The photos were taken by George W. French for the Maine Development Commission between 1941 and 1949. The houses he captured were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, primarily for wealthy merchants and sea captains.
- The rectangles on the door are a nice contrast to the curving, carved doorway.
- A pretty decorative balcony on a door in Wiscasset.
- Carved patterns welcome visitors to a grandly-designed duplex.
- Etched glass windows and rows of columns frame a door in Fryeburg.
- Grand Ionic columns flank a relatively modest door.
• See more: Maine State Archives
(Images: George W. French, Maine State Archives)
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Love all of these! (I was going to put, "especially #blah blah bah," but they are all great.)
OMG my tiny little hometown - Fryeburg!
Is there something that makes these doors distinctly Maine doors? No snark, just my own curiousity about vernacular architecture.
Nitpicky comment: there's no such thing as Federalist architecture. It's Federal-period architecture. A federalist is someone who adheres to a certain set of political concepts.
Otherwise, great post! Beautiful buildings, nice resource.
so romantic ~ doorways to some fascinating lives, no doubt...
@vintage birthday, one of those is mine...or my family's, at least. I spent childhood summers in house #3 at that link, the one in Parsonsfield -- it was my mother's family's ancestral home. http://www.maine.gov/sos/arc/graphics/Semi-circular-sidelights.jpg
A great old house...lots of rooms, and home to generations of academics (mostly in the sciences, especially botany) and pack-rats. :-) More on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazo-Leavitt_House
I have a few pieces original to the house in my own (much more humble) home. Fun to find this here!
Great feature. I live in a historic area that has quite a few federal period homes - some of which look very much like the ones featured here.