Cheap Old Houses: A 1793 Hand-Painted House in Maine
Photography via Keller Williams
The @cheapoldhouses Instagram feed has become something of the go-to for a new generation of real estate scrollers who browse listings in their spare time. The listings tend towards diamond-in-the-rough dwellings, tumble-downs with good bones hidden behind disuse, disrepair, and way-below-market price tags. This week we're taking a look at a 1793 house in Limerick, Maine, filled with verdant, hand-painted murals in the old-fashioned style of New England folk artist Rufus Porter.
The circa-1793 house is located in the Maine town of Limerick and was originally built by a General McDonald.
Later, the general’s son, Moses commissioned a painter to create full-wall murals depicting Limerick’s hilly terrain, nearby Casco Bay, “and the family tree weaving up the front staircase.”
A grand room with pastoral murals and painted wide-plank floors.
The murals bare a resemblance to the work of folk artist (and the founding publisher, writer, and editor of Scientific American) Rufus Porter.
The house also features original details, like doors and hardware.
And a smaller painting between two windows.
The third floor is a grand arched-ceiling ballroom.