Like many homes in the communities that surround Penobscot Bay, the weathered old colonial at 326 Main St. in Stockton Springs once housed a sea captain.
In this case, the captain was Wilson Hichborn, a relative of the Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere, according to a history of the town. Born in 1820, Hichborn went to sea at a young age and was leading ships by the time he was 21, but he spent most of his later life farming — presumably on land around his home.
Little other information is easily available about the 6-bedroom, white-clapboarded structure, other than that it later served as an inn and a horse-riding camp with the distinctive name of “Tally-Ho.”
Soon, though, the historic 9-acre property could enter a new chapter. Stockton Springs officials are close to purchasing it after it was recently listed for sale with an asking price of $250,000.
The town expects to close on the deal at the end of this month and eventually develop the site into a new headquarters for its fire and ambulance services.
“Feb. 1, we will be signing the papers on Tally-Ho, and it will officially become ours at that point,” Select Board member Betsy Bradley said this week, during a meeting at the town office, which is just a few hundred feet away from the property.
Officials have declined to share many other details about the purchase, including whether they plan to preserve or demolish the nearly 200-year-old structure that sits on the land.
First built in 1830, the building eventually passed to Eugene Johnson, who in the 1940s opened the Tally-Ho Inn and its associated riding camp, according to the town history.
The town has been considering purchasing the property for months, with the Select Board discussing it on Aug. 12. At the time, the property’s owner was negotiating to keep his possessions in the home until May of this year and hold garage and yard sales there, according to meeting minutes.
The current owners of the property are Gary and Deborah Donaldson of New Haven, Connecticut, according to local tax records.
