It was a stunning summer day in Aroostook County. The sun shone hot and bright in the clear blue sky, and the fields spread out like a patchwork quilt as far as the eye could see. Potatoes and canola were in bloom, and their blossoms of pale lilac… Read More
If you visit the apartment of Annette Sohns, Tony Sohns and Chris Dodd, located on the first floor of a late Victorian-era house turned duplex on Fifth Street in Bangor, you can expect one of the following things to happen: Tony, 29, will play his… Read More
Jo Carol Alford hadn’t heard about Squire John Bennoch’s storied past. She had no idea that the wealthy Orono businessman had married four times. Nor did she know he had fathered more than a dozen kids. And if it weren’t for his third wife, he might never have… Read More
Sticks & Stones Acadian folklorist living in cottage he designed and built inspired by the Quebecois
On a steep hillside between Fort Kent and Frenchville sits a stone cottage straight out of a storybook. Time has weathered its cedar shake roof, and on a late fall morning, brilliant blossoms filled the boxes below each tall, mullioned window. In the backyard, mossy stone steps lead… Read More
Admit it. Every time you drive down Main Street in Orono, you can’t help but wonder what those big, beautiful homes look like inside. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i… Read More
On a recent afternoon, the sweet perfume of phlox filled the air in the garden at John and Lyndy Rohman’s house. It was one of those perfect late-summer days, when the rains from earlier in the day gave way to dazzling sunshine. The grass, lush… Read More
Nancy Graham is a woman of style. As the proprietor of Nancy’s, the designer boutique that graced downtown Bangor for two decades, she earned a reputation for impeccable taste and her commitment to quality. In those days, her slogan was, “Nancy’s: When the ordinary just won’t do.”… Read More
The more things change, the more they stay the same – just ask the Leonards. In the early 1960s, on their first day of college at the University of Maine, Ted Leonard and Sandra Blake sat next to each other in English class. Though they… Read More
Like the Blues Brothers, Loanne Spaulding was on a mission from God. A restoration veteran with impeccable taste, Spaulding knew the Christian Science church off Route 1 in Belfast would make a fabulous house. Every Sunday, she and her husband, Bruce, would drive by… Read More
Location. Location. Location. In the 1800s, Old Town had it all. The city sat at the confluence of two rivers, with swaths of forest on all sides and a railroad hub in its center. If ever a city were destined to become a lumber capital,… Read More
It remained standing while a devastating fire leveled everything else on the block. It tolerated 35 vacant, leaky years. It even survived urban renewal. But by 2000, it was clear that the tall, skinny building on Columbia Street in Bangor had seen better days. The… Read More
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… Read More
Marion and Mort Syversen keep a small triangle of crusty orange wood in the drawer of their kitchen island. It reminds them of the way the room looked when they moved in a decade ago – big, orange floral wallpaper from a 1960s remodel and varnished birch cabinets… Read More
Thankful Cottage boasts no intricate moldings. It has no stained-glass windows. It wasn’t designed by an architect. No heads of state slept here. No historic documents were signed in the living room. No one famous lived here. No one famous died here. It’s the type of house you’d… Read More
Summertime … and the living was easy for Susan Scherbel. She and her husband, Thomas Flynn, had come to Hancock Point from New York in 1996 to get away from it all. They just didn’t realize how far away from it all they’d end up. Read More
If you ask Melissa Brassbridge about the house at the bend of Route 1A in Frankfort, she can rattle off the owner’s name, address and phone number from memory, even though he lives in Kentucky. The town clerk knows it by heart because every summer, dozens of tourists… Read More
When Vincent and Eugenia Franco have visitors, it’s easy to give them directions: It’s the brick house on the corner of Summer and Cedar streets in Bangor. The big one with the red-painted facade and white pillars. You can’t miss it. “They all know where… Read More
Editor’s Note: “House Call” is a new monthly feature about houses we’ve always wondered about. Tell us about the ones that intrigue you at (800) 432-7964, ext. 8270; bdnstyle@bangordailynews.net; or the Style Desk, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, 04401. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More