Criterion A: Exploration/Settlement
Criterion C: Architecture
Period of Significance: ca. 1736 to 1791
Local Level of Significance
The Snipe Farm in Arrowsic, Sagadahoc County, Maine, is an eighteenth-century homestead with a saltbox house, early cemetery, modern out buildings, and the surrounding forested acreage associated with the property when the Snipes owned it. The property is eligible for listing in the National Register at the local level under Criteria C: Architecture for the house's architectural significance as an early vernacular timber-framed saltbox house with Georgian style interior finishes. The house has two ells and other changes which occurred after the period of significance, but it retains the characteristic features of its type, period, and method of construction. The house and the cemetery together are eligible for listing under Criteria A: Exploration and Early Settlement due to their association with early settlement in the lower Kennebec Valley. The Snipes were relatively early Euro-American settlers within the local context of settlement, abandonment, and resettlement which was related to repeated conflicts between the English and French settlers and the Native Americans in the New England area. The period of significance is from 1736 to 1791. The period represents the date of settlement by the Snipes, the construction date of the existing house through the life of Charles Snipe and possibly Ann (her death date is undetermined), and ends with the last cemetery marker with a death head decoration. The cemetery is an important component of the nominated property and Criteria Consideration D applies as a result. The cemetery is being nominated for its association with early settlement and therefore is eligible under Criteria Consideration D.