A 6-bedroom, 1-bath piece of American history can be yours for $1.6 million. The home at 28 College St. in Brunswick, ME is where Harriet Beecher Stowe - whom Abraham Lincoln purportedly called "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war" - wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.
The 236-year-old home sits on .48 acres right across the street from picturesque Bowdoin College. All the original windows, pine wood floors, staircase banisters and even the doorknobs have been maintained and preserved, though modern features such as indoor plumbing and electricity have been added.
The space is bright and airy, with several windows throughout the home letting in natural light. The home is grand and stately on the outside, with nine windows in the front adorned with blue shutters, but on the inside reveals a surprising coziness for a home that is over 3,500 square feet.
Harriet Beecher Stowe rented a room in the colonial home (which was then used as a boarding house) to serve as a writing retreat that was quiet and separated from her six children at home. James Lay, whose family has owned the home for four generations, says that when his great grandfather, James W. Coffin, was young, he worked in the home sweeping floors while Beecher Stowe was renting the room and writing her anti-slavery masterpiece, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which many consider to have sparked the Civil War.
After the book was published, Coffin was sent off to fight for the Union Army. He bought the home just three short years before he died in 1905.
"It's as if he knew the historical significance even back then," Lay says.
In addition to the registration on the National Register of Historic Places, Beecher Stowe's mark on the home is evident in a window etching where she allegedly inscribed "Angel's Home," a reference to the lyrics Tom sang in her prolific novel.
A rich history
The family that resided in the home was just as interesting and unique as the history of the home. Lay's family, the Coffins and the Pennells, were some of the first settlers in America. Shortly after the Pennells arrived in America, they started one of the most successful shipbuilding companies in the country. The neighborhood where the shipyard was located is referred to as "Pennellville." Not to be outdone, on the Coffin side of the family was Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Robert Peter Tristram Coffin.
According to Lay, the home has had many famous visitors, including Norman Rockwell, Eleanor Roosevelt, Secretary of State William Cohen, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Esther Forbes and James Michener, all of whom were friends of the homeowners or fascinated by the family's history.
Family ties
Lay has idyllic memories of spending summers visiting from California.
"You couldn't have a better location for the home,” he says. “We would spend our summers at Sebago Lake and Moosehead Lake, and did a lot of hiking. Brunswick is one of the most Norman Rockwell types of towns in the country."
After four generations of family living and spending summers in the home, Lay and his mother, Arline Pennell Lay, are ready to sell, with the hopes that someone will cherish it as much as their family has.
"We've had the home for 111 years. Everything is original down to the doorknobs," Lay says. "Our ideal buyer is someone who would appreciate the history and make sure it goes on into the future."
David Jones of F.O. Bailey Real Estate holds the listing.
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