Overlooking Christmas Cove, Maine | House For Sale

It was built some 200 years ago on an island (accessible by a bridge) in one of the oldest and most desirable summer communities on the Maine coast …

One rather chilly spring day a couple of months ago, we decided to mosey “down east.” After a short visit to L.L. Bean in Freeport (how could anyone go through Freeport without doing that?), we proceeded east on U.S. Route 1 to Damariscotta, where we began our lovely winding drive on Route 129 down the Pemaquid Peninsula to the picturesque little fishing village of South Bristol. From there we crossed a small bridge over to Rutherford Island. Less than a mile beyond, we arrived at what we immediately recognized as the deepwater harbor known as Christmas Cove. Voilà—we were where we wanted to be. We’d been corresponding with Stephen Mohr, one of the owners (with his brother and sister) of a historic 1820 cottage overlooking Christmas Cove, and there was no mistaking it—particularly with Stephen standing on its front deck whistling and waving!

We’d arrived at what has been known in the area for more than a hundred years as “The Homestead.” Incidentally, the reason Christmas Cove is so named is that the famous seafaring explorer Captain John Smith (remember him from your high-school history?) sought shelter here one stormy Christmas Eve back in about 1614. “Christmas Cove” he proclaimed it, and the name has stuck through all the years since.

A few minutes later, we were sitting with Stephen at the dining-room table near the adjacent living room, featuring three large windows overlooking, you guessed it, Christmas Cove. What a view! There were two comfortable chairs in front of those windows. “My mother loved to sit over there every morning and just gaze out at that view,” Stephen said, going on to explain how deeply rooted in this place his family has been over multiple generations. Seems that his grandfather, Dr. Leonard Matthews, provided free medical services to area lobstermen and their families every summer and was, of course, much loved.

“Everyone simply referred to my sister, brother, myself, and our cousins as ‘Doc Matthews’s kids,’” Stephen recalled, “and we truly led a charmed life every summer.” Even after his father passed away, Stephen’s grandmother and then his mother (now, sadly, confined to an Alzheimer’s unit in Augusta) were very much a part of the summer-colony life here year after year.

Stephen, a landscape architect by profession, is still emotionally attached to the place, but nowadays he and his wife, Tanya, live year-round on Peaks Island in Portland Harbor. (We intend to mosey out there soon and see what’s available.) His brother now lives in Montana, while his sister is in Pennsylvania. So, yes, all in all it seems time to part with their beloved family gathering place. Also, the proceeds from the sale would help provide for their mother’s necessary, and expensive, care.

Now for a few specifics: The asking price is $375,000, which includes the house and 0.32-acre lot; a small but very nice barn behind the house, built recently to serve as a storage and guest facility; a propane-fueled furnace installed two years ago; a dug well and private septic system, along with a propane-powered generator; and, very importantly, part ownership of the waterfront property in front of the house, which therefore provides legal access down to the water as well as rights to install an outhaul. It also allows for the occasional cutting of the brush that sometimes creeps up in front of the view.

As for the house itself, it was expanded about a hundred years ago to now include four bedrooms (the kids love the loft bedroom), two bathrooms (one with a stacked Frigidaire washer and dryer), living room, dining area, entrance area, various closets, and so forth. Historic features include a period Rumford fireplace (with oven), exposed beams, and antique wooden floors. There’s a lovely 15-by-16-foot deck out front, too. In sum, we loved the place.

—

Later that afternoon it was time for us to hit the road again and head home. As the Yankee Moseyer, we always seem to be on the move. But, oh, how we’d love to have settled for a while into one of those comfy chairs next to the windows overlooking Christmas Cove. 

For details, contact Joseph Sortwell, LandVest, 23 Main St., Camden, ME 04843. 207-236-3543; jsortwell@landvest.com. Read classic HFS stories from our archives at: YankeeMagazine.com/house-for-sale.