This house was designed for a couple without children and who intended to spend a significant amount of time in Maine during the year. Its interior was to be open and to take full advantage of the spectacular views. This was achieved by a plan just one room deep in which each major room has a corner view of the Penobscot Bay. Large windows on the east side and the greenhouse on the south were intended to collect the sun’s heat; at night, insulated shades retained the heat inside.

Without substantial size, this building achieves some stature through the rambling plan, the enlarged scale of its elements – cornice, trim and entrance – and from the slightly skewed formality of the main entrance façade. As is often the case with New England architecture in general, the composition of the building mass is additive – a series of small elements appended to a larger and more formal main element. The use of low-pitched hip roofs, painted clapboard siding and strictly symmetrical composition are characteristics of the coastal architecture of this area, and all are incorporated in this design.

Two massive granite chimneys, the stone for which was extracted from a local quarry, anchor the main block of the house. Stonework is tight fitting with no mortar joints showing and is intended to look laid up dry. The mass of the chimneys acts as a thermal anchor of the house, retaining the sun’s heat as well as that from the fireplaces and wood burning stoves. Between the chimneys, a stair ascending to the second opens at the top landing onto a spectacular panoramic view of the Bay.

The main elevations respond to different contextual demands. That facing the Bay is meant to be legible from a distance on the water, and consequently there is a rigid simplicity to the composition of the elements. On the main entrance side, approached by foot, the scale is much smaller and the composition is more nuanced and personal.

Its owners demolished the house, 14 years after taking occupancy, to make way for a larger shingle-style mansion.