murmured. “Its upkeep will be its downfall.” But Barker, who had owned successful galleries in Palm Beach, Nantucket, and Manhattan, was a match made in heaven. He filled the Wedding Cake House with hundreds of antiques and pieces of art, many signed Channing Hare.
THE END OF AN ERA
After a sunny, joyful decade of memorable summers where Barker flung open the doors to welcome visitors, tragedy struck. In 2008, Barker survived a deadly fire that gutted his $2.5M Palm Beach mansion and took the life of his friend and caretaker, James Heyman. “In the moments after the fire was out, the home’s 80-year-old owner tried to rush into the house despite being ordered to stay in a safe area,” according to South Florida’s Sun Sentinel.
Barker’s nearly $8M collection of celebrity portraits, statues, sketches, and collection of antique porcelain Staffordshire dogs was destroyed.
The ruins were torn down. New owners built a mansion on the site and sold it for $7.5M. Barker later moved into Juno Mobile Home Park in Palm Beach. We have been unable to reach him.
CROSSROADS
So what’s next for the Wedding Cake House?
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Barker’s nephew, Hunt Edwards, says by telephone. “Uncle Jimmy’s partner died a year or so ago, might be a little more, and they’re finishing all the estate stuff. When they do, Uncle Jimmy will be the sole owner of the house.”
Will it stay in the family or open to
the public?
“It won’t be open for tours this summer, I can tell you that. We’re certainly discussing all that stuff.”
“To be preserved, the way it is, it would most likely have to turn into some kind of public landmark or a business like a bed and breakfast or a wedding venue,” Cynthia Walker of Kennebunk’s Brick Store Museum says. “Simply because of the cost of upkeep of a place like that.”
SOMEONE LEFT THE
CAKE OUT IN THE RAIN
Whatever its future, there are matters of alarming deferred maintenance. The back veranda overlooking the river is buckled and sagging, and an outbuilding has collapsed. The magnificent gothic exterior trim around the entire house has all but dissolved. Tom Joyal, architectural salvage expert and former owner of The Old House Parts Co., muses about the cost of repairing the gingerbread trim. “Oh my gosh. I’ve thought about it, believe me. [The carvings are] probably just a template now. I don’t think there’s much there worth saving. I haven’t touched it, but it just looks a bit rough. It would be just a guess. I could easily see $1M being spent there. When you drive by, you see signs of algae, telltale signs of serious rot going on.”
COMMUNITY ACTION
“Jimmy’s quite a character,” Laura Dolce says today. “A real southern gentleman with fascinating stories about Maine and the arts scene of decades ago. The house [as she knew it, was] filled with interesting pieces with their own stories—a sketch of Jimmy as a young man, done by an artist one summer in Ogunquit; a piece by [Norman] Rockwell, with a tale about visiting the artist’s studio.” Jimmy has such a generous spirit. “After Hurricane Katrina, Jimmy held a fundraiser, and they raised around $40K by offering tours.” It was a huge success. Everyone cherished the landmark and gave directions by it, as in ‘Go half a mile past the Wedding Cake House.’ “Rarely a day [went] by without visitors posing for photos out front.”
But nobody’s posing out front now. Recently, “We offered to organize and do tours for him with the idea that the money would go back into the house,” Dolce says. “We weren’t able to get everyone involved to agree.”
Residents, historians, and visitors are in agreement that something must be done quickly. We hope our children and children’s children will see what love can inspire.
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Has anyone thought of approaching the Bush Family since they have their summer home in the next town of Kennebunkport?