Name/Title
Fred Coburn House | 18 Key Street, Eastport, Maine | I7-0D3-03 | District #28Entry/Object ID
028Description
This two and half story wood frame house was built in 1893. It was constructed immediately after a much larger older lot was divided in thirds in May, 1893 resulting in this house along with the later built neighboring Capen and Hayes houses. A newspaper account at the time, describes the house to built of having “two stories about thirty by forty feet on the ground.” The same newspaper account talks of contractors waiting for the architect’s plans and specifications to arrive. Charles Varney constructed the foundation for the house. Maj. E.E. Newcomb built the house. The house has gable end roofs on each side and a sloping roof on half of the north side where the main front entrance stands. The house has been modified in recent years. The original two story bay window on the east side of the house was removed as were two decorative “eyebrows” over the third floor windows. These "eyebrows" have been preserved and are in the collections of the Tides Institute & Museum of Art. A unenclosed porch has been added to the north and east sides of the house.
• From Eastport Sentinel, May 24, 1893, p.3,c.2: “Captain George W. Capen and Messrs. H.J. Reynolds and Fred Coburn have bought of Mr. Frank Wadsworth, the block of land known as the Captain Ben Bucknam lot, fronting on Key street. The place will be divided into three house lots. Mr. Coburn having the western, Captain Capen the eastern and Mr. Reynolds that between, upon which they comtemplate building residences in the near future. the site is one of the most eligible and pleasantly located of any in that part of the city.”
• From Eastpgrt Sentinel, June 14, 1893, p.3,c.4: “Mr. Fred Coburn has broken ground for his new house on Telegraph street and as soon as the architect’s plans and specifications arrive, the work of erectifg the structure, which is to be a building of two stories about thirty by forty feet on the ground, will be commenced.”
• From Eastport Sentinel, June 28, 1893, p.3,c.42 “Mr. Charles Varney, who has the contract for building the foundation walls for Mr. Fred Coburn’s new house on Key street, has them nearly in readiness for beginning the superstructure. Mr. Coburn has his lumber on the ground but has not yet placed the contract for doing the carpenter work.”
• From Eastport Sentinel, July 12, 1893, p.3,c.2: “The contract for building Mr. Fred Coburn’s new residence on Key street having been taken by Maj. E.E. Newcomb, the work of framing was begun last week and is now completed and matters are being pushed forward about the structure quite rapidly.”
• From Eastport Sentinel, Iugust 23, 1893, p.3,c.2: “Mr. Fred Coburn’s new house on Key Street, is about completed on the exterior and the plasterers begin on the interior walls to-day.”
• From Eastport Sentinel, September 6, 1893, p.3,c.2: “Supt. J. Frank Campbell of the Gas and Elec|ric Light Co., is fitting the interior of St. Joseph’s Cathoic Church for lighting by electricity, about thirty incandescent liohts being used. Mr. Campbell is also engaged in wiring Mr. Fred Coburn’s new residence for a like system of lighting.”
• From Eastport Sentinel, November 29, 1893, p.3,c.2: “Mr. and Mrs. Fred Coburn moved into their new house on Key street, the latter part of last week.”
• From Eastport Sentinel, December 13,(1893, p.3,c.2: “Superintendent J.F. Campbell of the Gas & Electric Light Co., has about completed the wiring and fittings for lighting the Unitarian church by electricity, also the fine new residence of Mr. Fred Coburn, and only awaits the arrival of some fixtures to finish the work. The wiring of the Masonic Temple will be commenced this week, that of the rink being well under way. With these extensive jobs and numerous minor affairs, Supt. Campbell finds himself one of the busiest and hardest worked men in the city.”
• From Eastport Sentinel, July 25, 1894, p.2,c.2-3: “Summer Notes.” By QUODDY.
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“When Mr. Frank Wadsworth introduced here the fashion of fencing with iron rods and upright posts he did the place a great favor. Mrs. Schroder’s elegant grounds were opened to view in the same way and Messrs. N.B. Nutt, J.S. Bucknam and Herbert Kilby have put them up at North End. Nowhere has the effect been better than about Mr. George Hayes’ grounds, at t`e corner of Middle and Key streets. High close board fences topped out with sharp nails I have seen, and also on one occasion brick walls surmounted with broken glass as we read about in foreagn countries. But such convey a most unpleasant impression upon the passer by and we set down the occupant of the estate as an unhappy disagreeable man. Such enclosures belong with prisons, and even those who are disposed to mischief are less inclined to exercise their propensities upon those who open their grounds to public view, and they often receive what they always deserve, the perhaps unspoken thanks of passers by. The erection of Mr. Coburn’s handsome house in that vicinity last year, and with the completion of Mr. George Capen’s elegant residence, it will become one of the most elegant sections of the city.”
*From Eastport City Directory, 1901-02, p.45: Coburn Frederick A., city treaurer and (C.W. Bibber & Co.) 60 Water, h. Key cor. Hayes av.
