Castle Tucker is a historic mansion in

Wiscasset Wiscasset is a town in and the seat of Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The municipality is located in the state of Maine's Mid Coast region. The population was 3,742 as of the 2020 census. Home to the Chewonki Foundation, Wiscasset is a ...

Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

, United States. It is owned by

Historic New England Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England ...

and is open to visitors Wednesday – Sunday, June 1 – October 15.

History

Judge

Silas Lee Silas Lee (July 3, 1760 – March 1, 1814) was a lawyer, judge, and United States Representative from Massachusetts. Born in Concord in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, he pursued classical studies and graduated from Harvard University in 178 ...

built this 1807

Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

-style mansion at the peak of Wiscasset's prosperity, when the town was the busiest port east of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. Lee's death in 1814, combined with the cumulative financial impact of Jefferson's Embargo of 1807, forced his widow to sell it. The house passed through a succession of hands until 1858, when Captain Richard H. Tucker, Jr. scion of a Wiscasset shipping family, bought the property. Captain Tucker, his young wife, Mollie and their new baby moved into the house in November 1858. The Tuckers updated the interiors and added a new

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italia ...

entrance to the Lee Street side of the house. In 1859, he added a dramatic two-story porch to what had been the front of the house facing the Sheepscot River. The couple raised five children here. Captain Tucker oversaw various business ventures including wharves and an iron foundry just below the house. However, by the 1880s, expenses had far exceeded income. Mollie began accepting boarders in the summers to help cover the expenses. She and their youngest daughter, Jane, also turned to the sale of home-baked goods, hand-painted china and raising

squab In culinary terminology, squab is an immature domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old, or its meat. The meat is widely described as tasting like dark chicken. The term is probably of Scandinavian origin; the Swedish word ''skvabb'' means ...

for local restaurants to raise much needed cash. After Captain Tucker's death, Jane returned to live in the house full-time with Mollie. The women helped preserve the house until Mollie's death in 1922 and Jane's death in 1964. Her niece, Jane Standen Tucker, moved to Wiscasset from California to preserve the house and all its contents, making very few changes to the decorating schemes. Their dedication preserved Castle Tucker as it was in the late 19th and early 20th century. The house is now owned by

and is open to visitors Wednesday - Sunday, June 1 – October 15.

References

External links

Historic New England website information

* {{Historic New England Houses completed in 1807 Historic house museums in Maine Federal architecture in Maine Museums in Lincoln County, Maine Houses in Lincoln County, Maine Historic New England