Photo by Kevin Keith
If I Lived Here
This historic home in Portland’s West End a place for mixing and matching, for mugs and Waterford, for walking and resting, for dogs and dreams.
Mounting the granite steps of this compact brick town house, I stop, taken by not just the scent of the air, but its taste—fresh and clean, the bite of mid-winter already promising spring lingering on my tongue. In this city neighborhood, I hadn’t expected to be so attuned to the sensory cues to living the good life.
In Portland’s West End, this house sits on the corner of two residential streets, amidst other historic houses, some much larger and more ornate, but none more inviting. The double front door must be the original, with its dark carved wood, the glass cut to fit the unusual openings, the brass fixtures. I turn back to the street when a young man says good morning. A little girl’s voice echoes the man’s. I assume she is his daughter as her small mittened hand rests in his large gloved one while she clutches a ball in the other. She starts to wave at me, and the ball rolls from her hand and into the street. A car comes to an easy stop, and waits while dad and daughter retrieve the ball. The little girl waves again, this time holding onto it, and the world continues to turn in its soft, rhythmic way.
Then I recognize what I am feeling. Comfort. This is a neighborhood in which I feel comfortable. And as I open the door and step into the foyer, its carmine-red walls warm and intense, I know I’d be comfortable in this house, too.
Sunlight streams onto the tangerine- colored walls of the dining room. A wrought-iron and cut-glass chandelier hangs from the ceiling with its intricately carved molding, corner rosettes, the center medallion. Here, in the bay of four tall, slender windows, I will place the small drop-leaf pine table that I have had all of my adult life. I will add the two cherrywood chairs with their sleek modern lines, and sit here each morning as I work on my list of dreams—a new ritual. I will sip juice from the remaining Waterford glass I haven’t yet passed forward to my son and his family. I will drink coffee from one of the oversized mugs my daughter’s friend recently made for me.
The hardwood floors have borne many footsteps; the living room has witnessed many stories; families have lived and loved here by the warmth of this simple fireplace. This house has a voice that accomodates both the past and the present, the delicate and the clunky, the subtle and the bold. If I lived here, life would be tranquil, calm, simple, and, inevitably, surprising.
I flutter from room to room, choosing fabrics for the curtains, thick, fluffy towels for each of the six baths that accompany each bedroom. Perhaps I will hand-paint a wall with an ivy vine much like the one that will soon leaf out on my new home’s brick exterior.
Briefly, years ago, I lived in Boston’s Back Bay, and walked everywhere. And here in Portland’s West End, I would walk everywhere, too: the Western Promenade, where I could see Mt. Washington on a clear day; art galleries and the Portland Museum of Art; funky and elegant boutiques; and restaurants of all persuasions.
On this wintry day, smoke tails into the sky as I head to my car. I pass two women deep in conversation walking their dogs, and immediately I know my dream list needs a dog. I have a lot of walking to do.
Features of this home:
Historic Urban Bliss—an 1885 brick town house with slate roof on a corner lot in the West End neighborhood of Portland; within walking distance to restaurants, boutiques, art galleries, and the Western Promenade.
Compact Modern Elegance—4,632 square feet, with 6 bedrooms and 6 baths on 3 floors.
Fine Adornments—beautifully carved detail work inside and out, wood floors, high ceilings, bay window.
Options—now an inn, all furnishings included, with off-street parking.
Maine Ahead has no stake in the sale of this house, and it may be sold by the time this appears in print. It is listed at $895,000 by The Swan Agency Sotheby’s International Realty. To learn more, contact listing agent Kimberly Swan at 207-288-5818, or email bhinfo@swanagency.com.
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