My fourth stop on my Maine adventure was Bowman House, an 18th century Historic New England (HSE) property in Dresden, Maine. The home was commissioned in 1762 by wealthy and well-connected Jonathan Bowman. He was the cousin of John Hancock and a Harvard classmate of President John Adams and Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire. The architect was Gershom Flagg, an expert from Boston who also designed the nearby Pownalborough Courthouse, where Bowman served as a judge. The family made much of their money through the shipping industry and Transatlantic trade.
Like other wealthy men of the 18th century, Bowman kept enslaved and indentured people in his house. The stories of these people were highlighted on the tour. Cicero and Boston were enslaved Black men owned by the Bowman family and brought to the Bowman House. When Cicero escaped in 1775 to join the Continental Army, Bowman hired disgraced local boat builder Reuben Colburn to retrieve him; as with many of his endeavors, Colburn was unsuccessful. In addition to the enslaved men, Bowman raised an indentured white child from age six to twenty-one, giving him a rudimentary education and apprenticeship training, along with employing a cook named Dinah, who appeared to be a free Black woman.
The Bowman house changed hands several times after the death of Jonathan Bowman in 1804. The Carney family owned the property for over sixty years, followed by the Lincoln Ice Company, which used the building for offices. Throughout the early 20th century, four preservationist owners sold the property for a dollar, hoping but failing to secure funding to restore the building. The house appeared in a Historic American Building Survey (HABS) report in 1937. The Burrage sisters, Madeline and Mildred, were the last of these owners and found the perfect buyer for the property.
As wealthy and well-connected as the Bowmans, designer Bill Waters and his partner, Cyrus Pinkham, moved to Dresden. They had earned their fortune working for designer Hattie Carnegie in New York City. She had created a popular handbag company with Cyrus’ sister, Margaret Smith, and they claimed their designs were stolen by Kate Spade. Waters and Pinkham had already restored a house in Damariscotta, Maine.
Waters became obsessed with the Bowman House, meticulously tracking down original Bowman pieces, purchasing equivalents by the same creator if the original could not be found, or ordering the creation of exact reproductions. He kept documentation attached to the furniture itself so no paperwork would go missing. Never one to pass by a business opportunity, Waters opened Lilac Cottage Antiques and took home favorite pieces to add to his collection. In his drive to keep the house pristine, Waters purchased a separate house for his French chef and the chef’s family and guest house, both located at the entrance to the Bowman House driveway. Waters’ fixation contributed to the end of his relationship with Pinkham, although they remained on good terms and temporarily lived together in the Bowman House with their new partners.
The current interior design of Bowman House was a delightful mix of Bowman family heirlooms and Bill’s design sensibilities. Upon his death in 2016, the home came into the care of HSE, who had worked with Bill for many years and recorded his stories. The remarkable young tour guide effortlessly conveyed the layered history of the house, from the drama between Congregationalists and Anglicans during the American Revolution, which Jonathan Bowman escalated with his bad behavior during church services, to the exploits of Bill as he reassembled the original family’s collection and put his own touches on the never quite finished product. Anyone who enjoys decorating, history, or drama would be thoroughly entertained by this tour.
With this being said, Bowman House has the highest regular tour ticket prices out of all HSE properties, at $25 adults and $23 seniors with no student discounts, but the tour is still $0 for HNE members and library pass holders, like me! Tours run during the main HNE season, from opening day in June to mid October. They are held on the hour, with Thursday tours leaving from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Saturday tours from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Like most historic house tours, the building is not wheelchair accessible and would be difficult to navigate for those with limited mobility. No virtual tour is available at this time.
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Abigail Epplett leads a dual life as a freelance digital marketing consultant for small humanities-focused organizations and as a customer experience design creative specialist at lab equipment manufacturer Waters Corporation. She holds an MA in Museum Education from Tufts University, where she researched the history of New England from Plymouth to the Civil War. To learn more about her adventures with museums, visit her current blog at abbyeppletthistorian.blogspot.com.
Abigail is Historian-In-Residence at the National Museum of Mental Health Project: https://www.nmmhproject.org/