House and Garden Tour: 3 Anniversaries, 2 Weddings and 1 Room with a Loom

Flag Day, June 14th, is usually a beautiful day for flying Old Glory, celebrating anniversaries, walking down an aisle with someone you love, or creating art with your own two hands. On June 14, 2014, Joe and I launched our second summer in the Maine house by going on the Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc.'s 12th Annual House and Garden Tour. For the first time, SPI's tour left the City of Bath and chose to spotlight the "Architectural Gems & Hidden Gardens of Phippsburg." It was a good and timely decision because Phippsburg is celebrating their bicentennial this year. Such a significant historic event deserves an anniversary party, and thanks to a committee of 14 history loving SPI members, headed by the talented Judy Barrington, and a score of well informed docents, SPI put on quite a show for a continuous stream of people on a picture perfect day. The entire event felt like a progressive brunch among good friends, but instead of serving blueberry pancakes, gracious hosts opened their doors to share quaint rooms, picturesque views, and insightful facts about the architectural details and family histories of their homes. The Kennebec River seemed to be overflowing with extraordinary, almost scandalous, stories! Who knew that the history of an 18th century house would sound a lot like a J. Courtney Sullivan novel (Maine, The Engagements).

Jackie Hogg and John Atkinson, the charming English couple who own and operate The 1774 Inn at 44 Parker Head Road, had some lively tales to tell about Pre-Revolutionary War America. History tells us that sailors and shipbuilders are legendary risk takers. The McCobb-Hill-Minott House, now the 1774 Inn, has a colorful history that illustrates that notion. According to Jackie, the Georgian mansion was originally the property of James McCobb, a successful merchant, who landed on the peninsula in 1731 and bought up much of the land that is now Phippsburg. He had his elegant home along the Kennebec River built for his second wife. Yesterday and today, numbering wives usually foreshadows family drama, and so it was for the McCobbs! For James McCobb there was a third wife, who upon his death altered his will and claimed his mansion as her own so that she and her son, Mark Hill, could remain there.  This selfish act ignited a scandal because Thomas McCobb, James' son from his second wife, was at sea when it transpired. With revenge in mind, Thomas built a new, and even grander mansion, "The Spite House," across the road. Ironically, Mark Hill grew up to marry his stepsister, Mary McCobb, and partnered with his stepbrother, Thomas, in shipbuilding and ship ownership to create an enduring legacy. Charles Minott later purchased the grand house and its nearby shipyard in 1854 and went on to build 34 more vessels, including the last commercial wooden full-rigged ship built in North America. Visiting the 1774 Inn today is like stepping back in time. There is a Linden tree on the front lawn which was planted in 1774. Its graceful branches seem to reflect the long and intriguing history of this daring community. Our docent, Mr. Minott (not a ghost, but possibly related to Charles Minott) described the inn's back door as a "witch door" because it had both Roman and Greek crosses on it to ward off evil spirits. Personally, I found the "Woodshed Room,"tucked in a corner on the ground floor to be the most enchanting part of the house. This hideaway room opens up to a private verandah facing the Kennebec River. Now, that is what I call "magic!" Jackie told me it is by far the most popular room at the inn. On June 14th, it was reserved for a couple celebrating their anniversary (anniversary #2). I uncovered this fact surreptitiously by reading a note from the innkeeper on the nightstand. (Sorry, hand-written notes left on nightstands are simply irresistible!) Finding best wishes for a happy anniversary was a very sweet discovery at The 1774 Inn!

Anniversaries usually follow weddings, but on the SPI tour, the opposite proved true. The Sebasco Harbor Resort, down east on the Main Road, offered us a glimpse of our first wedding of the day. We spied a young woman carrying her coral bridesmaid dress to her cottage. A few minutes later we saw two men setting up 100 white chairs on the lawn overlooking the harbor. Later that afternoon the wedding guests would enjoy the same water view that Eleanor Roosevelt enjoyed when she stayed at the Sebasco Lodge. Nathan Cushman, the baker from White Plains, New York who founded the Cushman Baking Company in Portland as well as the Oakhurst Dairy, added Sebasco's unique Lighthouse accommodations in the 1930's. The Sebasco estate, however, dates way back to 1767 when Henry Totman bought 500 acres from James McCobb. (That name sounds familiar!)

The present owner, Bob Smith, invested millions of dollars to give the resort a new facelift. The Pilot House Restaurant and the Fairwinds Spa may be wrinkle free, but the stunning harbor view remains unchanged. And God must truly bless June brides because not a single drop of rain fell that afternoon on the peninsula!

Love was definitely in the air because our tour uncovered a second wedding just a few miles up the road. Joe and I definitely enjoy fine details, so we move slowly on tours. Several hours into the SPI tour, we realized we were running out of time, so we advanced quickly to numbers nine and ten. We were especially drawn to 153 Fiddlers Reach Road because it strongly resembled our home on Washington Street, so we decided to make it our last stop. Cold Spring Farm was number 9 on our tour, and we discovered our second wedding of the day in its barn. Constructed of homemade bricks, the farm's main house was built in 1773 by William Lee, a former chimney pot maker from Yorkshire, England. Local historians tell us that Mr. Lee arrived in Boston Harbor with his wife and six children on December 16, 1773, the day of the Boston Tea Party. This is an amazing fact, and we only discovered it because of the in depth research of Jane Morse, an area resident who wrote most of the house tour program. When we met Jane earlier on the tour, I immediately thought of Morse High School in Bath. Names really do replicate around here! Well, in typical Maine fashion, the Lee family owned Cold Spring Farm from 1773 until 1895. Later, it fell into disrepair, but a direct descendant of William Lee, Mrs. Marie Forbes, purchased the farm in 1932 and restored it to its original grandeur. She also built the double barn. She actually found two exceptional barns, disassembled them, and brought them to Cold Spring Farm Road to be reassembled. This is the same barn that served as a wedding chapel for two people in love on  June 14, 2014. There is definitely a romantic thread here because William Lee, Jr. married the daughter of James McCobb, and James gave the newlyweds his island, Lee's Island, as a wedding gift. One can only imagine what spectacular gift today's couple received: Island Magic or a Cuisinart?

Finally, we reached 153 Fiddlers Reach Road, an address and a home that truly reminds me of "Fiddler on the Roof" tradition. And since family weddings are a seasonal topic, William Lee's daughter married Daniel Campbell in 1797. Six generations of the Campbell family resided on this property until selling it in 1957. Tradition! Today, this Federal-style home is owned by Roger and Marcia Clark, and I was delighted to meet them because if homes reflect our personality, we probably have a lot in common. As luck and Bath would have it, we do. (We have children who make music for a living!) After meeting Marcia at the top of the stairs, I turned to discover our last hidden gem of the day, a loom! The Clarks converted a bedroom into a weaving room, and Marcia's loom now owns the space. The Halycon yarn from Bath looks magnificent on that elegant machine! Marcia was quick to tell us that her loom had traveled with her from home to home over the years, but this 18th century colonial was the first to offer her a room solely for weaving. Every artist deserves their own space! Although I am not a weaver, as a Spanish teacher I have met outstanding Zapotec weavers in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Zapotecs told me about cochineal, their hidden treasure, a tiny insect that provides us with carmine, a crimson-colored natural dye. When I mentioned cochineal to Marcia, she knew the historical significance immediately, and that's when I knew I had found good people among the architectural gems and hidden gardens of Phippsburg! Priceless!

P.S. If you pay attention to numbers, you probably noticed we are one anniversary short. Anniversary number three is my heart's gem. If my mother and father were still on this Earth, June 14, 2014 would have been their 62nd Wedding Anniversary.