The Kate Douglas Wiggin House, also known as Quillcote, is a historic house on Salmon Falls Road in

Hollis, Maine Hollis is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,745 at the 2020 census. Hollis is a rural bedroom community of Portland and is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistic ...

. Built in 1797, the house is significant as the home of the writer

Kate Douglas Wiggin Kate Douglas Wiggin (September 28, 1856August 24, 1923) was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,'' and composed collections of children's ...

from 1905 until her death in 1923, and as a fine example of adaptive architectural change over time. One room of the house features wall murals attributed to

Rufus Porter Rufus Porter may refer to: *Rufus Porter (painter) Rufus Porter (May 1, 1792 – August 13, 1884) was an American painter, inventor, and founder of '' Scientific American'' magazine. Famous family Rufus Porter descended from an old coloni ...

. 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 ...

in 1977.

Description and history

Quillcote is set on the west side of Salmon Falls Road in the Hollis side of Salmon Falls village, on the banks of the

Saco River The Saco River (Abenaki: ''Sαkóhki'') is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean ...

in southeastern Hollis. It is a -story wood-frame structure, five bays wide and two deep, with a front-facing gable roof and clapboard siding. This section has modest Greek Revival styling, including a fully pedimented gable that has three windows, the central one topped by a lancet-arched louver. The main entrance is centered on this facade, sheltered by a porch with Federal style Doric columns. To the rear of this block extends the oldest part of the house, a two-story wood-frame structure, with another extending to the right. Further ells extend further behind the house, connecting it to a barn. The interior is arranged with public spaces in the front of the house, and a sitting room, kitchen, and pantry space in the rear, with bedrooms on the second floor. One bedroom in the older part of the house has a curved ceiling, suggesting it may have served as a ballroom at one time. A balcony was added to this room in 1905, standing above a bay window projecting from the sitting room below. The interior's most intriguing room is completely painted in murals, with a golden frieze border running around the top. This work is estimated to date to about 1820, and may be the work of

, who was then an itinerant painter producing stylistically similar works. The house's oldest portion was, according to local lore, built about 1797 by Jabez Bradbury. He and neighbor Thomas Carll exchanged houses in the early 19th century, and the Carll family is credited with bringing the house to most of its present appearance.

, by then already a well-known author of children's books, acquired this house in 1905, having spent some years of her childhood in Salmon Falls. Her mother had, after her father's death, remarried to Albion Bradbury, whose house stands nearby. Widowed at the time, she named the house "Quillcote" (house of the pen), and lived there with her sister until both died.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiggin, Kate Douglas, House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Houses completed in 1797 Houses in York County, Maine National Register of Historic Places in York County, Maine Historic district contributing properties in Maine Hollis, Maine

Description and history

See also

References