The Nickels-Sortwell House is 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 ...

at 121 Main Street in

Wiscasset Wiscasset is a town in and the seat of Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The municipality is located in the state of Maine's Mid Coast region. The population was 3,742 as of the 2020 census. Home to the Chewonki Foundation, Wiscasset is a ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, United States. Built in 1807 by a wealthy ship's captain, the house was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1970 as an exceptionally high-quality example of the

Federal style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

of architecture. After serving as a hotel for much of the 19th century, the house returned to private hands in 1900. It was given to Historic New England in 1958, which gives tours of the house between May and October.

Description

The Nickels-Sortwell House is set facing south on a sideways-sloping lot on the north side of Main Street ( U.S. Route 1) in the center of Wiscasset. It is a three-story wood-frame structure, five bays wide and deep, the length including a rear ell. It has a low-pitch

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

and is set on a granite foundation. The front facade is finished in flushboard, while the remainder of the house is clapboarded. On the first floor, the middle three bays are outlined by slightly projecting arches, the central bay (where the entrance is) being slightly wider. The entry consists of a single door, flanked by

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s and sidelight windows embellished with oval tracery, and topped by a semi-elliptical

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

with similar tracery. The entry is sheltered by a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

supported by four Corinthian columns, with a latticework

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

on top. Above the central projecting arches, four fluted Corinthian pilasters rise to the roof level. The fenestration of the bays other than the central one is uniform; there is a

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

window at the second level in the center, and a half-round window at the third level, exhibiting tracery similar to that found in the entry windows. The interior of the house has a modified central-hall plan, with the central hall divided by a partition into a front public hall and a rear service hall, which is continued to the service rooms in the rear ell. The front hall is semi-oval in shape, and is divided crosswise by an arch. Doorways in the front half lead left and right into large parlor spaces, and a free-standing spiral staircase rises in the center. The interior retains much of its original woodwork, including window seats and recessed inside shutters for the windows.

History

The house was built in 1807 by Captain William Nickels, a ship owner and trader. The style and age of the building reflect "a period when shipbuilding and the maritime trade brought prosperity and sophisticated tastes to this riverside community." Nickels, whose earlier success had enabled him to build such a lavish house, was financially ruined by the Embargo of 1807 and the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, and died in 1815. From 1820 to 1900 the house was operated as a hotel. During this time a number of alterations were made to the interior, including subdividing some of its bedrooms. The house was purchased in 1899 by Alvin F. Sortwell of

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, and redecorated by his family in the then-fashionable Colonial Revival style. The

solarium Solarium may refer to: * A sunroom, a room built largely of glass to afford exposure to the sun * A terrace (building) or flat housetop * The '' Solarium Augusti'', a monumental meridian line (or perhaps a sundial) erected in Rome by Emperor Augu ...

in the northeast corner was added by the Sortwells, as was the present entry portico, which replaced a broader porch added during the hotel period. The Sortwells also repurchased a parcel to the rear of the house that had been subdivided from the Nickels holdings, and built a

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...

on it. The garden in between was designed by Charles Eliot II of the Olmsted Brothers landscape design firm. Frances Sortwell, the daughter of Alvin and Gertrude Sortwell, bequeathed the property to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) in 1958. The property was designated a

and 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 1970, and is a contributing property to the

Wiscasset Historic District The Wiscasset Historic District is a historic district that encompasses substantially all of the central village of Wiscasset, Maine. The district includes at least 22 contributing buildings and two other contributing sites, one being a cemete ...

, listed in 1973. It is open seasonally June 1 - October 15 for tours; admission is charged, except for members of Historic New England. Part of the house is now also available as a short-term vacation rental.

References

External links

Nickels-Sortwell House
- official site {{Historic New England Houses completed in 1807 Hotels established in 1830 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Defunct hotels in the United States National Historic Landmarks in Maine Historic house museums in Maine Museums in Lincoln County, Maine Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Houses in Lincoln County, Maine Buildings and structures in Wiscasset, Maine Historic New England 1830 establishments in Maine National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, Maine Historic district contributing properties in Maine

Description

History

See also

References

External links