Currently the Portland Club, the Hunnewell-Shepley House was designed by prominent early American architect Alexander Parris. Three stories high, the building is constructed of brick on the sides and wood frame with clapboards on the front and rear. The facade is symmetrical with a centered entry door. The door is flanked by sidelights and topped by an elliptical fanlight window. The second floor window above the entry is a Palladian window, a large arch-topped center window framed by two smaller rectangular windows. The windows on the top floor are considerably smaller than the lower floors, a common feature of Federal-style townhouses. The entry is sheltered by a small entry porch supported by fluted Ionic columns and topped by a delicate railing. After the building became home to the Portland Club in the 1920s Portland architect John Calvin Stevens designed the porch, the third to grace the building. The carriage house and stable that originally stood behind the house have been replaced with a large addition, also designed by Stevens. The house was built by Richard Hunnewell, a Revolutionary War veteran and Boston Tea Party participant who also served as a sheriff of Cumberland County and tax collector for the port of Portland. In 1837 the house was sold to Ether Shepley and in 1868 his son George took ownership. General George F. Shepley fought in the Civil War and served as military governor of Louisiana and Richmond during the conflict. He later served as a federal circuit court judge in Maine.
Year Listed: 1973
For more information: https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=59335171-fb22-437e-8b77-43a7f1d6afaa