York Corner
Last week here, when we were reporting on a visit to Cottage Home, David and Judy Brown's home furnishings and design shop at the junction of Route 1 and Mountain Road, we ran out of space to speak of the building's long history.
We'd been alerted to that by David, who'd pointed us in the direction of his website, so, when we got home, we clicked on "History" there, and here's a brief summary of what we found.
From 1720 until 1903, the property was in the hands of a succession of Weares, members of one of the oldest of York families - and it was Weares who transformed the house, over the course of 120 years, into a landmark of note. Three times they enlarged it, in 1720, in the 1760s and in 1840, by which time it had become an imposing structure in the then-popular Greek-Revival mode - "one of the handsomest antique houses in Cape Neddick," writes the unnamed website historian.
By 1992, however, after a 32-year period of neglect, it had become decrepit, and the task of restoring it fell to the Browns' predecessors there, Roland Labrie and Paul Mazgelis, who lived in it for 10 years prior to the Browns' coming.
Remarkably, the history reports, the house still boasts significant features from each of its early periods: half-round support beams under what is now the home's dining room making it perhaps "the oldest documented structure in York, and … certainly the oldest in Cape Neddick;" a large fireplace and brick bake oven in what was once a "typical 18th Century kitchen" - plus mantels over multiple fireplaces dating from the same time; and, from the Greek-Revival period, "numerous architectural details, including two curved staircases finished in walnut, large windows with fluted woodwork and the original painted trim."
The Browns moved in in 2002 - and with Judy happy to have her residence only a matter of a few footsteps from their business.
"I'm not," she told us, unhesitatingly, "a cold-weather fan."
In the house, the Browns modernized the kitchen; in the el that now houses their shop (that was once part of the barn) they've added steps, flooring, drywall, paint, a bay window and "two glass doors," said David, "to let in light."
Upstairs in the el, big skylights, and white walls together with white sloping ceilings reinforce that "lightness" that is part of the currently fashionable "cottage" appeal.
Downstairs, Judy pointed out to us one sign of the building's age: panes of original thick glass in the window behind the sales desk.
And she took us around a corner close by to point out one other antique architectural feature: a "three-holer" in a little room that had been the home's attached (a luxury!) outhouse. That room now, appropriately, houses elegant toiletries, and we had to look hard among the soaps and bath oils and such to see any evidence of the old use.
When we asked how business was going, and whether they'd experienced any surprises in it to date, both Browns smiled and said simply (after noting the fiercely competitive nature of the work, and some common frightening failure rates), "We're still here."
David termed it "a very interesting business, and interesting to do as a second life," and reported that they'd experience few surprises thus far - though he acknowledged that marketing was proving to be more of a challenge than anticipated, with choices to be made among multiple media, and no certainty that one would work better than another. That part of the job "is more involved than I would have anticipated," he said, adding, "and we're never quite sure whether we've got the right solution."
Another major challenge is keeping the inventory constantly full but fresh and changing. To manage that, the Browns attend major trade shows five or six times a year ("You could go to a different show each week if you really wanted to," they said) but they also rely on catalogs and the internet.
Additionally, they've set themselves the special challenge of operating year-round in a region that comes fully alive commercially only in summer. Hence their concentration on "cottage" style makes them especially eager to see occupants of York's real cottages return. There's no question: July and August, the Browns say, is their busiest time.
Helping out with the business is store manager Jennifer Moulton Sebastyanski of York. Her presence permits the Browns to get away a bit in the off season, they reported, and Judy had high praise for her gifts as a decorator. "She has a good eye," she said.
Speaking of their inventory, David told us with enthusiasm that just about every item in the shop comes trailing its own story - and, as if on cue, two customers appeared at the checkout counter, each with a garden figure that illustrated. One of the figures was of a squatting frog and the other was of a duck with outstretched neck, and each bore its name on a wooden dog-tag: the duck was "Lily" and the frog, "Claude."
Literature accompanying these items told us that they were made by South Seas Enterprises, LLC, and that that company's "Painted Ducks" are each one-of-a-kind and all "eco-friendly," their bodies crafted of renewable bamboo roots, and their heads, legs and feet, of recycled teak. "No trees or ducks are harmed in the process," read the literature - which also reported that these creatures "have their own curious attitudes that refrain from roughhousing. They don't fly well, But they do enjoy company and are extremely good listeners in any language…"
The buyer of the frog, we learned when we asked, was Beth Mutch, and the buyer of the duck, Wendy Campbell - friends in the region for the weekend from Connecticut, Beth from Haddam, and Wendy from Deep River.
"We're getting away from the kids," Beth explained, adding, quietly, that, if she told us the kids' ages, we'd probably understand. Her kids, she said when we asked, were two girls and a boy, ages 14, 12 and 9, and Wendy's were two daughters, ages 17 and 21.
They'd come directly from work on Friday, they said, and when we asked what "work" was, Beth was a little hesitant in answering, suggesting that we might laugh when told. We promised not to laugh and we got our answer: Beth is the owner and operator and Wendy the bookkeeper at a 16-employee company that makes burial vaults. Called Rocky Hill Vault, Inc., it's located in Rocky Hill, Conn., and it was founded by Beth's father some 40-plus years ago.
Before we left that Sunday, we took advantage of these women's presence to learn a little about that uncommon subject.
Burial vaults, Beth told us, are made of poured concrete; weigh, on average, something like 1,600 pounds, and are required by cemeteries to house caskets and thereby prevent the formation of sinkholes. They come in much more variety than one might imagine, from bronze- or plastic-lined, inside and out, to marble- or granite-faced - and Beth's company has painted them, on commission, in colors that range from lavender to an orange and black that went along with a requested Harley-Davidson logo.
Décor, clearly, even in the grave!
But you can't just go buy a Rocky Hill vault, Beth said. Purchase has to be arranged through a funeral home. To see a vault that's similar to the ones she makes, Beth advised, as she and Wendy turned to head back to Connecticut, that we visit www.trigard.com.
For more about above-ground décor - and about the old Weare house's history - visit Cottage Home's website at www.cottagehomemaine.com - or, better still, stop in at the shop itself. It's open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
