A one-room cottage without running water and a composting toilet in the base of a decorative lighthouse put this island getaway in Canton in the spotlight on Zillow Gone Wild, which posted the unusual home Thursday on Instagram.
Local resident Charles Ray built the lighthouse and cottage in 1937, assembling enough local field stone to create a man-made island in a shallow area of Anasagunticook Lake, said real estate agent Rebecca LaBrie of Meservier & Associates in Auburn, which is handling the sale.
The home is about a 40-minute drive north of Lewiston. The 480-square-foot cottage, lighthouse and small slice of nearby shoreland is selling for $400,000, down $25,000 from when it was first listed in late May.
LaBrie said one deal fell through because the would-be buyer wanted to build a bath house on the shoreland lot that wasn’t allowed. All of the prospective buyers that have looked at it so far were from out of state, the most recent a Vermonter who passed due to the lack of running water.
“People are looking for something different on the water where they can boat and fish,” LaBrie said. “But I don’t think a lot of people from out-of-state have spent a lot of time without running water, and the composting toilet is something different for them.”
The home has been used seasonally. The current owner, Mary Seaman, has had it for two years. LaBrie said it might have been just too remote for Seaman, who used to own The Great Outdoors event space on Pleasant Pond in nearby Turner.
“She’s a single lady out there,” LaBrie said. “She thought it would be cool to own it and then realized that it was a little remote.”
This isn’t the first Maine island for sale where the appeal of peace, quiet and remoteness had mixed responses. A Down East getaway on Duck Ledges Island was listed for sale a couple of years ago touting sound sleep and no mosquitoes, but before you could buy it, you had to show the seller you could survive a night there. Someone closed on it last summer.
LaJoie said when she visits the island in Canton it is so peaceful and quiet that she doesn’t want to leave. She likes to look at the trees on the shore. The island has no trees for shade, but plenty of sunshine.
Water is from the lake, and a bathroom visit involves walking from the cottage to the base of the lighthouse, where the composting toilet awaits. The open-concept home, which was renovated in 2022, includes a triple bunk bed built into one wall and a queen-sized bed. The home is for seasonal use, having bottled gas, wood and propane for heat and cooking.
The Canton property includes two deeds, one for the island structures and the other for a small slice of shoreland in the Oxford County town of 1,100 residents. The land is about 100-feet long and 38-feet wide with a sandy beach and dock to launch a small boat to the island. A camper that could include a shower and toilet is allowed on the land for three months at a time, LaBrie said.
The property is known as Rocky Mecca after the Rockemeka village once inhabited by Abenaki Indians on Canton Point, according to collectors’ website WorthPoint.
