Downeast Acadia
Visiting Blue Hill, Sedgwick, Deer Isle, and Castine's Bicentennial Homes and Places
Tour Highlights
This tour shares pre-statehood homes and assorted other structures of the Blue Hill Peninsula, stopping in Blue Hill, Sedgwick, Deer Isle, and Castine.
Getting Started
This tour starts at the end of Peters Point in Blue Hill. The tour route is approximately 70 miles and will take roughly 3 to 4 hours.
- Each tour stop on the map's address is linked to Google Maps so you can swiftly navigate from location-to-location if you choose Google for mapping. You can also use the address in your car's navigation system.
Be safe and aware of your surroundings whilst driving.
- Many properties on the tour are private places; be respectful of private property and remain on the public way at all times.
Except as otherwise noted in the tour, the source for information about the properties has been gathered from each one’s National Register of Historic Places nomination.
Our tours are made possible with generous support from:
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1
John Peters House
Built ca. 1815 with alterations in 1900 and 1920, Federal
The John Peters House was originally built as a brick and frame Federal style mansion and it was enlarged in 1900 and 1920. The 20th century updates saw Colonial-revival features were added to the structure, including an oversized sun porch and Grecian two-story colonnade, which was later removed.
John Peters was one of the original proprietors of Blue Hill, arriving from Massachusetts in 1765, serving as the land surveyor and land agent for Philadelphia businessman William Bingham, who was the region's largest landowner around the turn of the 19th century Peters himself owned over 1,600 acres of land. Peters served as the town clerk and in other civic roles and had other business interests, including operating a local gristmill and shipyard, and he served as a founding trustee of Blue Hill Academy. Peters had this house built for him when he was 80 years old. During the 20th century, the Peters House functioned as an inn and resort.
2
Baptist Church
Built ca. 1817-27 with 1856 alterations, Greek Revival
The Blue Hill Baptist Church, a fine example of Greek-Revival civic architecture, was dedicated in February of 1817 but was not completed until 1827. Between 1855 and 1856, under the direction of Thomas Lord, a retired ship’s carpenter, the nearly forty-year-old meetinghouse was transformed into a sacred edifice with the installation of ornate woodwork, traditional white “sheep pen” pews (replaced in 1928 with today’s oak pews) and changing the window openings to the present four two-story openings. It is from this remodeling that the church has its current appearance.
The bell, bought by the women of the church, weighs more than half a ton and was installed in the steeple in 1858. The pipe organ was acquired around 1860, when it was noted to be “lying in Captain Hopkins’ store.” The clock in the steeple was given to the Town of Blue Hill in 1883. In later years, the clock was gifted to the church.
The church's website has this delightful narrative: "Although the Civil War marked the demise of Blue Hill’s economic prosperity, it ushered in the acknowledged role of women in the church. In the earliest days of the congregation, women were listed as members but otherwise were not mentioned. We can only assume they were active in such church endeavors as social functions and visitation of the sick and bereaved. The first written reference to a “Ladies Circle” appeared in 1862, when the treasurer of the Circle paid the church $31.87 – a sizable amount at the time.
After the Chapel was built in 1880, suppers were served there. Admission for a baked bean meal was ten cents. Historian Esther Wood said, “I hasten to assure you that the Blue Hill ladies of [the late 1800’s] had more than baked beans up their culinary sleeves. Once a year, on two successive nights … a sale and a fifty-cent supper brought loads of buckboard customers from as far away as Ellsworth. Ham, chicken, turkey, cream puffs, tarts, pies, and even steeple cakes (tall cakes frosted so they shone as symbols of the Celestial City) were featured.” In the twentieth century, women’s work became more formal and its focus changed from handwork and food to missions and personal devotion."
The church is a contributing structure in the Blue Hill historic district. View the district's National Register listing .
3
George Stevens House
Built ca. 1814, Federal
The George Stevens House is a two-story Federal style house that was owned by George Stevens. Stevens was born in Massachusetts and moved to Blue Hill in 1775. He was a ship owner and merchant who was very interest in education. He joined the Board of the Blue Hill Academy, but was not a Congregationalist and sought to secularize the school without success. To further his aims, the George Stevens Academy was founded by the bequest of George Stevens.
Blue Hill Academy and George Stevens Academy eventually became a single institution. An interesting note that the George Stevens Academy shares is that Stevens gave a start to Thomas Lord, whom he hired as a ship's carpenter. Lord became a talented architect, who designed churches for Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Sedgwick and Ellsworth. He designed a number of houses, including the Greek Revival Morse House opposite George Stevens Academy."
The house is a contributing structure to the Blue Hill Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
4
Jonathan Fisher House
Built ca. 1814, Vernacular
The Jonathan Fisher House is a two-story wood-frame structure built by the first minister of the Blue Hill Congregational Church. In addition to studying divinity at Harvard, Fisher was also an artist, farmer, scientist, mathematician, surveyor, and a writer of prose and poetry. He bound his own books, made buttons and hats, designed and built furniture, painted sleighs, was a reporter for the local newspaper, helped found Bangor Theological Seminary, dug wells, built his own home, and raised a large family.
Today, the Fisher House is a museum dedicated to the life of Jonathan Fisher and Federal-era New England and is open seasonally from July to October. The house contains remarkable survivals from Federal-era New England, including: Fisher's artwork including paintings, drawings, watercolors, and woodblock prints; a superb collection of homemade surveying instruments; carefully preserved; a large camera obscura that he designed and built himself to aid in drawing; and his extensive library.
5
Parker House
Built ca. 1816 with alterations in 1900, Federal
The Parker House is a Federal style, two-story, hipped roof building that was constructed for Robert Parker and his wife Ruth, a daughter of Blue Hill founder Joseph Wood, around 1812 to 1816.
The house has a lengthy history of alterations, most notably the 1900-1905 alterations done by the Boston based architect George A. Clough (who was born in Blue Hill). Clough added several porches consisting of hipped roofs with molded cornices and a frieze supported by columns and pilasters (against the building).
Today, many original interior details remain and can be seen first hand as the historic Parker House currently functions as an vacation rental.
6
Reverend Daniel Merrill House
Built ca. 1795 with alterations in 1850, Colonial/Greek Revival
The Merrill House is currently a two-story dwelling which is sheathed in wood shingles and covered by a gable roof. Its front facade has a centrally-located Greek Revival style entrance with full-length sidelights, paneled pilasters, and a denticulated entablature. Bordering the house lot on four sides is a stone wall whose construction probably commenced when the house was first occupied. Standing to the north of the house is a recently constructed, small gable roofed outbuilding which houses portions of the owner historical society's collection.
In 1793 the Town of Sedgwick selected the Rev. Daniel Merrill (1765-1833) as its first minister and provided him with a dwelling and twenty-three acres of land. Merrill had served in the Continental Army from 1781-83 and then entered Dartmouth College where he received first honors in August, 1789 and his second degree three years later.
Beginning with twenty-two original members, Merrill oversaw the rapid growth of his Church of Christ in Sedgwick (Congregational) until 1805 when he and nearly half of his congregation became Baptists. He continued to occupy the house until his death, after which it descended to his son Daniel Merrill, Jr.
Town records indicate that the house which voters approved for Merrill was to have been 36 feet long by 30 feet wide with a 8.5 foot stud; that it have a gambrel roof with a 7 foot stud; one half of the house to be finished comparable with the common western houses, with the cellar and arch under the chimney, and the house to be handsomely underpinned to the height of 12 inches.” Judging from the framing which is visible in the attic it appears that the gable roof form may have been originally substituted for the specified gambrel, a change which would have been in keeping with local building patterns. Tradition also holds that the house was indeed larger than the existing 28 foot by 30 foot structure, although no archaeological investigation has been conducted to verify this.
The Greek Revival features of the exterior (doorway, six-over-six windows, cornice) reflect a mid-nineteenth century alteration which was probably carried out after Merrill's death. It is now the home of the Sedgwick-Brooklin Historical Society.
The house contributes to the Sedgwick Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
7
Rural Cemetery
Built ca. 1798
Originally known as the Old Burying Ground, the Rural Cemetery now comprises twenty-three acres located behind the Town House. It is the town's oldest community cemetery and contains the graves of many of the earliest settlers including that of Rev. Merrill. The oldest headstone bears the date October 26, 1798.
Initially the burying ground was three-quarters of an acre in size, but it was enlarged under the direction of a local cemetery organization that was formed in 1826 to maintain and control its use. The developed portion of the cemetery occupies the eastern half of the town-owned lot that extends to Route 172. Its uneven, sloping terrain is punctuated by several obelisks and family plots bordered with granite. A receiving tomb near the north-eastern corner was built in 1910.
The Cemetery is a contributing feature of the Sedgwick Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
8
Squire Ignatius Haskell House
Built ca. 1793, Post-Colonial with Greek Revival detailing
The Squire Ignatius Haskell House is one of the oldest buildings on the island and is an unusually elaborate house for its time. The house, a two-story wood-frame structure with a gambrel roof and a post-colonial center hall interior plan, is well preserved and still includes many original features.
Its builder, Ignatius Haskell, owned a number of local businesses with his family and was one of the town's leading citizens. His wife Mary Stickney came from a family of some wealth and prominence, and desired a house like those to which she had become accustomed in Massachusetts. Because of this, the overall size and interior spaces of the house far exceed those of the usual home on Deer Isle.
The house stayed in the family until the 1940s when they converted it to summer tourist accommodations, which use continues today as the Pilgrim's Inn.
9
Salome Sellers House
Built ca. 1772 with additions in 1830, Cape
The Salome Sellars House is a well-preserved example of a Cape Cod farmhouse. It was built between 1772 and 1830 by Joseph Sellars for his bride, Salome Sellars. Salome was born in 1800, the daughter of Captain Edward and Deborah Cushman Sylvester. Descending from Mayflower Stock, her father served during the American Revolution.
"Aunt" Salome Sellers was one of Deer Isle's most beloved local residents, and also one of the oldest (1800-1908). The home was acquired by the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society in 1960 which performed restorations in 1960 and 2002. Today the home is a museum, and includes original Sellers furnishings and artifacts. It has retained much of its original construction, including hand-blown glass window panes and woodwork.
10
British Canal
Built ca. 1815
The British Canal, a 10 to 12 foot wide earthen ditch that extends from Wadsworth Cove to Hatch Cove, was built as part of the Fort George complex. Fort George was built by the British during the Revolutionary War in 1779 as part of an initiative to establish a new colony in Castine called "New Ireland." The fort was abandoned in 1784, but was reoccupied by the British during the War of 1812 and the canal was redug by them then.
It is a contributing structure to the Off-The-Neck Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
11
Fort George
Built ca. 1779-1815
Fort George (also sometimes known as Fort Majabigwaduce, Castine, or Penobscot) was a palisaded earthwork constructed in 1779 at a high point on the Bagaduce Peninsula. Castine is set at a strategically significant location near the head of Penobscot Bay, and was a point of conflict at several times between the 17th and 19th centuries.
Pursuant to plans for establishing a military presence on the coast of Maine as well as the colony of New Ireland, a British force led by General Francis McLean arrived off Castine in June 1779, seized the town, and established Fort George and other fortifications in the area. The state of Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a part, responded by raising a large militia force, which in an operation known as the Penobscot Expedition, disastrously failed in its attempt to dislodge the British in July and August of 1779.
The fort was abandoned by the British in 1784 and then reoccupied by the British during the War of 1812 from September 1814 to April 1815; they rebuilt the fort and canal, and established smaller forts around it. Interestingly, General Pegleg Wadsworth (grandfather to one of Maine's most-loved poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) was captured and imprisoned here briefly before he managed to escape.
Fort George is the site of Majabigwaduce, the location for Bernard Cornwell's 2010 book The Fort, which is about the Penobscot Expedition. Today, what's left of Fort George, little more than earthworks, is a state park, maintained by the town, and can be explored by the public.
12
Adams-Cate House
Built ca. 1814, Federal
The Adams- Cate House, a Federal style, two-and-half story wood-framed house, was built for Thomas and Jane Adams; Thomas was a selectman and state politician.
Built at the height of Castine's economic fortunes as maritime center after the War of 1812, the home is emblematic of the prosperity of Castine in the early 19th century. The house was deeded to their daughter who passed it to her own daughter Anna Cate and her husband Sanford Dole who were married at the house. Dole was the first and only president of Hawaii in 1893 and later became the first Governor of Hawaii. Dole was a relation of James Dole, heir to the Dole Pineapple Company fortune.
The home is perhaps most famous for being the lodgings of Harriet Beecher Stowe who lived in Castine for a several months. While the home was used as housing for the Executive Officer Maine Maritime Academy for several years, today the home is privately owned.
13
John Perkins House
Built ca. 1765-83, Colonial
The John Perkins House is considered a great example of Colonial architecture and was considered one of the finest houses in eastern Maine at the time of its construction. It is also significant for being the only house left pre-dating the American Revolutionary War.
As the Perkins family grew and prospered a four-room two-story addition was built across the gable end of the early home; and in 1783, the house was enlarged - the first one-story home being torn down to be rebuilt as a two-story ell. The house was occupied by British forces twice, once in 1779, and again during the War of 1812.
Enlarged over the years, it later fell into disrepair and was condemned as a fire hazard, but saved by the Castine Scientific Society in 1968; the organization dismantled the house into pieces, built a new foundation on the grounds of the Wilson Museum, and the house rebuilt on the new foundation. The kitchen portion of the ell was saved as part of this project. This and the four front rooms of the house now appear as they did in 1783.
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