KINEO TOWNSHIP – The Maine Historic Preservation Commission has nominated Kineo Cottage Row District, a group of privately owned cottages, to the National Register of Historic Places.

At its Nov. 7 meeting in Lewiston, the commission agreed to forward the nomination for the honorary recognition to the Washington, D.C., office. Its selection for the National Register, the federal government’s official list of historic properties worthy of preservation, should be known in early 2004.

If the cottage row district is included in the National Register, it will join the Breakwater, a two-story structure with eight covered porches, three clubrooms and several guest quarters located in Kineo Township, which was listed in 2002.

All but one of the eight cottages in the cottage row district were built in 1907, and two of them were done by the notable architectural firm of Coombs and Gibbs of Lewiston, according to Christi Mitchell, architectural historian with the commission.

“It’s very significant in the context of the summer tourist population on Moosehead Lake and Kineo in particular; it is the largest and last holistic, tangible remains of the Kineo House resort complex,” Mitchell said Thursday. Mitchell said all of the cottages are interrelated architecturally. She called the cottages a cohesive unit built in a particular time that tells a portion of the story of the once-famous Kineo Resort.

The row of cottages, which were leased out in early years, provided a different resort experience for visitors who chose not to stay in the former Mount Kineo resort.

The resort used to be visited by aristocrats, movie stars and royalty who came for the yacht races, ballroom dances, a game of golf on well-manicured laws, and sumptuous meals.

Because the cottages are privately owned, they are not eligible for grants but will receive a measure of protection from certain federally funded, permitted or licensed projects that might have an adverse effect on them, Mitchell said.