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A visually striking home that was long falling apart along Route 1 in Searsport finally came down for good this week, when its new owner received permission from the town to burn it down.
The demolition was welcome news for local officials, who first ordered the building at 386 East Main St. to be torn down almost a decade ago because it was too dangerous to stay standing.
But the fire also wiped away one example of the rich history of seamanship that exists in Searsport, as well as in the midcoast more broadly.
That home was originally built in the 1800s by sea captain Joseph Loomis Park.
While there is no easily available information about Park, he was hardly the only sea captain to settle in Searsport. Sailing played an outsized role in the small town during the 19th century, with numerous local shipyards and an estimated 200 captains living there during that period.
Now, another of their historical homes has fallen, and there are others in the region that are in varying levels of disrepair, like one that had been owned by shipwright Franklin Treat in the nearby town of Frankfort.
But a number of the ornate structures are still standing, according to Cipperly Good, curator at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport. She estimated that about half of the town’s homes that were originally built and owned by sea captains during the 19th century are still around.
“We think the earliest is mid-to-late 1840s, and the latest would be 1870s,” Good said. “They’re the ones that had money, so they’re really well-built.”
Many of the remaining ones still serve as private homes due to the sometimes painstaking work of subsequent owners to maintain and preserve them. Others have been converted to restaurants or lodging establishments, such as the Homeport Inn and Tavern, and the Captain Nickels Inn.
While not all masters of the sea made it big in the 1800s, many of them did, and their homes were meant to reflect their prosperity.
That’s evident in some of the ones that are still standing in and around Searsport.
In 1864, Treat constructed his residence in Frankfort with three floors, six bedrooms, and plenty of other amenities. Captain John P. Nichols built his own home just a year later on what’s now Route 1, with 11 bedrooms, 12 full bathrooms, multiple fireplaces and elegant details throughout.
As for the home that was demolished this week, its new owners have not yet identified any future development plans for the site, according to a representative for its new owner, Stockton Springs builder Robert Lambeth.
