{"id":17137,"date":"2019-11-27T16:15:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T21:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=17137"},"modified":"2020-09-28T11:37:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T15:37:29","slug":"river-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/river-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"River Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&amp;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&amp;d=dec19_flipbook_for_web&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=72&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"p1\">This happy Federal jewel box has a poignant backstory.<\/h1>\n<p class=\"p1\">December 2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">By Colin W. Sargent<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-17155\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-hom-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"DEC19 hom\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-hom-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-hom-200x120.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-hom.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>S<\/span><span class=\"s1\">ome houses, like people, have smiling faces that put on a brave front. River Bank in Kennebunkport is one of these. Its first mystery is in its name.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cYou might be wondering why this house is called River Bank if it\u2019s not on the Kennebunk River,\u201d says owner Kerin O\u2019Keefe, 35. \u201cWhen it was built in 1848 for its first owners, Jacob and Ann, it was on the Kennebunk River. Between 1920 and 1930, developers of the Cape Arundel Golf Course arranged for it to be moved to this lovely site,\u201d catty-cornered across the street, accented by a perfect sliver of granite ledge peeking out of the green lawn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The charming white cape with proud dormers has original Greek Revival trim and an inviting door with sidelights. A pear tree is so laden with fruit that branches rest on the ground. A rooster peeks out from behind. \u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d we ask. He disappears.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Just inside the door, a bell at the tip of a metal curl reminds us of the opening credits of <em>Downton Abbey<\/em>. The original mahogany banister helps set the stage for O\u2019Keefe\u2019s gentle renovation, which is an ongoing curation. The salon is off one side of the foyer, the dining room the other. A large, off-white farm kitchen with built-in nook and a blue floor leads to a garage and studio: \u201cI own Cape Porpoise Trading Co. I weave lobster-line doormats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAren\u2019t they nicely worn,\u201d she says of the patinated stairs. She leads us through four airy bedrooms. \u201cThese are the original floors upstairs, with a bit wider planks.\u201d At the threshold of the master, she says, \u201cThis was the bathroom. Of course, I turned it into a walk-in closet. It works so much better with the en suite and the radiant heat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Everything\u2019s so snug and shipshape. What a Christmas card to visit during the holidays. \u201cI adore the light which floods all the rooms,\u201d O\u2019Keefe says. \u201cIt\u2019s due to the angle we\u2019re set on the lot.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But the question remains, what is the real backstory of this house? Does it miss being on the bank of the Kennebunk?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cJacob was a ship\u2019s captain. His wife, Ann, grew despondent because he was at sea so long.\u201d We can only imagine her elation when her son was born, but she sadly lost him to sickness. \u201cA year after her son passed, she drowned herself in the Kennebunk River. She was only in her thirties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Touched, we leave, forgetting to ask her for the rooster\u2019s name. The next day we get the word. \u201cHis name is Hippie.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p3\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Taxes for 45 North Street are $4,182.<br \/>\nProperty was listed for $692,500 before the holidays. Look for it as a spring listing.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lovely house, tragic tale.<br \/>\nBy Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17154,"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":[892,232,224],"tags":[621,620,26,561,380,127,208,619],"class_list":["post-17137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate","category-shelter-design","category-talking-walls","tag-cape-arundel-golf-course","tag-cape-porpoise-trading-co","tag-house-of-the-month","tag-kennebunk","tag-kennebunkport","tag-maine","tag-real-estate","tag-river-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17137","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=17137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17212,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17137\/revisions\/17212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}