National Register of Historic Places

The Birches

Belgrade Lakes, Kennebec County, Maine
Listed
September 26, 1996
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
96001036

About this property

The Birches is a historic house on Foster Lane in Belgrade Lakes, Maine. Built in 1916 to a design by John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens, it is the best-preserved surviving structure related to The Belgrade Hotel, a large summer resort hotel which burned down in 1955. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The Birches stands on the east side of Foster Lane, a short way south of its northern end at Lakeshore Drive, and about 0.15 miles (0.24 km) south of that road's junction with Maine State Route 27. It is a rectangular 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof and shingled exterior. Its main facade faces northwest, with an enclosed single-story hip-roofed porch extending across its width. The southwest roof face is adorned with an eyebrow dormer, and a fieldstone chimney rises through the northeast roof face. The interior has a large two-story living room, finished entirely in original varnished tongue-and-groove woodwork. A balcony runs around all four sides, with a stair rising along the wall dividing the room from bedrooms and bathrooms. The house was built in 1916, as a satellite cottage to The Belgrade Hotel, built in 1899 and twice enlarged, all to designs by the noted Portland architect John Calvin Stevens. The cottage is one of four built, and was probably designed by Stevens in conjunction with his son, John Howard Stevens. The hotel burned down in 1955, and this cottage is the best-preserved of the three that survive. It was sold as a separate property after the fire, and was used as a summer cottage until 1994, when it was weatherized for year-round occupancy. National Register of Historic Places listings in Kennebec County, Maine

Location

Belgrade Lakes, Kennebec County, Maine
44.52271, -69.88663

Categories

ARCHITECTURECOMMERCEENTERTAINMENT/RECREATION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Chandler Store
Industrial
0.4 mi
Foster Farm Barn
Industrial
2.7 mi
Williams, John, House
Industrial
5.2 mi
Vienna Town House
Industrial
5.6 mi
Beck, Klir, House
Industrial
5.7 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Norridgewock 1724
1724Colonial
13.8 mi
Father Rale's War — Norridgewock Massacre
1724Colonial
13.8 mi
Norridgewock Massacre (Father Rale killed)
1724Colonial
14 mi

Questions about this property

When was The Birches listed on the National Register?

The Birches was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 26, 1996.

What type of historic resource is The Birches?

The Birches is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for The Birches?

The period of significance for The Birches is recorded as the industrial era.

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