o c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 9 5 House of the Month from top: staff photo An old soul reimagined: The Samuel Fickett House, née Harrow House, is the true heart of Stroudwater. By Colin W. Sargent the Heap Top of S troudwater isn’t just a pictur- esque hamlet. It was a world center of the timber trade to provide masts for the King’s ships. Here at the fork of the Fore and Stroudwater rivers, Mast Agent and ranking New England militia officer (for the “East,” what’s now Maine) Colonel Thomas Westbrook (1675-1744) built Har- row House on the highest point of land, surrounded by garrisons. In 1795, ship- builder Samuel Fickett repurposed West- brook’s ancient Harrow House foundation to create a monumental Federal palace on the same spot. Lovingly curated by Lynn Abood, that’s what’s for sale today. At $534,000, this showcase at 1190 West- brook Street is interesting. Some condos in downtown Portland are priced higher. With vistas of the Stroudwater River and its lily pads, the lushly landscaped .66-acre lot includes a majestic weeping willow tree with the widest girth we’ve seen in Port- land. The 1.5-storey barn is mesmerizingly classic against the “echoing green,” inviting visitors inside with its great red sliding door and russet beams. (What an art studio.) The ell’s long covered porch to forever lets you sit and enjoy these gardens, stopping time. “The ell was added on in 1812 by a ship- ping merchant’s crews [on tap for such work since sailing was restricted by the Embargo of 1807, followed by the Non-In- tercourse Act of 1809, that led to the War of 1812],” Abood says. “The cobblestones in the driveway were harvested from St. John Street when Union Station was torn down. The owners at the time, Charles and Eliza- beth Horton, brought 2,500 of the cobble- stones here, pickup load after pickup load.” Ha! Union Station might have been torn down, but thanks to the Law of Conserva- tion of Matter and Energy, it’s with us still. “I bought this house in 1998,” Abood says. She’s researched, understood, and pre- served the property remarkably. With its smart clapboards painted in Seagull Gray, it’s ready to take flight. “But it wasn’t until six months ago that I discovered the bean oven! I removed some plaster and then some bricks, and there it was,” lovely with its time-stained original dome.