{"id":14976,"date":"2018-05-21T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=14976"},"modified":"2020-09-29T09:50:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T13:50:14","slug":"duchess-of-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/duchess-of-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Duchess of York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summerguide 2008 | view story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Cragmere, the dramatic showcase built in 1895 by a young Cuban-born Portland architect atop a stunning cliff along Shore Road, can be yours this summer\u2014for a mere $3.495 million.<\/h2>\n

By Colin Sargent<\/em><\/p>\n

\"200805SGIt seemed to me I stood draped in darkness, as though I were about to step into a world transformed, with ocean spume sparkling against the rocks and Cragmere just a gateway to the stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okay, maybe Daphne du Maurier never made it to Shore Road, but if she had, she\u2019d certainly have been spellbound by this fieldstone former designer showcase home with a wrap around porch to eternity.<\/p>\n

You know Shore Road. It\u2019s that a serpentine roller-coaster that follows the ocean from Ogunquit through Cape Neddick to York Beach past golf courses and through tunnels of green trees and wild rugosa roses. It\u2019s a cliffhanger, too. In fact, the Cliff House Resort is a big attraction here, with diners viewing the surf blasting against the cliff\u2019s sheer granite walls.<\/p>\n

Nearby is the romantic stone chapel St. Peter\u2019s By-The-Sea, so lyrically designed it\u2019s almost too pretty for a postcard.<\/p>\n

And then, a few privileged driveways to the south, the gravel road to Cragmere and its galaxies of English gardens hits you smack in the face with nothing less than a \u2018beauty overload.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was built in 1895,\u201d says Virginia Spiller, librarian of the Old York Historical Society, \u201cby Cuban-born Antoine Dorticos, with offices in Portland, as a \u2018summer cottage\u2019 by a prominent Philadelphia family, the Connarroes. George Mecum Connarroe was a leading probate attorney as well as a real estate developer. His wife, Nannie Dunlap Connarroe, was the great-granddaughter of Col. Clement Biddle, the Quartermaster General for George Washington\u2019s staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swept away by a visit to the Maine coast, Connarroe impulsively purchased \u201c\u2018100 acres of shoreline to subdivide immediately around his cottage,\u2019 according to the\u00a0Boston Globe<\/em> in 1888, \u2018with one provision\u2013that the purchaser erect a cottage that would cost not less than $5,000.\u2019 I couldn\u2019t tell you if any of those got built,\u201d Spiller says, but the Connarroes did generously build the scenic St. Peter\u2019s By-The-Sea and the Ogunquit Library as gifts to the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia story cut to the credits when \u201cGeorge Connarroe died at 65 of pneumonia,\u201d though, and the Weare family moved in. \u201cMembers of the Weare family [their descendant, Kathryn Weare, still owns The Cliff House resort] used to work for Connarroes,\u201d Spiller says, and now here they were lords of the manor, as well as owners of sprawling tracts of oceanfront themselves.<\/p>\n

Which is not to understate the contributions of the present sellers, the Cranes\u2013whose architectural stewardship here resulted in an award from Gov. Angus King, \u201cthe first time that private homeowners have been so honored,\u201d says listing agent Eileen Roberts of Anne Erwin Sotheby\u2019s International\u00a0 Realty in York. \u201cFrom England they went to Canada and were both teaching school there. Then they went to the Boston area, and Chris entered the software business. They bought Cragmere as a vacation home with the intention of restoring it to its former glory. \u201cBrian Sleeper was general contractor for the project\u2013a labor of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six fireplaces flicker amid \u201cmore than 5,000 feet of tasteful elegance.\u201d Fastidiously restored mahogany porches and balconies testify to the no-holds-barred 1999 restoration that was the subject of magazine panegyrics across the country. What better place to feel as though you\u2019re living in an L.L. Bean catalog than to live in the place where glamour L.L. Bean catalog spreads have been shot?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kitchen is new and beautifully crafted,\u201d Roberts says, \u201cwith granite counters, state-of-the-art stainless appliances, Fisher & Paykel dish drawers, Sub-Zero refrigerator: all the bells and whistles you\u2019d find in a modern kitchen, but with whimsical seaside cabinetry by Mike Fernald of Fernwood\u2013he did all the new woodwork in the house\u2013that\u2019s in keeping with the feel of the house. The kitchen opens up onto a deck on the sheltered side of the house for afternoon sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The master bedroom suite is new, \u201cbuilt where there was once storage space. They raised the roof here to accommodate the spacious and luxurious master suite. Oh, and the deck! The deck makes you feel as if you\u2019re on a ship, with 180-degree ocean views. Whoever buys this house will never leave this spot. It is wonderfully integrated into the original structure, with custom storage, a beautiful bathroom, and a whirlpool tub with ocean views.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third floor\u2013once attic space\u2013has been renovated to include a huge media room, an office overlooking the ocean, an exercise room, a sewing room, and a full bathroom. Obviously, these could be bedrooms, too. It\u2019s all spectacular space, and all of the detail replicates the original detail of the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite space is the covered porch,\u201d Roberts says: \u201cStone columns, mahogany detailing\u2013it\u2019s incredible. There\u2019s a portion of it that\u2019s like standing in a captured gazebo.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second building is included in the package, too, with a three-bedroom apartment and garage space for at least two cars.<\/p>\n

Back in the 1960s, there were some down years for this beautiful estate, including \u201clong periods of abandonment\u201d and even a stint as a gift shop. \u201cIn the 1960s, the shop specialized in imported goods, exotic things, expensive novelties,\u201d Virginia Spiller says. \u201cImagine trying to market with that today, now that everything\u2019s<\/em> imported!\u201d<\/p>\n

The architect Dorticos, Spiller feels, is the gold-nugget \u2018find\u2019 that recent appreciation for Cragmere has unearthed: \u201cThe son of Pedro Dorticos, a wealthy planter in Cienfuegos, Cuba, he studied in Paris after his family was displaced by a political upheaval in Cuba. He came to Maine at 18, studied at Gorham Academy, and surfaces in the Portland Directory <\/i>of 1877 as a draftsman. Then, he\u2019s listed as a French\u00a0teacher at Portland High School in 1882. He was a mentor for John Calvin Stevens and Frederick Tompson, and drew with Stevens during classes held at the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association,\u201d Spiller says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the Portland Transcript <\/i>in 1893, Dorticos was the dreamer who first conceived of building luxury cottages on Portland Harbor islands such as Cushing, Great Diamond, and Chebeague,\u201d including Shingle Style landmark cottages he and his\u00a0family stayed in on Peaks and Chebeague (sadly, this structure burned in 1894) during the dawn of modern tourism here.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018My concepts are artistic, low-priced, seaside cottages and houses,\u2019 Dorticos wrote in his 1887 entry in Leading Business Men of\u00a0<\/i>Portland<\/i>. Isn\u2019t that fantastic?\u201d Spiller says. Twenty-one homes are credited to this talented and overlooked visionary, who thankfully is now listed in the Biographical\u00a0<\/i>Dictionary of Architects in Maine<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cragmere is a clifftop stunner by Cuban-born Portland architect Antoine Dorticos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,892,232,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classic-maine-stories","category-real-estate","category-shelter-design","category-talking-walls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14976"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18189,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976\/revisions\/18189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}