Preservation Awards 2020
Individual Building Awards
101 High Street: Pettingill - McCutcheon – Marshall Farm, circa 1762
Owners: Anne Farrow & Stephen W. Taylor
An article written in the Bath Daily Times on November 8th 1892, tells us that this farmhouse overlooking the Kennebec River from a hill framed by High and Lemont Streets, is said to have once had over 3000 acres of land which stretched from the Kennebec River to the Stevens or New Meadows River as we know it today. By 1892 that land had decreased to 200 acres of mainly apple orchards and a grave site with four head stones. Today it encompasses three acres, but it still has the view of the river. According to Owen’s History of Bath written in 1936, this acreage was once part of the original land grants acquired by the Pejepscot proprietors from previous owners who in turn had purchased the land from the indigenous Indian tribes.
344 Front Street: Eben & Hannah Hale House Circa 1826
Owners: Regina Dibella and Aaron Carlson
This 1826 home is tucked in between houses of roughly the same age. It has a five-bayed façade facing the river with classic 9 over 6 paned windows. The two large chimneys are situated on the back side of the main house roof. The center doorway is framed by a pair of pilasters and topped by a very unusual 3 paned window treatment. The main house is one room deep, typical of many Colonial and Federal Period houses. Attached to the rear is an equally large ell.
SPI House Plaque research done for the previous owners Rhonda and Gregory Choquette, showed that it was built for shipping master Eben Hale for his wife Hannah and young family around 1826. Elwell P. Swett a shipbuilder, occupied the premises after 1855. The Choquettes had purchased the house in 2018 and were doing major restorations on it. Then in 2020 they had to move and sold the house to Regina Dibella and Aaron Carlson who have taken up completion of the restoration. The house is also very close to the street making it difficult to put install steps or shrubbery, but Regina and Aaron have solved the problem utilizing a strong curved border of granite stones to tie in the front stairway with a smaller set of steps that go to the rear of the house.
32 - 34 Pleasant Street
Owners: George and Johanna Schaab
A quick review of the deeds at the Sagadahoc County Court House tells us that 32 Pleasant Street was originally built as a two-family home sometime around 1847. Its description on the SPI field survey sheet from 1980 describes it as a 6-bayed double-doored tenement with paired pilasters and sidelights. The windows are six over six-paned and shuttered. The façade has two wide pilasters at each end that are topped by a prominent entablature. The gable sides have a fully defined raking or broken cornice. All these elements are typical of the Greek Revival style. Pictures taken at that time of the survey show a totally white painted building with black shutters and a small shed like covering over the doorways.
George and Johanna Schaab purchased the house in 1978 and have been living in and working on it ever since. They have converted the double house to a single-family home but have left the two doors with the original house numbers 32 and 34 on the double doors. The overhead door covering has been removed and a wide doorstep with an interesting columnar railing has been put on either side. The paint scheme of black shutters, dark clay color clapboards, white trim, and dark wine-red doors show off the Greek Revival features. There are several Greek Revival period double door apartment buildings on High Street and Lincoln Street near Morse High School, but as far as we know, this house and another house on Pine Street are the only small double cape style houses in Bath. The Schaabs have saved a significant house form.
Corporate Building Award
160 Front Street, Medanick Building
Owner: Sean P. Ireland, Medanick LLC
Maine Street Design - Owners: Rowan Wagner and Brett Johnson
This Italianate style building on the corner of Front and Elm Street, rose from the ashes of a previous store built around 1874 that was owned by George Medanick, hence the name Medanick Block. The current building was built by Galen Moses a prominent Bath businessman in 1895. Best known as the Louis B. Swett drugstore, it has also been a grocery store, fruit and confectionary store, florist shop, a soda bar and more recently the home of Kennebec Camera, Dot’s Ice Cream Shop and Betty’s Breakfast & Lunch. Today its façade embraces one business, Maine Street Design.
Unlike many of the solid brick constructed buildings on Front Street, this building is a balloon framed wood structure with a brick veneer covering. Its most important features are the two tall groupings of 11 windows facing both Elm and Front Streets. The elegant Italianate arched tops are framed by multiple keystone shaped bricks and above that is a bas-relief cornice giving a plain boxlike flat roofed building an eye-catching texture. Below the windows on Front Street, Maine Street Design fills the façade with three new brick supports, more glass and an inset side entrance on Elm Street. The all black paint scheme includes the large upstairs bay windows thus unifying the whole. It also allows the Maine Street Design Co. white lettered sign show to better advantage.
SAGADAHOC PRESERVATION, INC gave this Commercial Building Award because the owners have succeeded first in rehabilitating a prominent building in Bath’s historic downtown and second created a smooth integration of the Maine Street Design Company into part of the overall design of the building. 160 Front Street never looked so good. This is fine example of adaptive reuse and the application of Federal historic tax credits in smaller buildings. We thank all who contributed to this project.