{"id":15788,"date":"2019-02-22T10:21:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T15:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15788"},"modified":"2020-09-29T10:08:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T14:08:50","slug":"wellness-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wellness-check\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellness Check"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"issuuembed\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px;\" data-configid=\"37604829\/68738580\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.js\" async=\"true\"><\/script><br \/>\n<em>By Evelyn Waugh<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-15862\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FM19-WeddingCakeHouse-1-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"FM19-WeddingCakeHouse\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FM19-WeddingCakeHouse-1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FM19-WeddingCakeHouse-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FM19-WeddingCakeHouse-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FM19-WeddingCakeHouse-1-200x134.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FM19-WeddingCakeHouse-1-524x350.jpg 524w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/FM19-WeddingCakeHouse-1.jpg 1111w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>F<\/span><span class=\"s1\">or over a century, the Wedding Cake House was touted as \u201cthe most photographed house in Maine,\u201d according to New York\u2019s <i>Compass American Guide<\/i>. 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 discourages visitors with a \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d sign and appears vacant. <\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>TALK OF THE TOWN<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt\u2019s been completely unoccupied for a year and a half, in a terrible state of disrepair,\u201d says Hana Pevny, owner of the Waldo Emerson Inn next door.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt certainly needs some love,\u201d says Julie Larry of Greater Portland Landmarks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Sarah Hansen of Maine Preservation says members are concerned for the beloved attraction\u2019s future. \u201cIts complex estate ownership issues seem to have led to its current state.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>HOLLYWOODLAND<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt was 1954,\u201d and Jimmy Barker \u201cwas a young man just back from the Korean War,\u201d wrote Laura Dolce for <i>Seacoast Online<\/i> in 2010. \u201cA Kentucky native, [he] had traveled to spend a week that August with artist Channing Hare. At a cocktail party given by Hare and attended by film actress Claudette Colbert [Oscar winner for <i>It Happened One Night<\/i>, 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 \u2018the Wedding Cake House.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">It was love at first sight. The 1815 structure on the Kennebunk River had been \u201cgiven to George Washington Bourne by his parents, as a wedding present.\u201d That\u2019s how [it came] to be known as the Wedding Cake House.\u201d Dolce, now the executive director of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel Chamber of Commerce, described a photo she saw in the library: \u201c\u2026A young Barker stands with Hare and Colbert, not knowing that while Hare would never own the home, someday it would be his.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>IT WAS MEANT TO BE<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">In 1998, the house was listed for $699K. Barker purchased it for $650,000 that<br \/>\nNovember, according to town records.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;T<\/span><span class=\"s1\">oo much,\u201d some observers murmured. \u201cIts upkeep will be its downfall.\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>THE END OF AN ERA<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">After a sunny, joyful decade of memorable 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. \u201cIn the moments after the fire was out, the home\u2019s 80-year-old owner tried to rush into the house despite being ordered to stay in a safe area,\u201d according to South Florida\u2019s <i>Sun Sentinel<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Barker\u2019s nearly $8M collection of celebrity portraits, statues, sketches, and collection of antique porcelain Staffordshire dogs was destroyed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">The ruins were torn down. New owners built a mansion on the site and sold it for $7.5M. Barker later moved into Juno Mobile Home Park in Palm Beach. We have been unable to reach him. <\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>CROSSROADS<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">S<\/span><span class=\"s1\">o what\u2019s next for the Wedding Cake House?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to figure out,\u201d Barker\u2019s nephew, Hunt Edwards, says by telephone. \u201cUncle Jimmy\u2019s partner died a year or so ago, might be a little more, and they\u2019re finishing all the estate stuff. When they do, Uncle Jimmy will be the sole owner of the house.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Will it stay in the family or open to<br \/>\nthe public?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt won\u2019t be open for tours this summer, I can tell you that. We\u2019re certainly discussing all that stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cTo be preserved, the way it is, it would most likely have to turn into some kind of public landmark or a business like a bed and breakfast or a wedding venue,\u201d Cynthia Walker of Kennebunk\u2019s Brick Store Museum says. \u201cSimply because of the cost of upkeep of a place like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>SOMEONE LEFT THE<br \/>\nCAKE OUT IN THE RAIN<br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\">W<\/span><span class=\"s1\">hatever its future, there are matters of alarming deferred maintenance. The back veranda overlooking the river is buckled and sagging, and an outbuilding has collapsed. The magnificent gothic exterior trim around the entire house has all but dissolved. Tom Joyal, architectural salvage expert and former owner of The Old House Parts Co., muses about the cost of repairing the gingerbread trim. \u201cOh my gosh. I\u2019ve thought about it, believe me. [The carvings are] probably just a template now. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much there worth saving. I haven\u2019t touched it, but it just looks a bit rough. It would be just a guess. I could easily see $1M being spent there. When you drive by, you see signs of algae, telltale signs of serious rot going on.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>COMMUNITY ACTION<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cJimmy\u2019s quite a character,\u201d Laura Dolce says today. \u201cA real southern gentleman with fascinating stories about Maine and the arts scene of decades ago. The house [as she knew it, was] filled with interesting pieces with their own stories\u2014a sketch of Jimmy as a young man, done by an artist one summer in Ogunquit; a piece by [Norman] Rockwell, with a tale about visiting the artist\u2019s studio.\u201d Jimmy has such a generous spirit. \u201cAfter Hurricane Katrina, Jimmy held a fundraiser, and they raised around $40K by offering tours.\u201d It was a huge success. Everyone cherished the landmark and gave directions by it, as in \u2018Go half a mile past the Wedding Cake House.\u2019 \u201cRarely a day [went] by without visitors posing for photos out front.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">But nobody\u2019s posing out front now. Recently, \u201cWe offered to organize and do tours for him with the idea that the money would go back into the house,\u201d Dolce says. \u201cWe weren\u2019t able to get everyone involved to agree.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Residents, historians, and visitors are in agreement that something must be done quickly. We hope our children and children\u2019s children will see what love can inspire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\" style=\"text-align: center;\">[easingslider id=&#8221;15921&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Wedding Cake House has fallen on tough times. Who are the stakeholders?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15861,"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":[316,317,944],"class_list":["post-15788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classic-maine-stories","category-real-estate","category-shelter-design","category-talking-walls","tag-februarymarch-2019","tag-shelter-design","tag-wedding-cake-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788","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=15788"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17990,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788\/revisions\/17990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}