IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY: YELLOW HOUSE

Few architects  had more impact on a region's built environment than Fred Savage, who practiced 100 years ago and more on Mt. Desert Island, and whose houses practically define the architecture of Northeast Harbor.   In the 1880's, he worked as a draftsman for Peabody & Stearns before setting up his own practice back home on Mt. Desert, and his early shingle style houses, large and small,  demonstrate that he learned the lessons of that office well.

The H.A.C. Taylor house at Newport

Peabody & Stearns were not the only firm who inspired him.  Savage clearly admired the work of McKim, Mead & White, arguably the most influential firm of their era.   In 1885, they designed one of the seminal houses of the era, the first great formal Colonial Revival house, for H.A.C. Taylor in Newport Rhode Island. Drawing inspiration from many early American sources, yet copying no house, it was a sensation, and was to inspire a generation of similar houses. Pictured below is just one random example, the home of a Mr. Parker  in Detroit, designed by Rogers & McFarlane, published in American Architect in 1897

Here in Maine, there are several spiritual design descendants of the Taylor house--among them is 'York Hall', built for  the Sewalls, owners of the Bath Iron Works shipbuilding firm.  Another great square 'Colonial' house, it has more than a whiff of both the Taylor house and the iconic 18th century home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Cambridge, itself one of the most copied of early American houses.

'York Hall', the Sewall mansion in Bath,  1897. (Photo via Swan Agency)

But  my favorites among the offspring of the Taylor house is 'The Yellow House' also known as 'Rock End Colonial', in Northeast Harbor.  It is a bijou homage to the Taylor house, designed by Savage in 1892 for his brother Herman as a rental cottage in the grounds of the family's Rock End hotel.  Its precise and formal form, a decorated square on a raised foundation and high pitched roof contrasts effectively with the shingled cottages that surround it.

'The Yellow House'

 Savage referenced many details of the Taylor house in 'The Yellow House', including the broken arch pediment of the central dormer of the garden front, and the 'Salem' portico of the entrance, but made themfinished work his  own, with a Palladian window in the highly decorated dormer opening onto the balcony of the portico.  The white trim contrasting with yellow clapboards perfectly reference a traditional old Maine color scheme, as on the Kavanaugh house below.

Kavanaugh House at Damariscotta, Maine, an early 19th century Federal, with many of the sorts of elements  (and traditional New England color scheme) that inspired the later revivalist houses above

In later years, the 'The Yellow House' achieved footnote in architectural history, when it was owned by portraitist Betsy Flagg (Mrs. John) Melcher, who occupied it for many summers with her mother, Mrs. Ernest Flagg, widow of the famed Beaux Arts architect whose own portfolio included the Singer Building, one of the early great skyscrapers.

DIRIGO. Back to the center.

The Maine State Flag, with the Great Seal adopted by the legislature in June 1820

The Downeast Dilettante's distinguished panel of editorial advisers have often and repeatedly recommended that he stay away from politics and stick to less incendiary topics, like Elsie deWolfe's refusal to visit Maine if she could possibly avoid it.  Mostly I heed their wisdom, but not today.  I am practically bursting with pride for my state--and my town--- after last night's elections.

The Maine State House at Augusta, designed by Charles Bulfinch.  Painted by Charles Codman in 1834  (Portland Museum of Art)

Maine's state motto is Dirigo---'I Lead', and  for many years conventional political wisdom was that 'As Maine goes, so goes the nation'.  Let's hope that's true.   After accidentally electing the nation's most embarrassing Governor a couple of years ago we learned our lesson (this is not even a partisan judgment on my part---the guy is embarrassing, and it was an accident, albeit of the train-wreck variety) and this time the Democrats got behind the most electable and moderate choice, Independent Angus King, to take over the admirable Olympia Snowe's Senate seat---by a wide margin.  Maine re-elected President Obama by a 16% margin.  And last, but definitely not least, the simply and clearly worded Ballot Question 1 "Do you want to allow the State of Maine to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples?" passed by a 5% margin---more than even supporters were expecting, and enough to guarantee that no recounts will be forthcoming.

2008 called and they want their sign back.  Mainers are known for their dry humor.  I spotted this cluster of campaign signs a few days ago while stopped at a traffic light on Broadway in Bangor.

At the local level here in our village, the statistics are even more impressive:  1760 of the 2206 registered voters turned out---65% for Obama, 55% for King, and a whopping 66% for Gay Marriage.  (The moment I knew that Question One was going to pass was last week.  My 84 year old mother, not by nature a progressive or liberal, asked me if I was going to vote yes.  I answered 'of course', and to my surprise she replied, "So am I.  It's time, and it's respect".  The sheer nastiness of the other side, combined with seeing several nieces and nephews in loving same-sex relationships combined to give her a new perspective).

I live a town that is by and large populated by the well-to-do and well educated.  But this is also Maine, and as the misery unleashed during the Bush years continues, so does rampant poverty.  As I came down the stairs from the voting booths, volunteers of the local food pantry, including the Reverend Betty Stookey (her husband Noel is better known as the Paul of 'Peter, Paul & Mary'), were collecting signatures on a petition to ask the town for financial support for their services.  For the first time, as we go into Winter, the food pantry's needs have outstripped its funding and they are asking for help.  Despite our veneer of affluence, jobs are scarce, skills are limited, and gas and fuel are high, leaving 20% of our population below the safety net.  Another of the volunteers told me how shocked and saddened she was to discover that this was going on just beneath our pretty surface---that she had had no idea before that it was so deep or so widespread.  One cannot help but reflect on the billions wasted on the recent election and feel a bit rueful.

The campaign for Question One was well funded and beautifully run.  It never went off message, and compared to the dishonest and inflammatory rhetoric of the opposition with the usual claptrap about the 'Homosexual Agenda' (they're going to convert our children!!) it was positively uplifting. I received a pre-recorded phone message from the opposition that was actually stunning in its willingness to play to the lowest common denominator    Major donors to the gay marriage campaign included Brad Pitt, and believe me, I'll make a point of seeing his next movie.  

Thank-you Maine.  I have hope for the nation again.

PS.  I did not lead in with Elsie deWolfe capriciously---she and her longtime partner, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury, were perhaps the original femaie power couple--and despite the fashionable Ms. deWolfe's aversion to the wilds of Maine, Marbury enjoyed a summer home in Mt. Vernon near the Belgrade Lakes, about which more soon.

Elisabeth Marbury, in a portrait painted by WBE Ranken at her summer home in Mt. Vernon, Maine 

Sailor, hiker, and aesthete, Sturgis Haskins, a friend of 40 years standing,  one of the most remarkable  of the many remarkable people I've had the pleasure to know, was perhaps the father of the Gay Rights movement in Maine.  He died a few weeks ago, and I am sad, as I suspect are his hundreds of other friends, that he did not live to see this victory.  This post is in his memory.

MRS. ASTOR'S THRONE

Since the death of doyenne Brooke Astor, the longtime queen of New York Society, those who care about such things have wondered and discussed who might be her successor on the throne---or if  New York society could even be ruled again by just one person.  About all this I know little, sitting up here in Down East Maine, where paying the oil bills or the declining price of lobster worry one far more than who will preside over the leaderless elite of Manhattan.  

This wonderful photograph pictures neither Mrs. Astor nor her throne, but is a scene captured  at another end-of-era auction, the effects of Miss Julia Berwind at 'The Elms' in Newport Rhode Island.  The photograph is by Nancy Sirkis from her marvelous book 'Newport, Pleasures and Palaces' (Viking/Studio, 1963) 

An auction of Mrs. Astor's lesser effects was held three weeks ago at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York.  Her leftover possessions were typical  goods of a well placed lady of the second half of the 20th century---pretty and decorative, with a French accent. Several friends and acquaintances attended the auction, and depending on whom one asks, and what they hoped to buy, prices were either terribly high or terribly low.  My own observation is that the sale followed the current market---where style and eye appeal trump age or quality, or even provenance--- many of the pieces were chosen for her by Parish-Hadley.  I scratched my head at some of the prices---$5500 for a Metropolitan Museum reproduction of St. Gauden's iconic statue of Diana---available in the Met Gift shop for considerably less----down to a mere $15.00 for the Louis XV style Chaise Percée pictured below.

I was immediately reminded of another wonderful Sirkis photograph, of an elegant woman examining a chaise Percée in a bathroom at 'The Elms'.


And then, in a flash, it came to me.  Whoever paid that $15.00 for the chaise Percée now sits on Mrs. Astor's throne. All Hail.  Society need wonder no longer.

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS?

I rarely answer that question in the affirmative---there is just so danged much that I don't know.  For example, an ever informed friend of widespread interests  sent these photographs of a recently redecorated French commuter train, asking "Do you know this?", and indeed the answer was 'No---but Wow'

I've no doubt that all my design savvy readers and everyone else in the blogosphere already knew, but it had escaped me, and I'm enchanted at the juxtaposition.  How could anyone be bored or tired on this commute?  Take note, Amtrak, take note.

PS:  Speaking of those many things I don't know, it does little good even when I do know things.  For example, even though other friends had informed me ages ago that the recent anonymous 'Property of a Lady' sale at Stair Galleries in Hudson NY was actually the property of Brooke Astor, it never occurred to my summer-addled brain to mention it---until of course I read it in another blog, weeks later.  Oh well, you don't come to me for current events, I suspect.  Besides, I was far more interested in session 2 on Sautrday,  the contents of the late decorator Keith Irvine's house in Carmel New York.  Many of the items were more to my taste---wonderful neo-classical sculpture and bas relief galore.  The always delightful Mr. Irvine was a sometimes visitor to the Dilettante's shop, and in fact, when I last saw the dining room of that house published, it contained a set of grain painted chairs purchased from me.  For the catalog and sales results of the Astor/Irvine auctions, click HERE.

Meanwhile, back on the train:

HOUSE TOUR 1: Parker House

Old houses that have had long family occupancy have an atmosphere and romance that cannot be easily faked. In our town, one such house is Parker House, a landmark which has surveyed the local scene since 1812.  Built for Robert Parker, whose wife Ruth was daughter of Joseph Wood, one of the founders of the town, it is a handsome four-square Federal, amply and well proportioned, with later Colonial Revival enhancements.  This is one of several houses in town that carry the probably apocryphal legend of having been stopped in mid-construction during the war of 1812, when we were briefly British again. The local parson left behind a journal of his days, and whether or not it is true that the other constructions were interrupted,  we know that he continued working on his own new house nearby, for he records hearing the cannons of battle in  Hampden on a warm September afternoon while shingling the roof.

  After a succession of owners in the 19th century, the house was purchased in 1900 by Mrs. Virgil Kline, a descendant of Mrs. Parker's sister Edith Wood Hinckley.  Mrs. Kline, married to the chief attorney for the Rockefeller interests in Cleveland, had had an interesting career as the manager and owner of the Boston Ideal Opera Company, a travelling light opera company that was instrumental in bringing Gilbert and Sullivan performance to America.  Mrs. Kline's own turreted and shingled summer house, 'Ideal Lodge', was just up the road from Parker House.  (For the story of that house, which should be read in conjunction with this post, click HERE:)  

Parker House as it appears today

Parker House as it appeared before the renovations of 1900 (Photograph courtesy of Maine Historic Preservation  Commission)

After a gentle renovation by Mrs.Kline's architect, George Clough of Boston, Parker house acquired new porticos and french door, with a grand balustrade around the eaves, giving the house the proper New England ancestral air that Mrs. Kline, an early collector of local antiques, sought.  The house became the summer home of Mrs. Kline's sister, Mrs. Frederick Augustus Merrill, who furnished the house with family artifacts and antiques collected locally.  In 1916, the property was conveyed to Mrs. Merrill, and has descended to her great-grandson, who has been restoring and improving the house since taking possession, with a sensitive eye to its unique character, while at the same time making it practical for the 21st century, and respecting the gently worn and faded qualities that give the house much of its aristocratic air.  His intelligent and subtle approach gives rebuke to many who have gut renovated similar houses up here (if you want a condo in Greenwich, buy a condo in Greenwich, or build a new house don't strip a beautiful old house of its elegant features and character.  Why be ordinary when you can be special?

Parker House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

After the 1900 renovations, Parker House was almost an ideal of the Colonial Revival movement

The Parlor as it appeared in the early 1900's, with an 1830 Boston made piano  and one of a group of family portraits painted by J. Harvey Young

The interior was little altered in the Clough renovations.  In the hall, the robustly paneled front door and wide sidelights added by Clough give more light and presence to the hall, but the simple Federal moldings and newel post were retained.

The parlor as it appears today, with more of the family portraits by Young.  Dr. Frederick A. Merrill is over the fireplace

The modern chinoiserie wallpaper is a licensed Winterthur design

The wide pine board dado under the chair rail was boldly faux grained, probably in the 1830's or 40's,, to look like Honduran mahogany.    

French doors were added in 1900 to access the new side proticos flanking the parlor and library, giving a more expansive air to the square rooms

In true Colonial Revival fashion, with its strong sentiment for the past, the original  kitchen, with its huge cooking fireplace and bake oven, became the dining room in the 1900 renovations.  A new kitchen was installed in the service wing at rear.

The current owner removed partitions between the dining room, back hall and  a sitting room to make one large room, over 40 feet long, with three exposures.  He broke the length, and masked a difference in ceiling heights, with  antique Doric columns that echo those of the porticoes outside

Looking through to the front room

The ell kitchen was redesigned by the current owner, with a new window over the vintage stove opening  up space.

The upper hall

The brass bed warmer, designed to hold hot coals which would then  be run between the sheets to warm the bed  in earlier times was a favorite decorative accessory for the centrally heated Colonial Revival.   The one seen here to the right of a bedroom fireplace is still in place 100 years later.

A tester bed and printed cotton curtains and hangings, with a William Morris inspired paper, give this room proper Colonial Revival street cred.

Most of the contemporary pictures in this post were taken during a benefit house tour.  Despite the fact that there were 30-50 people wandering through the house at any time, only once did a person get in the photos (followed by so many others that I gave up---never have I seen so many people emerge from one bedroom).

The owner has created this video showing the evolution of the house from 1812-2012.

The vintage photographs are from the collection of the owner, and from other local collections.   Thanks to the owner for permission to post about his interesting house.

THERE'S STILL TIME

Bad Dilettante.   I had intended to make short posts all summer---about things of interest, little ideas that interest me, events taking place---but it didn't happen.  Trying to describe what August on the Maine Coast is like for those of us who work here in Vacationland while all of America is visiting, and a year's worth of events are scheduled in the middle two weeks, is like trying to describe being hit by a speeding train while parachuting off a the Empire State Building in high winds while waiting for a plane in an airport in Calcutta during a monsoon during the lightening round of Jeopardy while trying to play the kazoo standing on one's head 40 feet underwater during a triathalon without a paddle.  No, never mind.  That doesn't even begin to adequately describe it.  Let's just say it's intense, not for the disorganized or faint of heart and one doesn't get many breaks to sit down and upload pictures to the internet.

There are several particularly interesting museum exhibits up here this summer.  The big summer exhibit at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland features works by American Impressionist Frank Benson, all painted at his summer home on North Haven Island in Penobscot Bay.  It's a sweet, lovely show.  

'Rainy Day' by Frank Weston Benson, depicting the artist's own living  room on North Haven.

The Living Room today, with later murals by Benson  (VRBO)

Benson's North Haven Farm is available for summer rental, for those who want total immersion.  Click HERE 

Also at the Farnsworth is a fascinating little show, 'The Homestead Project'.  The Farnsworth Museum's campus includes the 1850 Greek Revival homestead of the Farnsworth family, a classic in-town Greek Revival village house..  For the Homestead Project, ten architects were invited by assistant curator Jane Bianco to submit designs for a 21st century house for the property, an urban house for the new century.

The Farnsworth Homestead

Architect Bruce Norelius, Devin Saez, Associate, and Brian Briggs, model builder, of Bruce Norelius Studio, Los Angeles, California and Maine (From The Homestead Project)

Christopher Campbell of Christopher Campbell Architecture, Portland, Maine (From the Homestead Project) 

The catalog for The Homestead Project may be browsed online HERE

At the Portland Museum of Art, is an exhibit of Frederick Edwin Church's Maine paintings and sketches, on loan from Olana, the Church homestead near Hudson New York and curated by John Wilmerding.  Sublime indeed.

Twilight: Mt, Desert Island, Maine (1865)

Mt. Desert Island from Dorr Mtn. (July-Aug., 1850)

Mt. Katahdin fromm Millinocket Camp (1895)

Of course, given my compulsion for comparison, it is irrestible to add this view of Mt. Katahdin by Marsden Hartley in contrast to Church's vision:

Mt. Katahdin # 2, by Marsden Hartley (Metropolitan Museum)

The Mount Desert Historical Society's Schoolhouse Museum in Somesville is a wonderful exhibit about the Mt. Desert-born architect Fred Savage 1861-1924), curated by Gerard Vasisko.   Savage worked for a time for Peabody & Stearns, who heavily influenced his work.  He also was associated for a time with Sidney Stratton, a former Richard Morris Hunt apprentice who shared office space with McKim, Mead & White, and was sometimes known as 'the almost partner'.   Savage's debt to all these designers is obvious, but he was a fine and original designer in his own right.  Although he worked in many of the eclectic styles of the era, it is the shingled houses he designed around Mt. Desert Island for which he is best known, and which almost define the standard for a summer cottage in that region.   Like so many of architects around the turn of the last century, he had a fine hand with drawings and renderings, as clearly displayed in this show.  Augmenting the drawings are vintage photographs and papers and catalogs from his office, from the collections of the Mt. Desert Historical Society and the Northeast Harbor Public Library.

Cottage for Mrs. Edith Randolph, Bar Harbor

Anna Clark Cottage, Harbourside, Northeast Harbor

Elevation for Clark Cottage (NEHL)

Unbuilt Cottage by Savage (NEHL Archives)

Rendering for Cottage for Frederick Jackson Turner, Northeast Harbor (NEHL Archives)

'High Seas', the Rudolph Brunnow cottage at Bar Harbor, by Savage

Design for dining room fireplace surround, Brunnow Cottage (MDIHS)

An exhibit I haven't seen, but intend to, features the recently restored 19th century panorama, by many artists, of John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress by the Saco Museum.   800 feet long, it is displayed in the old Saco Mills building.  It may not be high art, and who reads Pilgrim's progress anymore, but the opportunity to see an 800 foot long painting is irresistible, no?  For more about this fascinating project, Click HERE

There are so many other exhibits of interest this summer in Maine Museums, like the exhibit of 46 items from the Allie Ryan Steamship Collection of the Maine Maritime Academy, at the Castine Historical Society and the Wilson Museum in Castine, or 'American Moderns' at the Colby College Art Museum, featuring the work of Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott and Margaret Bourke-White, that I haven't had time to see yet, but worthy of attention.