The George Thorndike House is a historic house in
Maine State Route 73 in
South Thomaston, Maine
South Thomaston is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,511 at the 2020 census. A fishing and resort area, the town includes the village of Spruce Head, Maine.
History
Abenaki Indians called it Wessaweskeag, me ...
. Built in 1855, it is one of the region's finest examples of Italianate architecture, its design attributed to Thomaston native
Benjamin S. Deane
Benjamin S. Deane (1790–1867) was an American master builder and architect in practice in Bangor, Maine from circa 1832 to 1867.Deborah Thompson, ''Bangor, Maine, 1769-1914: An Architectural History'' (Orono: University of Maine Press, 1988)
...
. It 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 1983.
Description and history
The George Thorndike House stands on the east side of SR 73, north of the village center of South Thomaston, part of a row of late 19th-century houses. It is a -story wood-frame structure, with a hip roof topped by a large square
belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
Africa
*Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco
*Belvedere, Harare, Zim ...
. The walls are sheathed in flushboard that has been scored to resemble stone, and was originally painted with sand-impregnated paint to reinforce the illusion. The building has quoined corners, and a deep eave studded with paired brackets. Ground floor windows are set in segmented-arch openings topped by bracketed and eared cornices. The front facade is three bays wide, with the center entrance sheltered by a porch supported by paired square posts and topped by a bracketed roof. A -story gabled ell joins the house to a matching period carriage barn.
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The house was built in 1855 for George Thorndike a prominent local shipbuilder and ship's captain. It was probably designed by the
Bangor architect Benjamin S. Deane, a Thomaston native, but this attribution is based strictly on design similarities to Deane's work elsewhere, and his known association with the community. The house was, at the time of its construction, one of the most architecturally sophisticated in the region, and is one of only a few in central Maine from the period that has a rusticated exterior.
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See also
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorndike, George, House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Knox County, Maine
Italianate architecture in Maine
Houses completed in 1855
Houses in Knox County, Maine
Buildings and structures in Thomaston, Maine