The C. F. Douglas House is a historic house on
United States Route 2
U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. Unlike some routes, wh ...
/
Maine State Route 8
State Route 8 (SR 8) is part of Maine's system of numbered state highways, running from U.S. Route 201 (US 201) at Memorial Circle in Augusta, to an intersection with US 201 in Solon. SR 8 is long.
SR 8 goes north ...
in
Norridgewock, Maine. The house, designed by local architect
Charles F. Douglas
Charles Francis Douglas (4 November 1833 – 21 January 1904) was an American architect from Maine.
Douglas was born in Brunswick, Maine, Brunswick, and was educated at the Foxcroft Academy. At the age of 18, he was apprenticed to a house-builder, ...
for his family, was built in 1868, and is one of the region's finest examples of Italianate architecture, with ornate trim and a prominent three-story square tower. The house was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Description and history
The Douglas house is a two-story wood-frame structure, finished with a gable roof, two interior brick chimneys, clapboard siding, and granite foundation. There are two main entrances to the house, one in an asymmetrically placed three-story tower on the east side of the building, and another on the south side of the house, facing the driveway. The two entrances are connected by a single-story wraparound porch supported by groups of ornately decorated square columns. Roof lines of the porch, main roof, and tower roof are dentillated and bracketed. Fenestration in the tower includes typically Italianate round-arch windows, including paired ones on each side at the top stage. The property includes a two-story carriage barn which has similar decorative style.
Charles F. Douglas was born in
Brunswick, Maine, and was self-taught as an architect, opening a practice in
Skowhegan
Skowhegan () is the county seat of Somerset County, Maine. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 8,620. Every August, Skowhegan hosts the annual Skowhegan State Fair, the oldest continuously-held state fair in the United States. Skowh ...
in the 1860s. He designed this house for his family, and built it in 1868 on land belonging to his wife's family in Norridgewock. They lost the house to foreclosure the following year, and moved to
Lewiston, where Douglas did some of his finest works, including Lewiston's Continental Mill. This house is a remarkably sophisticated expression of the Italianate style for a rural inland community in Maine; such buildings are more commonly found in coastal communities.
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See also
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, C. F., House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Houses completed in 1868
Houses in Somerset County, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Somerset County, Maine