The Squire Chase House is a historic house on Main Street in

Fryeburg, Maine Fryeburg is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,369 at the 2020 census. Fryeburg is home to Fryeburg Academy, a semi-private preparatory school, and the International Musical Arts Institute. The town is also s ...

. The oldest portion of this house, now a portion of the elongated ell attached to the main block, was built c. 1767 by Nathaniel Merrill, one of the early settlers of Fryeburg after its land was granted to

Joseph Frye Joseph Frye (March 19, 1712 – July 25, 1794) was a renowned military leader from colonial Maine (then a part of Massachusetts). Life Born in Andover, Massachusetts, he obtained the rank of general in the Massachusetts militia after serv ...

in 1762. It was sold in 1799 to James Osgood, the son of another early settler. Stephen and Mary (Osgood) Chase inherited this property in 1824, and moved the main block of the house across the street to its present location, and attached the older house to it. The exterior of this house was

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

in styling, although its interior is now

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

in character.National Register nomination for Squire Chase House; available by request from the National Park Service The property was acquired in 1854 by David R. Hastings, who extended the main block's eaves, adding the brackets and cupola of the then-fashionable

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

. In 1908 the house was purchased Hattie Pike, a descendant of James Osgood, and was reported in 1979 to still be in the Pike family. The main block of the house connected via the ell to a 19th-century barn. A single-story porch extends across the south side of the house, and another extends across much of the eastern face of the ell. 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 1979. It is located on the northwest side of Main Street, just south of its junction with Bridgton Road, and opposite part of the campus of the Fryeburg Academy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Squire, House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Federal architecture in Maine Italianate architecture in Maine Houses completed in 1767 Houses in Oxford County, Maine Fryeburg, Maine 1767 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies National Register of Historic Places in Oxford County, Maine Historic district contributing properties in Maine

See also

References