Built ca. 1720-1740 NRHP Reference # 79000271 Area 2,024 m² | Architect Bray,John Opened 1662 Added to NRHP 9 October 1979 | |
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Similar Lady Pepperrell House, Rocky Hill Meeting House, Gilman Garrison House, Francestown Meetinghouse, Cooper‑Frost‑Austin House | ||
The Bray House is a historic house at 100 Pepperell Road in Kittery Point, Maine, United States. It is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Maine. Long thought to be a 17th-century house, the architectural evidence indicates that this house was probably not built before 1720. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Description and history
The Bray House is set on the south side of Pepperell Road (Maine State Route 103), on a site overlooking the Piscataqua River. It is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, whose main block is five bays wide, with a side gable roof, large central chimney, clapboard siding, and granite foundation. The entrance, centered on the river-facing south facade, is flanked by sidelight windows and pilasters, and is topped by an entablature. A two-story extension to the east adds two bays, and a narrow connecting segment joins the main house to a second 2-1/2 story house, oriented perpendicular to the main block, that was moved to this property in the early 20th century.
This location is known to be the place where John Bray built a house in about 1662. Although it is possible that parts of Bray's original house survive in the present structure, the construction methods and styling of this house are consistent with a construction date of about 1720. This is still adequate to make the house one of Maine's oldest surviving structures.
Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame purchased the house in 2008 and undertook its restoration. He later sold the restored property for $1.6 million; the new owners have proposed alterations to the structure to highlight the oldest portion of the house.