Benjamin C. Wilder House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Benjamin C. Wilder House
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 Location in Maine
Location in the United States
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| Location | 1267 Main Street, Washburn, Maine |
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| Built | 1852 |
| NRHP reference No. | 87000946 |
| Added to NRHP | June 12, 1987 |
The Benjamin C. Wilder House is a very old and special house located at 1267 Main Street in Washburn, Maine, USA. It was built around 1852, which means it's over 170 years old! This house is a great example of how homes were built in the middle of the 1800s in northern Aroostook County. It was one of the first houses built when people started settling in this area.
In 1987, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is a list of important buildings, sites, and objects that should be saved because of their history. Today, the Salmon Brook Historical Society owns the house. They run it as a historic house museum, which means you can visit it to see what life was like long ago!
Contents
Exploring the Wilder House
The Wilder House is in the middle of Washburn, a small town. It sits on the east side of Main Street, near the town common. It's a one-and-a-half-story house made of wood. It has a roof that slopes down on two sides and is covered with clapboard siding. The foundation is made of strong granite and concrete blocks.
What the House Looks Like
The front of the house faces south. It has a porch that goes all the way across the front and wraps around to the west side. This porch has columns that look like old Greek or Roman pillars. The main door is on the right side of the front porch. There's also a window that sticks out from the roof, called a dormer.
A kitchen part extends from the back of the main house. It also has dormer windows on its roof and a porch on its east side. Inside the house, the walls are still the original plaster and lath. There's also an old staircase that leads up to the attic.
The History of the Wilder House
For a long time, people didn't settle much in northern Aroostook County. This was because there was a disagreement about the border with New Brunswick, which is in Canada. This disagreement even led to a time when war was threatened in the 1830s, called the Aroostook War.
Settling in Washburn
The border problem was finally solved in 1842 with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. After that, people started moving into the area more quickly. Washburn was likely settled soon after this treaty. Isaac Wilder was one of the first people to settle there.
His nephew, Benjamin C. Wilder, probably built this house around 1852. This was the same year he got married. Benjamin Wilder was an important person in the community. He worked as a merchant, selling goods, and also as a farmer.
From Home to Museum
Benjamin Wilder's family sold the house in 1920 to the Jardine family. Later, the Jardine family sold it to the Salmon Brook Historical Society. This society now takes care of the house. They use it as a museum to show what life was like in the mid-1800s. There's also another museum nearby, the Aroostook Agricultural Museum, which is in a barn.
See also
