Four Wiscasset homeowners opened their doors to visitors for the first “Homes on Tour” Saturday, July 9; Wiscasset Creative Alliance, the event’s sponsor, hopes this will become a new summertime tradition. The weather couldn’t have been better, blue sunny skies and comfortable temperatures. By noontime nearly 100 people had taken part in the tour. Three homes on High, Lee and Federal streets were included on the in-town tour with another one south of town on Birch Point Road. Visitors could visit them in any order they wished, and the three in the village district were within easy walking distance of one another.

The tour included the Joseph Emerson Smith House on Lee Street owned by William and Hannah Stewart. Here, Wiscasset Newspaper met Regina and Terry Stancill of Darlington, Maryland. The couple spend their summers in Friendship. “We love visiting Wiscasset and read about the home tour in the newspaper. It’s so wonderful to be able to see inside some of these beautiful homes,” commented Regina Stancill. Her husband said he couldn’t agree more. “You asked me what I like so much about Wiscasset. Well, it’s the feeling of permanence to things that’s here, the historic homes in particular. It’s wonderful that it has remained so unchanged over the years.”

The Smith mansion was built in 1865 in a Greek Revival style. It’s spacious inside with seven bedrooms and four bathrooms and has a small atrium in the front parlor. The property is large for an in town lot, 2.7 acres and beautifully landscaped with a small tree-shaded pond. In the 19th century it was home to Joseph Emerson Smith, an attorney and novelist and son to Samuel Emerson Smith who served as Maine’s 10th governor from 1831 to 1834. Gov. Smith’s mansion is a short distance away on High Street.

Sarah Whitfield, chairman of the Wiscasset select board, was checking in visitors at the front door of the Smith House. Whitfield is member of Wiscasset Creative Alliance’s board of directors and was excited about taking part in the first Home Tour. “We’ve had over 70 visitors so far and it’s not quite noontime,” she said.

On nearby High Street, Peggy Konitzy had a line of people waiting on the lawn outside the Cartlon House, the third house on the tour. Konitzy began by sharing some of the home’s history. She is both a historian and site manager for Castle Tucker and Nickels-Sortwell House, two other well-known historic properties in Wiscasset. Inside, Sally and William Gemmill were welcoming people into their home. Sally was in the foyer at the foot of the home’s very unique winding staircase while Bill was sitting in his favorite room, the library. “We’ve been partners in a number of homes tours sponsored by Historic New England,” he said.

Of the three in-town homes on the tour, the Carlton House has the most colorful history. It was built in a Federal style in 1804 and 1805 for Joseph Tinkham Wood but soon after occupied by Moses Carlton and his wife Abigail who lived there for 50 years. Barbara Bennett, a summer resident of Westport Island and her friend Lorraine Fournier from Bow, New Hampshire enjoyed the stories of the home as much as seeing the interior of the spacious, beautifully furnished Carlton House.

On Federal Street, Jennifer Jones and John Lepore were busy welcoming a steady stream of guests to their newly bought home which abuts Wiscasset’s Sunken Garden. Jones said they bought the house in April and have been slowly renovating it and researching its history. “I grew up right here in Wiscasset, this is my hometown, and where I’ve always wanted to be,” said Jones, one of six children of Wiscasset residents Steve and Pam Miete Jones. All the Jones children had first names starting with the letter “J”; Jennifer, Jessica, Johnna, Jamie, Juilette and Jordan, and all were graduates of Wiscasset Middle High School. Jones added her sister Jessica Hunter was married next door in a ceremony held in the Sunken Garden in 1995.

Built in 1784, this rambling salmon-colored, onetime farmhouse was owned from the 1970s to 2005 by Roland and Pearl “Choppy” Tarbox. The Tarboxes operated the store House and Barn, which sold yarn. For a few summers, their son sold ice cream from a takeout window in the side yard facing the Sunken Garden. The Tarboxes bought the house from the Perkins family who had lived here since the early 1900s. Steve Christiansen of Wiscasset said his great-grandmother Kate Perkins lived here most of her life.

“She could remember back to when the Hilton House hotel (where the Sunken Garden is today) burned down in the fall of 1903. I lived there too when I was a young child and remember being told that the house had one time been located on the corner of Main and Fort Hill Streets and was moved to where it now is,” said Christiansen. In recent years, previous owners of the property have operated an antique business and gallery here. Jones and Lepore are planning to open a business here later this summer called Bull Antiques & Décor which will be in the barn. Lepore’s parents have an antique business as well.

Not so far from the beaten path, Ron Sanchez and Thomas Cramer opened their beautifully landscaped home on Birch Point Road which they call “Ledge Cottage.” The contemporary home includes a covered patio, an artist studio and wine cellar. It was listed first on the event brochure.

Chris Erickson of the Wiscasset Creative Alliance board and liaison between the board and the event planning stated in an email to Wiscasset Newspaper he was “Very happy with the turnout for our first year. I understand we sold about 180 to 185 tickets; 165 people came to Ledge Cottage at 523 Birch Point Road. I asked many as they left if they had a good time and all said yes and all said they would attend next year’s event!”

Many months went into planning the tour that included two properties in Alna – Nordstrom Studio and the 1789 Alna Meetinghouse, both on Route 218. While in Wiscasset, visitors were encouraged to visit Maine Art Gallery on Warren Street. The gallery is housed in the former Wiscasset Academy erected in 1807. They were also encouraged to visit the Old Jail Museum on Federal Street, Castle Tucker on Lee Street and the 1807 Nickels-Sortwell House and Sunken Garden, both on Main Street. Sponsors of the tour include Barnhouse Grill, BIRCH Home Furnishings & Gifts, Carriage House Gardens, Joseph Zoellers Interiors, Poe Cilley/William Raveis Luxury Properties, Sherri Dunbar/Tim Dunham Realty, Water Street Kitchen & Bar, and Maine Tasting Center.

Proceeds from ticket sales were to benefit Wiscasset Creative Alliance, a collaboration of volunteers, businesses and community partners working together to offer year-long family-friendly experiences. Learn more at www.wiscassetcreativealliance.org

Wiscasset’s original “Open House Day” began in the 1920s and continued until the 1960s. For one day in August the owners of some of the finest and most historic homes in “Maine’s Prettiest Village” opened their doors to visitors for guided tours. A public luncheon was held on the town common to coincide with the event. Monies raised benefited Wiscasset Public Library which is still going strong today and a group no longer active called Wiscasset Village Improvement Society. The event was hugely popular; a guest book surviving from 1937 reveals Wiscasset Open House Day had over 400 signatures that included visitors from 30 states and from Canada, Spain and London, England.

Information on the Wiscasset homes was found in William D. Patterson’s “Old Wiscasset,” published in 1931 and revised by J.B. Doggett in 1951.