Although construction of the Kate Douglas Wiggin House began in 1797, it was not completed until the early 1800s. Jabez Bradbury started the house, but it was completed by neighbor Thomas Carll after the two men decided to swap houses. The house was purchased by the distinguished educator and author, Kate Douglas Wiggin, in 1905. She and her sister named the house "Quillcote", meaning home of the pen. Born in Philadelphia, her family moved to Maine at an early age. During the 1870s, she published her first story and began training to be a kindergarten teacher just as pre-school education was emerging as a movement. By 1890, her literary career as a children's writer was established. Her most loved book is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She extensively toured the United States and Europe giving readings and lectures always returning to Maine each summer. The two-and-a-half-story gabled faade has a central portico (or porch) with two Doric columns in the Federal style. Above the portico on the third tier is a central window topped with a pointed wooden Gothic Revival-style ornament. The house also contains murals of a harbor scene attributed to notable New England painter Rufus Porter.
Year Listed: 1977
For more information:https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=0a5efdbc-dafc-4a87-986a-f71110a1f146