2009 2019 kenneb nk s C H has allen on di ic lt ti es. As this local celebrity ree alls into a , ho are the stakeholders vanisHing Maine f e B r u A r y / m A r C h 2 0 1 9 6 5 Photo By Ake DoolIttle; oVerlAy Photo By elISA rolle Wellness Check By eveLyn a gH F or over a century, the Wed- ding Cake House was tout- ed as “the most photographed house in Maine,” according to New York’s Compass Ameri- can Guide. But the distinctive hand-carved frosting gilding this homage to the Duomo di Milano appears on the verge of collapse. She is welcoming no admirers now. The mansion at 104 Summer Street discourag- es visitors with a “No Trespassing” sign and appears vacant. taLk oF tHe to n “It’s been completely unoccupied for a year and a half, in a terrible state of disrepair,” says Hana Pevny, owner of the Waldo Em- erson Inn next door. “It certainly needs some love,” says Julie Larry of Greater Portland Landmarks. Sarah Hansen of Maine Preservation says members are concerned for the be- loved attraction’s future. “Its complex es- tate ownership issues seem to have led to its current state.” HoLLy oodLand “It was 1954,” and Jimmy Barker “was a young man just back from the Korean War,” wrote Laura Dolce for Seacoast On- line in 2010. “A Kentucky native, [he] had traveled to spend a week that August with artist Channing Hare. At a cocktail par- ty given by Hare and attended by film ac- tress Claudette Colbert [Oscar winner for It Happened One Night, with Clark Gable], the artist talked about a house he had been trying to buy for five years. So the next day, Hare brought Colbert and Barker to ‘the Wedding Cake House.’” It was love at first sight. The 1815 struc- ture on the Kennebunk River had been “given to George Washington Bourne by his parents, as a wedding present.” That’s how [it came] to be known as the Wedding Cake House.” Dolce, now the executive di- rector of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel Chamber of Commerce, described a photo she saw in the library: “…A young Barker stands with Hare and Colbert, not knowing that while Hare would never own the home, someday it would be his.” it as Meant to Be In 1998, the house was list- ed for $699K. Barker purchased it for $650,000 that November, according to town records. T oo much,” some observers mur- mured. “Its upkeep will be its downfall.” But Barker, who had owned successful galleries in Palm Beach, Nantucket, and Manhattan, was a match made in heaven. He filled the Wedding Cake House with hundreds of antiques and pieces of art, many signed Channing Hare. tHe end oF an eRa After a sunny, joyful decade of memora- ble summers where Barker flung open the doors to welcome visitors, tragedy struck. In 2008, Barker survived a deadly fire that gutted his $2.5M Palm Beach mansion and took the life of his friend and caretaker, James Heyman. “In the moments after the fire was out, the home’s 80-year-old own- er tried to rush into the house despite being ordered to stay in a safe area,” according to South Florida’s Sun Sentinel. Barker’s nearly $8M collection of celeb- rity portraits, statues, sketches, and collection of antique por- celain Staffordshire