Baxter House | |
Location | 67 South Street, Gorham, Maine |
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Coordinates | 43°40′37″N70°26′34″W / 43.67694°N 70.44278°W |
Built | 1797 |
Architectural style | Federal |
Part of | South Street Historic District (ID88000398) |
NRHP reference No. | 79000135 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | June 27, 1979 |
Designated CP | April 20, 1988 |
The Baxter House is an historic house museum at 67 South Street in Gorham, Maine, United States. Built in 1797, it was the birthplace of James Phinney Baxter, mayor of Portland . He was the father of two-term Governor of Maine Percival Baxter. The house was donated to the town by James Phinney Baxter in 1907, and opened as a museum in 1908. It is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from June to August. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. [1]
The Baxter House stands on the west side of South Street, a short way south of the town center, and immediately north of the Baxter Memorial Library. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof, a single off-center interior chimney, and clapboard siding. The (east-facing) front is symmetrical, with a central entrance flanked by short sidelight windows and pilasters, and topped by a Federal style semi-oval fan. A pair of small gabled dormers project from the roof, whose cornice has widely spaced pairs of brackets. A two-story ell extends to the rear. [2]
The house was built in 1797 by Isaac Gilkey, a local carpenter who is credited with other buildings in the South Street area. [3] It was acquired by Doctor Elihu Baxter in 1812, and is where is youngest son, James Phinney Baxter, was born in 1831. [4] Later 19th-century residents of the house included Dr. N. H. Cary and his daughter, the famous opera singer Annie Louise Cary. James Phinney Baxter repurchased his birthplace in 1907, and donated it to the town, with the stipulation that a library be built on its site, and that the home be preserved as a museum in honor of his father. The house was moved to its present location, just north of its original site, and the library was built in its place. [2] [3]
James Phinney Baxter served six terms as Mayor of Portland, Maine (1893-1896 and 1904–1905) and was a leading local businessman and philanthropist. Percival Baxter served two terms as Governor of Maine, and is best known for donating most of the land for Baxter State Park. [2] Annie Louise Cary became America's favorite singer in the third quarter of the 19th century.
Percival Proctor Baxter was an American politician and philanthropist from Maine. The son of canning magnate and Portland, Maine mayor James Phinney Baxter, he served as the 53rd Governor of the U.S. state of Maine from 1921 to 1925. A noted philanthropist, he donated several pieces of land to the public domain including Baxter Woods (Portland), Mackworth Island State Park (Falmouth), and Baxter State Park.
Baxter Boulevard is a boulevard and parkway in Portland, Maine. The roadway served as the means to head north from downtown Portland before Tukey's Bridge, now on Interstate 295 (I-295), was built. The road was part of U.S. Route 1 (US 1) until May 2007. The parkway wraps around the west side of Back Cove estuary basin.
James Phinney Baxter III was an American historian, educator, and academic, who won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Scientists Against Time (1946). He was also the author of The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship (1933).
James Phinney Baxter was an American politician, businessperson, historian, civic leader, and benefactor of Portland, Maine. He was elected as mayor of Portland for six single-year terms between 1893 and 1905.
Evergreen Cemetery is a garden style cemetery in the Deering neighborhood of Portland, Maine. With 239 acres (97 ha) of land, it is the largest cemetery in the state. Established in 1855 in what was then Westbrook, the cemetery is home to one of the state's most prominent collections of funerary art. The 140-acre (57 ha) historical portion of the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
This is an incomplete list of historic properties and districts at United States colleges and universities that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This includes National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) and other National Register of Historic Places listings. It includes listings at current and former educational institutions.
The Maine Historical Society is the official historical society of the U.S. state of Maine. It is located at 489 Congress Street in downtown Portland. The Society currently operates the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, a National Historic Landmark, Longfellow Garden, the Maine Historical Society Museum and Store, the Brown Research Library, as well as the Maine Memory Network, an online database of documents and images that includes resources from many of state's local historical societies.
The Western Promenade is a historic promenade, an 18.1-acre (7.3 ha) public park and recreation area in the West End neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Developed between 1836 and the early 20th century, it is one Portland's oldest preserved spaces, with landscaping by the Olmsted Brothers, who included it in their master plan for the city's parks. The promenade was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The McLellan House is an historic house at 140 School Street in Gorham, Maine, USA. Built in 1773, it is the oldest known brick house in Cumberland County, and possibly the entire state. It is now part of the Gorham campus of the University of Southern Maine (USM), housing the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation (CEPARE). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Gorham is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 18,336 at the 2020 United States Census. In addition to its urban village center known as Gorham Village or simply "the Village," the town encompasses a number of smaller, unincorporated villages and hamlets with distinct historical identities, including South Gorham, West Gorham, Little Falls, White Rock, and North Gorham. Gorham is home to one of the three campuses of the University of Southern Maine. In 2013, Gorham was voted second-best town in Maine after Hampden by a financial website.
The Baxter Memorial Library is the public library serving Gorham, Maine. It was built in 1908. The gift of James Phinney Baxter, the library building is constructed of pink granite and the interior is completed in red oak. In 2003, a 10,000 square feet (930 m2) addition became the primary library.
The Fifth Maine Regiment Community Center is a historic building at 45 Seashore Avenue on Peaks Island, an island neighborhood of Portland, Maine in Casco Bay. It was built in 1888 by American Civil War veterans "as a memorial to their deceased comrades and as a reunion hall for themselves." It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated a Greater Portland Landmark in 1984. Today it is open as a museum.
The Waterford Historic District encompasses the well-preserved historic town center, also known as Waterford Flat, of the rural inland town of Waterford, Maine. Settled in 1775, the town grew around a site where Kedar Brook empties into Keoka Lake. The oldest surviving building, the Lake House, dates to 1797, while most of the houses were built before 1850. Prominent public buildings include a series designed by John Calvin Stevens, including the Knight Library, Wilkins Community Hall, and First Congregational Church. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum is located at 109 Main Street, in the White Memorial Building, in Houlton, Maine. The museum was founded in 1937, after the building, a handsome 1903 Colonial Revival house, was donated to the town by the White family. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Houlton Museum's collections include artefacts and documents from Ricker Classical Institute and Ricker College; the photography collection of E. B. White; militaria and domestic objects; and art from the Houlton POW camp from WWII.
The Baxter Summer Home is a historic house on Mackworth Island, in Casco Bay off the coast of Falmouth, Maine. Now a centerpiece of the campus of the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, the house was built in 1917–18 by James Phinney Baxter, and was given to the state by his son Percival, a two-term Governor of Maine best known for establishing Baxter State Park. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The Gorham Historic District encompasses the traditional central civic area of Gorham, Maine. Incorporated in 1764, the town center is composed of a small cluster of civic and commercial buildings at School and Main Streets, with some residential properties radiating away. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, the district abuts the Gorham Campus Historic District, the historic core of the campus of the University of Southern Maine.
Miller & Mayo, later Miller, Mayo & Beal, was a prominent architectural firm from Portland, Maine, established in Lewiston in 1907.
The South Street Historic District encompasses an early residential area of Gorham, Maine. Located just south of Gorham's small commercial center, South Street is lined with an architecturally cohesive collection of about 20 late-18th and early-19th century houses, primarily interrupted only by the presence of the modest Colonial Revival Baxter Memorial Library. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
John P. Thomas (1886–1944) was an American architect in practice in Portland, Maine.
The Butler School is a historic schoolhouse turned apartment building in Portland, Maine, United States. Built from 1878 to 1879 at the cost of $8,000, the building served as an elementary school for West End students until 1973. It is located on Pine Street in Andrews Square. It is named for Moses M. Butler, who was mayor from 1877 to 1879. It was designed by local architect Francis H. Fassett in the High Victorian Gothic style; Fassett lived in the neighborhood and also designed many other nearby buildings on the Western Promenade. It was built to replace nearby Brackett Street School and itself was replaced by Howard C. Reiche Community School, which was built a block away on Brackett Street. It did not have a playground until 1945.