Parker House, circa 1812, National Register of Historic Places

USA / Maine / Blue Hill / South Street, 185
 tourism, art -(to be removed, see EN descr.), architecture - Do not use this category, place with historical importance
Standing on what is now Woodeaves Farm, this foursquare Federal house was built for Colonel Robert Parker and his wife, a daughter of Blue Hill founder Joseph Wood, and remodelled in the Colonial Revival style in 1900 by George A. Clough for descendants of another Wood daughter. It continues in the family of Elizabeth Ober Merrill and Dr. Frederick Augustus Merrill of Boston, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Merrill's mother was Mary Peters Hinckley. The Wood connection came through the Hinckleys, also the family's descent from the elder Brewster, a Mayflower passenger.

In the nativist spirit of their time, the Merrills set out to create a kind of ersatz ancestral home, filling it with local antiques. Many were purchased from Hinckley and Peters relatives by Mrs. Merrill's indomitable sister, Effie Kline.

These included a table which came from Beverly with Joseph Wood in 1762, now at Holt House, headquarters of the Blue Hill Historical Society. The table was given in 1972 by Elizabeth (Betty Darling) Bates, Mrs. Merrill's granddaughter.

Mrs. Merrill kept laying hens and a Jersey cow at Parker House, something she was unable to do at the much smaller place they rented from Effie on Parker Point. Called "la Mascotte", also designed by Clough, the Merrills summered there before 1900.

Mrs. Merrill was on the veranda of la Mascotte (now Sunset Cliff) when local salt Captain Kane sailed by in his schooner, calling out "Lizzie! God damn your soul, how be ye?" It's not known to what extent this salutation motivated Mrs. Merrill to leave Parker Point for the then-unfrequented ridge road of South Street.

A footpath following the route of a colonial-era cart road leads directly from Parker House to Parker Point. Long little-used, in time abutting property owners may combine to restore it as a public amenity under the auspices of a local land trust.

Of particular interest at Parker House are enormous beams in the attic incorporating diagonal hurricane bracing, vaulted brick root cellars, much surviving original interior woodwork and many fireplaces, including one in the former kitchen with beehive oven, iron fixtures, etc.

The house also contains six oil portraits by J. Harvey Young. Young had a studio on the property which was later used as a one-room schoolhouse. His self-portrait is in the collection of the Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   44°23'50"N   68°35'18"W

Comments

  • Half the population of Blue Hill is related to the Hinckley family one way or the other, and therefore are also Mayflower descendants. It will be interesting to see how (or whether) this history is celebrated in seven years' time on the occasion of the Quadricentenary of the the landing at Plymouth. Similarly, an equal number of Hancock County residents are probably descendants of Governor John Winthrop through his great-great-granddaughter, mother of revolutionary Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent, d. Sullivan, Maine, 1828. He sired a vast progeny in the area, many if not most of whom at this distance may be unaware of the connection. The present writer (a perhaps hyper-aware descendant) may take steps to enlighten his distant cousins in due course, certainly well before 2030, or even 2028.
  •  387 km
  •  391 km
  •  412 km
  •  413 km
  •  446 km
  •  454 km
  •  472 km
  •  591 km
  •  624 km
  •  646 km
This article was last modified 15 years ago