Name/Title
Windswept | Petit Manan Point, Steuben, MaineDescription
Windswept was the seasonal cottage of Mary Ellen Chase (1887 - 1973), the noted educator, author and lecturer. She is considered by many literary critiques to be second only to Sarah Orne Jewett in her ability to capture the history and particular atmosphere of the coast of Maine and its people, yet her work also encompassed educational pedagogy, and biblical criticism. Located on the shore of Petit Manan Point in the town of Steuben, Windswept is a modest cottage with sweeping views of the coast of Maine, including the Schoodic Peninsula and Mount Desert Island. The isolated cottage provided Ms. Chase with the tranquility and isolation she needed to write, and in turn it also provided the inspiration for the setting of Windswept (1941), her best selling novel about immigration and integration in old settled Maine communities. Windswept is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the statewide level of significance under Criterion B for its direct and important association with the author Mary Ellen Chase between 1940 and 1955.
Windswept is a seasonal cottage in the Washington County town of Steuben, Maine. The simple but nicely detailed wood frame structure is located near the south end of Petit Manan Point, a finger of land that extends south into the Gulf of Maine. The building is set on an irregularly shaped five acre parcel which faces southwest and offers a wide vista over Dyer Bay towards the Schoodic Peninsula. A windbreak of cedar and pine shelter the cottage on the east and north, but the hundred
feet between the house and steep bluff to the shore is vegetated with the low grasses and wild blueberries that dominate the entire end of the point. A dirt drive passes through the windbreak and ends at a small barn which is located just northeast of the cottage. There is also a small rectangular old cement wading pool (approximately 6x12 feet in dimension) perched on the edge of the cliff northwest of the cottage.
The one-story cottage was constructed between 1928 and 1936. It is clad in weathered wood shingles without corner boards, set on low stone and concrete piers and roofed with wooden shingles. In plan, the building consists of two, east to west oriented parallel wings connected near their eastern ends by a wide hyphen. A white picket fence connects the inside corners of the eastern ends of the wings and creates a grassy courtyard. A wide deck spans the entire western side of the building and wraps around the ends of each of wing. The primary entrance in the northwest corner of the courtyard and a wooden ramp on the south side of the south wing leads to both the deck and a side door. A third door opens onto the deck on the northern side of the end bay of the south wing.
The cottage was built in a subdued Colonial Revival style and is characterized by classical detailing and symmetry. The eastern ends of each wing contain a pair of joined eight-over-eight double hung sash sandwiched between wood panel shutters decorated with a stylized pine tree cutouts. (These shutters adorn all the window units on the house.) The rake and eave trim overhang the sidewalls and end with strong cornice returns. Along the east wall at the back of the courtyard is a pair of twelve-over twelve windows and an external chimney of rounded cobblestones, and the batten storm door. (The interior door is formed of vertical bead board affixed to a five panel door and hung with decorative iron strap hinges.) Two additional twelve-over-twelve windows, one on each wing, face towards the courtyard. A small brick chimney protrudes through the north side of the south wing roof near the junction of the two ridges.