Salmon Falls (West) National Historic District
by Nancy Ponzetti
"Swelling with pride and joy at our present possessions, my sister and I wanted to name the place...The outcome of our discussion was that the home should be called Quillcote, the house of two pen-women...We tried to incite an epidemic of naming the few houses in the community. We had no difficulty in coaxing the Widder Akers to call hers Twin Elms, nor the Widder Dunn hers The Brick House, as it was the only one on the street.” 1
Quillcote, Twin Elms, and The Brick House are three of the ten structures in Hollis that constitute the Salmon Falls (West) Historic District. One of twenty-six sites on the National Register of Historic Places in York County, Salmon Falls (West) was named a national historic district in 1987. Contributing buildings in the district include the Isaac Lane House, Moses Davis House, Dr. William Sweat House, Quillcote (originally the Jabez Bradbury House), the Moses Dunn House, the Dr. Albion Bradbury House, the Isaac Merrill House, and the Salmon Falls Village Library. Two other dwellings on the Salmon Falls Road are considered non-contributing buildings to the historic district. While Lane’s and Bradbury’s homes were begun circa 1794, the other houses in the district were begun between 1820-1840. Architecturally, the homes are one-and-one-half-story capes to two-story Federal/Greek revival style dwellings.
"Swelling with pride and joy at our present possessions, my sister and I wanted to name the place...The outcome of our discussion was that the home should be called Quillcote, the house of two pen-women...We tried to incite an epidemic of naming the few houses in the community. We had no difficulty in coaxing the Widder Akers to call hers Twin Elms, nor the Widder Dunn hers The Brick House, as it was the only one on the street.” 1
Quillcote, Twin Elms, and The Brick House are three of the ten structures in Hollis that constitute the Salmon Falls (West) Historic District. One of twenty-six sites on the National Register of Historic Places in York County, Salmon Falls (West) was named a national historic district in 1987. Contributing buildings in the district include the Isaac Lane House, Moses Davis House, Dr. William Sweat House, Quillcote (originally the Jabez Bradbury House), the Moses Dunn House, the Dr. Albion Bradbury House, the Isaac Merrill House, and the Salmon Falls Village Library. Two other dwellings on the Salmon Falls Road are considered non-contributing buildings to the historic district. While Lane’s and Bradbury’s homes were begun circa 1794, the other houses in the district were begun between 1820-1840. Architecturally, the homes are one-and-one-half-story capes to two-story Federal/Greek revival style dwellings.
On Saturday, July 14 from 10:00 A.M. until 1:00 P.M., the Buxton Hollis Historical Society will sponsor a tour of The Brick House built by Moses Dunn and the gardens of the Isaac Merrill House on Salmon Falls Road, Hollis. Registration and the tour begin in the barn at 9 Salmon Falls Road.
The two-story, ten room Brick House, circa 1830-1840, was the home of Moses and Louisa Elden Dunn and probably replaced a frame house that first stood on the property in the 1820s. Dunn was a store owner at Salmon Falls, prominent in town affairs, and widely known. The Dunns occupied the house until their deaths when it was sold to William Moulton whose wife established the tea room in the Salmon Falls Village Library.
The two-story, ten room Brick House, circa 1830-1840, was the home of Moses and Louisa Elden Dunn and probably replaced a frame house that first stood on the property in the 1820s. Dunn was a store owner at Salmon Falls, prominent in town affairs, and widely known. The Dunns occupied the house until their deaths when it was sold to William Moulton whose wife established the tea room in the Salmon Falls Village Library.
A short distance from The Brick House is the Isaac Merrill House, a one-and-one-half story 1820s cape. Merrill was the son of John and Rebecca Lane Merrill and the nephew of Isaac Lane, owner of the oldest dwelling on the road, and the person responsible for the building of the first bridge to connect Hollis and Buxton. Isaac Merrill was a merchant, Justice of the Peace, mill owner, and first president of the Salmon Falls Debating Club established on November 18, 1839. Merrill and his wife Lucy Merritt Merrill lived in the house until their deaths.
The little community of houses on the Hollis side of the Saco River that Kate Douglas Wiggin and her sister Nora Archibald Smith decided to name constitute one of Maine’s over 187 separate National Register Historic Districts “that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.” 2 Please join us on July 14 as the Buxton Hollis Historical Society celebrates the Salmon Falls (West) Historic District.
Notes
1 Kate Douglas Wiggin, My Garden of Memory (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923), 269-270.
2 http:/www.maine.gov/mhpc/national_register/index.html.
The little community of houses on the Hollis side of the Saco River that Kate Douglas Wiggin and her sister Nora Archibald Smith decided to name constitute one of Maine’s over 187 separate National Register Historic Districts “that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.” 2 Please join us on July 14 as the Buxton Hollis Historical Society celebrates the Salmon Falls (West) Historic District.
Notes
1 Kate Douglas Wiggin, My Garden of Memory (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923), 269-270.
2 http:/www.maine.gov/mhpc/national_register/index.html.