The story of Beth Boisvert’s and Orin Buetens’ move from Baltimore to Maine reads a little bit like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

The Italianate home they toured in Bangor was big. Way too big. The remodeled farmhouse in Orono was the right size, but it lacked a formal dining room for holiday meals and family gatherings. The Hampden house looked great online, but when they visited, it wasn’t what they had in mind, so they flew back to Maryland and figured they’d have to wait.

Then the Israel Washburn House, a Greek Revival house on the National Register of Historic Places, came on the market. It was just right.

“We drove up Saturday, saw the house for an hour, bought it and drove back,” Boisvert said. “We knew it was just the house we wanted.”

When they moved to Maine two years ago, Boisvert was making the transition from lawyer to stay-at-home mom, and her husband, a doctor, had recently accepted a position with a Bangor practice. They have two daughters, Celia, 20 months old, and Katherine, who is 31/2.

“I said since I’m staying home with the kids, the house is going to be a huge factor,” Boisvert, 35, recalled while sitting in a spacious family room overlooking the wooded backyard. “We decided to get the dream house right away.”

From an old-house lover’s perspective, the Washburn house is dreamy. Its gracious front porch and balcony supported by Ionic columns look much the same as they did when the house was built in 1840. The intricately carved trim, typical of more elaborate homes of the period, is still intact.

“It’s really an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture,” Earle Shettleworth Jr. of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission said. “It’s one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in Orono.”

An extensive interior renovation by the home’s previous owner, Mary Cathcart, updated the essentials while retaining the home’s character and architectural integrity.

“She has beautiful taste, so we’ve benefited from that,” Boisvert said.

When Boisvert and Buetens toured the house, each room they entered became their new favorite as they discovered beautiful hardwood floors in the double parlor, marble and tile fireplaces, a kitchen built for cooks and an elegant formal dining room – perfect for the family gatherings Boisvert had envisioned.

The landscape was equally intriguing. A suspended footbridge spans the backyard’s ravinelike terrain, winding toward a level glen in the distance. The rounded family room, an early ’80s addition, features floor-to-ceiling windows, a deck that overlooks the property and columns that mirror the facade.

“They just really put a lot of attention to detail into matching it with the house,” Boisvert said. “It makes it feel like it’s all one.”

Cathcart, a Mississippi native, said the house reminded her of the beautiful Greek Revivals in New Orleans. She considered herself a steward of the home, and when she planned to put on the addition, she consulted an architect.

“We didn’t want something that would stick out like a modern addition and ruin the lines of the house,” Cathcart said.

In addition to the home’s obvious architectural appeal, its pedigree is historically significant. The original owner, Israel Washburn Jr., was a Livermore native whose family homestead is now known as the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center.

He came to Orono to practice law and later was elected to Congress, representing the Penobscot District. His “moderate stand on anti-slavery” added to his popularity, according to Kerck Kelsey’s biography “Israel Washburn Jr.: Maine’s Little-Known Giant of the Civil War.” By the mid-1850s, he split from the Whig party and became one of the founders of the Republican Party. As governor of Maine, he was pivotal in mustering regiments for the Civil War.

Perhaps it’s his anti-slavery bent that sparked rumblings of a link to the Underground Railroad – a tunnel to the Penobscot that runs beneath the house. While showing a guest the dining room, Boisvert stopped at a bay window that faces Main Street.

Only two of its three sides are glass. The other side has a narrow, locked door where the panes would be. Whatever was behind the door has since been blocked.

“Supposedly the dining room has this secret passageway,” Boisvert said. “[Cathcart’s husband, James Dearman] was saying this was it.”

Cathcart’s children searched for tunnels in the ravine, and they found a bricked-off passageway in the basement.

“I don’t know, I don’t know … but you know from the history of Israel Washburn he was famous for his abolitionist speeches.”

Whether or not anyone can confirm the Underground Railroad rumors, they have become part of Orono lore.

Stories like this are part of the reason why Boisvert is drawn to older homes. A small, framed portrait of Washburn graces one of the parlor’s two fireplaces, and a tribute to Washburn, which ran in the Bangor Whig and Courier, hangs in the foyer. The sofa in the front hallway has changed hands each time the house has changed owners, and it may be original to the house.

Boisvert grew up in a historic home in Massachusetts, and her three sisters live in older homes, as well. The Israel Washburn House is the newest of them all.

“I guess it runs in the family,” she said, laughing. “Hopefully these girls someday will want to buy an old house.”

For now, they’re content playing in the family room, running down the home’s long hallways and dancing in the parlor.

“We think Orono’s a great place to raise kids, and we certainly love this house,” Boisvert said. “We hope to be one of the owners that stays here for 20 years. With a house like this, you’re not the owner, you’re just a temporary caretaker, and we hope to be caretakers for quite some time.”

Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.

The Israel Washburn House

Location: Main Street, Orono

Landmark: On the National Register of Historic Places since Dec. 1, 1977

Architectural style: Greek Revival

Bedrooms: 5

Original fireplaces: 6

Interesting features: Intricate carved exterior molding; a possible link to the Underground Railroad; a porthole window near the side entrance; pocket shutters on the old, wavy-glass windows; built-in china cabinets; and a niche in the formal dining room to hold an urn – or a pair of coconut monkeys that were a vacation souvenir.