Looking forward to 2010

We are so excited about 2010 plans for Historic Homes of Maine. This is going to be one of the premier marketing outlets for the unique and special homes of our entire State! Can't wait to share more information.

SOLD

One of the most beautiful landmarks in Portland West End neighborhood. This property at the corner of Vaughn and Pine Streets has been sold and is being converted from stunning apartments to luxury condos. So great that people are going to be able to own these fantastic units. It was our honor to represent the sellers to make this sale a reality. We look forward to working with many, many more clients in the Portland market.

Bath, Maine

This property in Bath has some of the most wonderful details of any historic home we have seen.

Inn now Home...

The Tides was built as a summer home in the late 1800's as West Street in Bar Harbor was becoming known as Millionaire's Row. Today, West Street is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The sellers have been running a very exclusive shorefront inn here but the new owners are planning to keep it for themselves, sharing it with a family that loves Bar Harbor and Maine.

Linda Jonas represented the buyers and Pat Coston represented the sellers. Congratulations to ALL!

Historic Maine Home Styles

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=291256&ac=Home

Website

Getting very excited about the new Historic Homes of Maine website. Working with our web designer who created maineinnsforsale.com. The sites will be very similar but some fun surprises in store for the Historic site. Everyone with an historic home in Maine that is for sale is going to want it here! Stay tuned!

Milbridge Maine

Absolutely amazing to see prices in different locations of Maine on historic homes.

Kenniston Hill

This Boothbay property has long been a favorite and is truly an historical Maine property.

Dark Harbor House UNDER CONTRACT

Photo Credits

Meant to give photo credits in the earlier post.

The shots of the group on tour and John Bennett with fangs are courtesy of Bradley. The winter shot of Western Promenade is by Dana. :-)

Greater Portland Landmarks Day

What a fantastic walking tour and class from Greater Portland Landmarks yesterday for our Historic Homes of Maine specialists. After a tour of the Charles B Clarke mansion - which we have listed - we proceeded on a two hour walking tour with Tom Caron, and EXCELLENT guide.

At the end of that chilly but great session we returned to The Pomegranate Inn where the executive director of GPL talked to us about the importance of keeping Historic Homes true and GPLs role in this. Hillary was an excellent speaker and very inspiring.

Scot Fuller's team at Pomegranate then served us an amazing lunch that included the most delicious onion soup ever! A great day attended by: Linda Jonas, Betty Bryer, Gail Caruso, John Bennett, Keith Henley, Erica Bates, Dana Moos, Mary Purslow, Cissy Leonardi, Ted Koehler, Bradley Stager, Midge Smith and Jan Moore.

Williamson House in Belfast

Never have we had more requests from the press for information on a house like we have on this Belfast landmark. Really astounding.

Bass Harbor

Listing broker, Carroll Fernald, brought this to my attention. An historic building, with significant local history, turned into contemporary homes.

The former Underwood Sardine Factory had a fascinating history that is outlined on the Maine Preservation website. http://www.mainepreservation.com/Endangered/underwoodcannery.shtml

For information on the two units for sale:

http://www.swanagency.com/detail/Bass%20Harbor/5G%20Granville%20Road/4116105

Guilford Maine

This is a sensational Historic Home renovation completed by local craftsmen. For more information see listing broker Dana Moos's blog at http://www.maineinnbroker.blogspot.com/

Maine Sunday Telegram

Article reviewing book on the evolution of Bar Harbor... off to buy a copy! :-)

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=286774&ac=Audience

Historic Homes Brokers

If you are a real estate professional in Maine who loves and understands historic homes, we may have a future working together. We have clients throughout the Maine coast contacting us about listing property as they have been looking for the specialist aspect of our company.
We will soon be expanding our brokerage team of Historic Homes specialists. If you are an independent, ethical and enthusiastic Realtor who loves this segment of the business, keep us in the back of your mind. We'll be especially interested in talking to brokers in the mid Coast and Portland area.

East Blue Hill

Midge Smith in our Blue Hill office just listed a beautiful property, the exact sort of home that we look forward to working with and giving great exposure with our new division.

Lost Bar Harbor

How many times have you looked at Lost Bar Harbor? I just did again and never get bored. It is the only time I ever wish I had been born earlier,,, :-) Would have been fun to be around Bar Harbor during the height of the "cottage" years.
If you haven't seen this book, you are missing out.

PRESS RELEASE

Take a look at the Press Release for our new division on our website. www.swanagency.com.

Just click on Press and Press Releases.

Western Promenade Home

Pick up the current issue of Portland Magazine to see a great article by Colin Sargent on the Charles Clarke House on the corner of Western Promenade and Pine Street in Portland's West End. This beauty is a Swan SIR listing and was just reduced to $2,400,000.
Photo of beautiful foyer on the magazine's webpage. www.portlandmagazine.com

More Pictures of Grey Havens in Georgetown

Grey Havens was built in 1906 as a summer hotel in the midst of a summer colony and was originally called Seguinland.

Historic MAINE HOMES

Erica just bought a beautiful book that Historic Home lovers would enjoy.

Historic MAINE HOMES - 300 Years of Great Houses
Photography by Brian Vanden Brink Text by Christopher Glas
Having fun perusing...

Facebook!

You can now follow us on Facebook!! Be a FAN.

Portland Magazine

Shots of our listing at 161 Pine Street in Portland's West End on Portland Magazine's website.
http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2009/06/west-end-pearls/

Devilstone

Located on Bar Harbor's prestigous Shorepath, this cottage was designed by Rotch and Tilden of Boston and built in 1885 for Mrs George Bowler. The main section of the house was torn down in 1968. Today's Devilstone is the wing that was added onto the original cottage in 1928.

For more listing information: http://www.swanagency.com/

Broker Specialist Candidates

The following Swan brokers are candidates for the Historic Homes of Maine specialist designation:
Betty Bryer, Gail Caruso, Mary Purslow, Jan Moore, John Bennett, Keith Henley, Erica Bates, Dana Moos, Linda Jonas, Midge Smith, Carroll Fernald and Cissy Leonardi.

Expect GREAT things!

Thanks Followers!

Thank you to all of our new followers as we get ready to LAUNCH!! :-)

Greater Portland Landmarks

Working to pull together course with Greater Portland Landmarks for brokers. This course is one of the requirements for a Historic Home Specialist designation at the Company. We have a great group of brokers signed up.

Grey Havens

A fantastic new listing, wonderful history. More to come.

Martha Stewart's Maine Home

Tomorrow, on the new season of the Martha Stewart Show, Martha is taking viewers on a tour of her historical Seal Harbor home. A spectacular property, it was built for carmaker Edsel Ford. This will be the first time that viewers see the house and grounds of this incredible estate.
I remember a visit to Skylands before Ms. Stewart purchased it, it was the first time I met George Ballantyne of Sotheby's who gave us a tour. My first recollection is a fireplace that you could walk into, it was so huge.
Check out website for some video of what the show will have. http://www.marthastewart.com

Tower of Silence

As the story goes... Joseph Pulitzer was bothered by the sound of the ocean waves lapping and crashing in front of his summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine. He had local craftsmen build him a "tower of silence" where he could go to sleep when the ocean was "acting up". My house, today, sits next to the site of the former Pulitzer estate. Alas, the only thing left is the remains of the tower's foundation, seen here on my neighbor's property.

DownEast Magazine Launch Ad

Tonya and I - and the brokers - have been working really hard on the Historic Homes of Maine launch ad in DownEast Magazine. There are going to be nine beautiful historic homes featured, from Bar Harbor to Kennebunkport and lots of places in between. These properties are Swan listings even before we launch our new division. Just imagining how far our representation of these homes and properties will go when our niche market project launches.

New Brokers

I am quickly realizing that there is no way we are going to do this new company division justice without recruiting new brokers for the team.
Even before we have officially launched, things are just buzzing about a real estate team dedicated to and being aware of the histories of Maine's incredible homes.
I can't wait to launch but so glad we are getting all of our ducks in a row first. No doubt that I will have to deal with several "imitiation is the sincerest form of flattery" comments to do with yet one more Swan Agency project.

Launch Ads

Working hard on ads announcing the launch of Historic Homes of Maine of The Swan Agency Sotheby's International Realty.
DownEast Magazine and Portland Magazine, coming issues will include historical property listings in Bar Harbor, Portland, Waldoboro, Somesville, Blue Hill, Castine, Kennebunkport among others.
Very, very exciting time for us all.

The Tides - Bar Harbor

Located on West Street, known in the late 1800's as Millionaire's Row, in Bar Harbor, The Tides is a true beauty. The house was designed by Arthur Rotch of the extremely prominent Boston architectural firm of Rotch and Tilden. It was built in 1887, a Greek Revival waterfront home constructed to the owner's exacting desires. The house was designed for and built for Mr. and Mrs. William B. Rice of Boston. The original floorplans still exist. Visit http://www.swanagency.com/ for more information.

Portland Properties

In the continuing effort to "practice what we preach" at The Swan Agency Sotheby's International Realty - I am the proud owner of two properties on either end of the Neal Street - Carroll to Pine block - that each have Greater Portland Landmark Plaques.

Looking forward to doing more research this week.

Blue Hill

Our newest Historic Home listing is Kalmia Knoll, built in 1914 as a summer retreat for John Davidson. The architect was C. E. Cutler of Westport CT.

The home is situated on a private peninsula with 7.8 acres and 1100’ of shoreline. The grounds of this handsome estate are graced with mature trees and private gardens. The site was selected to provide a very select household with comfort and privacy. The extensive lawns & gardens, sweeping ocean front, a bit of quiet forest, a wide land buffer and a magnificent structure combine to provide an exquisite, private retreat.

The well crafted home has been carefully held in its original grandeur of precisely fashioned granite & cypress. Designed with ocean views from every room, the spacious and flowing rooms are suitable and comfortable for entertaining, family get away, corporate retreat and other nearly endless possibilities. The front terrace leads to the private pier and deep water anchorage. The newly re-constructed seawall, a few feet from the swept-back wings was thoughtfully built to follow the contours on the coastline.

Sprucewold Lodge

The historic properties in Maine continue to astound me.

I had the pleasure of visiting Sprucewold Lodge in Boothbay Harbor and was amazed at the authenticity of this property, located SO close to the bustle of BBH.

I felt like I was in the Northwoods of Maine, it was so quiet, so real, so calming. The visions of weddings and reading books on the porch were vibrant in my mind and how many past generations must have done just that.

Specialists

We are establishing the educational and experience requirements to qualify as a Historic Homes of Maine specialist. First and foremost, brokers will need to take a special interest in the history and significance of these special properties. They will also be those who share their expertise with our communities, beyond the world of real estate brokerage.

We are VERY excited to launch this division soon, when the details are all ironed out.

Pine and Vaughn

This gorgeous Queen Anne Victorian sits majestically at the corner of Pine and Vaughn Streets in Portland's West End. A John Calvin Stevens design, it is currently under contract but continues to be shown. Just yesterday we had two very positive viewings and both parties LOVED the building.

Portland's West End

Erica Bates and I took my puppy, Ava, for a long walk today all around the West End neighborhood where I am fortunate to own several properties. It was astounding to us how many of these beautiful homes are designated as Greater Portland Landmarks. We are so excited to pull together our team of specialists for this new Niche Marketing Division of The Swan Agency Sotheby's International Realty and get to work representing the sellers and buyers of these gorgeous homes with the expertise and understanding that they deserve.

Portland Magazine September Issue

The September issue of Portland Magazine has a fantastic article, page 83, on our listing The Williamson House in Belfast Maine.

This is a gorgeous property, with a great website: http://www.thewilliamsonhouse.com/.

Introducing!

The Swan Agency Sotheby's International Realty is pleased to announce the launch of our newest niche marketing group, Historic Homes of Maine.

Historically significant homes add their own lives to yours. We take great pride in presenting to the world unique places and their stories, and in using our innovative marketing tools and global connections to perfectly match time-honored properties with those who give them new life.

Similar to our Maine Inns for Sale group, Historic Homes of Maine will have specialists, specifically trained to work with historic, significant properties throughout the State.

Follow our blog for more information as the future of the Marketing Group unfolds.