The William Colburn House is a historic house at 91 Bennoch Road in
Orono, Maine
Orono () is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Located on the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers, it was first settled by American colonists in 1774. They named it in honor of Chief Joseph Orono, a sachem of the indigenous Penobsc ...
. It was built about 1780 by William Colburn, one of the area's first white settlers, and is one of the few 18th-century houses surviving in Maine's central interior. 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 ...
in 1973.
Description and history
The William Colburn House is located north of Orono's downtown, on the west side of Bennoch Road (
Maine State Route 16
State Route 16 (SR 16) is a numbered state highway in Maine, United States. SR 16 runs from the New Hampshire state line (signed as NH-16) at Wentworth Location (near Lake Aziscohos) in the west to Orono at the eastern terminus. Sta ...
), between Noyes and Winterhaven Drives. It is set on a terrace above the road, and would at one time have had views of the
Stillwater River. The house is a -story Cape style wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side gable roof, two interior brick chimneys, clapboard siding, and a granite foundation. The center bay contains an unusually wide doorway, that includes flanking sidelight windows and a fanlight. The interior of the house retains original woodwork and finishes, include wide pine floors, wainscoting, and a large kitchen fireplace with crane and builtin ovens.
The house was built in 1780 by William Colburn, who first arrived in the area in 1774 with his father Jeremiah. They fled the area at the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
in 1775, and returned in 1780, at which time they built two houses. One of them was destroyed by fire. This house is believed to be one of the oldest surviving 18th-century houses at such a great distance from the coast of Maine.
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See also
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colburn, William, House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Colonial architecture in the United States
Houses completed in 1780
Houses in Orono, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Penobscot County, Maine