Name/Title
Chaloner House | Lubec, MaineDescription
From Chaloner House National Register Nomination Form:
The Chaloner House at 3 Pleasant Street in Lubec is an early nineteenth-century timber frame home with an expanded floor plan and Federal era-detailing. The building faces southeast (which from this point hence will be referred to as east for convenience) towards Pleasant Street, one of the two principal north to south routes that traverse the town and lead to the main waterfront. Just to the north and down the hill towards the water, is a public wharf and the town’s breakwater. Immediately south of the house is the town bandstand and memorial park. The building is fronted by a commodious level lawn, however, much of this land is actually a gore-shaped parcel owned by the Town of Lubec which has alternated between open roadway and untended common ground. Originally a rectangular lot that has had a quarter of its acreage removed from the northwest corner, the property is defined by Ferry Street on the west, an empty lot on the south, and a north facing 20th century bungalow set towards the westerly edge of its lot on the north. The effect of these factors, and the relative scale of the subject building combines for a distinctive setting in an otherwise fairly compact waterfront neighborhood.
The Chaloner House is a salt-box shaped structure. The front is a full two stories high, while the rear is a short one-and-a-half stories. The eaves on this side are located less than three feet above the first floor plate so that the height of the half-story wall allows just enough for the installation of six-over-three sash windows. The building’s primary facade is clapboarded, and the west, north and south elevations are clad with wood shingles. three brick chimneys are positioned behind the ridge, where the gable rooft ransitions to the single pitch of the saltbox. The roof is asphalt and the foundation is a mixture of concrete, brick and fieldstone.
At present the facade is seven bays wide on the first floor, but conceptually the house is best understood as comprising a five bay section of paired two-over-two light sash windows on either side of a center door (this is the southern two-thirds of the building), and a three bay section, containing two-over-two light sash windows on either side of another, now missing, front door. (The six-panel door remains encased in the wall and was exposed temporarily several years ago.) This original eight bay configuration is still present on the second floor, where the eight two-over-two windows are tucked directly under the narrow fascia board and boxed cornice. Further adding to the perception of the house as comprised of two sections is the fact that, due to the sloping grade of the land, the northern section has a full height, clapboarded basement level with two six-over-six sash windows on either side of a two-leaf wood-batten door. The basement level is also visible, to a lesser extent, under the middle bays of the facade, where it is faced in brick and pierced with a fixed eight-light window and a short pedestrian door, both partially obscured by foliage. The existing front door is set in a Greek Revival surround, with full length side lights, pilasters and a prominent entablature.
On the interior, the house contains three large principal rooms in the front section and a series of smaller rooms and a back hallway in the rear. A short hall with a two-run staircase is located immediately behind the front door; it is flanked by a dining room in the southeast corner and the middle parlor to the north. The third principal room is in the northeast corner of the house. (The blocked door originally opened directly into ths room.) The same pattern is repeated on the second floor. A chimney stack is positioned against the west wall of each of these three rooms. With the exception of the dining room, the rooms in the front of the house retain their Federal style fireplace surrounds. (Most of the fireboxes have been blocked with wooden inserts and the firebox in the northeast parlor has been rebuilt to accept a wood stove.) In both the middle and northeast rooms on each floor closets, with either four panel or two panel moulded doors, are positioned to either side of the fireplace surrounds. In the southeast chamber one of these closets opens into the rear bedroom. Finishes in the front rooms included patterned tin ceilings and plaster or plasterboard
walls. Hardwood floors are present in the middle parlor and dining room, but the other rooms either have carpeting or loose linoleum “rugs”. Each of the front rooms have Federal era trim around the doors, and the northeast and middle chambers also retain molded chair rails. The northeast parlor has particularly well executed examples of reeding in the fireplace surround and in the window aprons.
The back portion of the Chaloner House contains a corner room in the southwest, a longitudinal hall behind the middle rooms and the southern half of the northeast corner rooms, and thenaseriesofsmallroomsagainstthewesternexternalwall. Onthefirstfloorofthesouthwest corner room is the kitchen, and a small windowless pantry is located directly behind the front staircase. Three back rooms open off the hall on this level, while the second level contains just two long narrow rooms. On both floors the northwest corner rooms are bathrooms. All of these rooms, except the kitchen and hall as will be described in further detail below, have plaster walls and low sloping plaster ceilings. The trim is very plain and on the second floor the batten doors are clinch nailed. There are several Federal era windows with ovolo moulded muntins located in the second floor bedrooms and hallway. At least two of these are etched with names and dates: 1829 and 1837 are clearly inscribed, as are multiple signatures of William Chaloner, and the instructions “don’t brak (sic) glass. Don’t break that if you can help it.”
In massing and plan the Chaloner House is clearly an early nineteenth century structure. This is confirmed on the interior by the stylistic detailing in the primary rooms. However, the house underwent a limited but notable renovation in the early decades of the twentieth century, probably in conjunction with its use as a restaurant starting ini 920. At this time the tin ceilings were installed in the parlor rooms and kitchen. The front staircase was reconfigured as a two-run stair, and new varnished douglas fir newel posts, railing, and banisters were installed in both the front and back stairs. Also during this renovation the kitchen was outfitted with varnished bead board cabinets and a wall sink; the fireplace in the dining room was removed; and a china cabinet was installed diagonally against the a smaller chimney stack. The dining room ceiling was replaced with plasterboard and battens, and French doors were installed in the front hallway, dining room and kitchen. Although most of the new features were probably stock items available at the local lumber yard, stylistically the renovated rooms reflect the arts and crafts aesthetic that was prevalent at the time.