Pejepscot Historical Society, Brunswick Maine

NAME: Skolfield- Whittier House
INSTITUTION:Pejepscot Historical Society
LOCATION: Brunswick, Maine
DATE OF CONSTRUCTION:1858-1862
STYLE: Italiante
HISTORICAL SUMMARY:
The Pejepscot Historical Society serves the towns of Topsham, Brunswick and Harpswell. The Skolfield-Whittier house is named for the two brothers Alfred and Samuel Skolfield who built the house on property owned by the family patriarch, George Skolfield on 161 Park Row in Brunswick Maine. The society website contains this passage about the patriarch-
"The patriarch of the family, George Skolfield was an expert ship builder. His primary yard was located four miles outside of Brunswick on Harpswell Sound. He oversaw the construction of sixty freighting ships in his lifetime, all of which had the reputation of being "safe, slow, and sound". By the mid nineteenth century, Master George was one of the wealthiest men in Maine. Along with building ships, he wished to build the reputation of his sons. To that end, he purchased land on Park Row, across from the Brunswick Green. This was the area of town where the social elite lived. He built an enclave of Skolfield homes at the geographic center of Brunswick's high society."
Don't just take it from me... ask them yourself! According to the PHS website "The Skolfields and Whittiers are at home from June through October. Group tours may be booked in advance by calling 207-729-6606. (Student tours are also available in May.) Individual and family tickets may be purchased directly at the Pejepscot Historical Society, 159 Park Row, Brunswick Maine, Tuesday-Saturday."
COMMENTS: The most striking feature of the Skolfield-Whittier house is the rooftop tower that immediately brings to mind the
widows walk A common feature added to coastal homes of shipcaptains, and so named for the pacing of the widows as they wait for their ghost husbands to return from sea.


This explanation would certainly suffice if the building (and others around it) was anywhere near the ocean. Brunswick may be considered a coastal town, but due to the unusually craggy geography of the Maine coast the town center (where the building is centrally located) is set a few miles inland along the Androscoggin River. Granted, I didn't get the chance to walk up the tower, so there is an off chance that one may actually be able to see the ocean from the "widows walk" but my guess is it was purely a stylistic feature. The Italianate architecture is typical for use by the wealthier classes in the mid-late 19th century. Wikipedia describes American Italianate as-

" distinctive by its pronounced exaggeration of many Italian Renaissance characteristics: emphatic eaves supported by corbels, low-pitched roofs barely discernible from the ground, or even flat roofs with a wide projection. A tower is often incorporated hinting at the Italian belvedere or even campanile tower. (bold added).
Motifs drawn from the Italianate style were incorporated into the commercial builders' vocabulary, and appear in Victorian architecture dating from the mid to late 1800s.
This architectural style became more popular than Greek Revival by the late 1860s. Its popularity was due to its being suitable for many different building materials and budgets, as well as the development of cast-iron and press-metal technology making the production of decorative elements like the brackets and cornices more efficient. However, the style was superseded in popularity in the late 1870s by the Queen Anne style and Colonial Revival style."
During our quick conversation archivist, Rebecca Roche of the PHS pointed out that the bricks in the front were of a higher quality than the bricks in the back.





She mentioned the bricks were made in Portland which makes me wonder if there was a large brick building industry in Portland and if this would explain the beautiful brick sidewalks that make Portland a world class city like no other!

Special Thanks to Rebecca Roche and the Pejepscot Historical Society