The Benjamin C. Wilder House is an historic house at 1267 Main Street ( Maine State Route 164) in

Washburn, Maine Washburn is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. It was incorporated on February 25, 1861, and named after Israel Washburn, the governor of Maine at the time. The population was 1,527 at the 2020 census. Benjamin C. Wilder House ...

, United States. Built about 1852, it is a well-preserved example of mid-19th century vernacular architecture in northern

Aroostook County Aroostook County ( ; french: Comté d'Aroostook) is a county in the U.S. state of Maine along the Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,105. Its county seat is Houlton, with offices in Caribou and Fort Kent. Kn ...

, built in the first decade after widespread settlement began of the area. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1987. It is now owned by the local Salmon Brook Historical Society and operated as a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

Description and history

The Wilder House is located in the center of the rural village of Washburn, set back from the east side of Main Street on the north side of the town common, which is bounded on its south by Wilder Street. It is a -story wood-frame structure, five bays wide and a single room deep, with a side-gable roof, clapboard siding, and a foundation of granite and concrete blocks. Oriented to face south, the main facade has a single-story porch, supported by Tuscan columns, that extends across its full width and around to the west side. The main entrance, which is like the windows simply framed, stands in the rightmost bay. A single gabled dormer projects from the roof. A kitchen ell extends to the rear of the main block, with dormers on both sides of its gable roof, and a porch on the east side. The interior has well-preserved original plaster-and-lath walls, and an original staircase leading to the attic level. Widespread settlement of the interior of northern Aroostook County was delayed due to uncertainties surrounding the border with neighboring

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, which threatened war in the 1830s and were resolved by the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Washburn was probably settled soon afterward, with Isaac Wilder one of its first settlers. His nephew Benjamin probably built this house around 1852, the year of his marriage. Wilder was a merchant and farmer in the community. The house was sold by his heirs in 1920 into the Jardine family, who sold it to the Salmon Brook Historical Society. The Society operates the house as a mid 19th-century period

, with the Aroostook Agricultural Museum, which is housed in a nearby barn.

References

External links

Salmon Brook Historical Society
- Facebook site {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilder, Benjamin Houses completed in 1852 Houses in Aroostook County, Maine Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Museums in Aroostook County, Maine Historic house museums in Maine National Register of Historic Places in Aroostook County, Maine 1852 establishments in Maine

Description and history

See also

References

External links