Built 1945 (1945) Opened 1945 Added to NRHP 7 August 2009 | NRHP Reference # 08000991 Area 1 ha | |
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Location 27 Corning Way, Northeast Harbor, Maine Architectural style International Style, Shingle Style | ||
Sea Change is a historic summer estate at 27 Corning Way in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Its main house is an International style structure, originally built in 1950 to a design by Wallace K. Harrison, and rebuilt from the original plans in 2005 after a fire destroyed the original. Outbuildings on the property include three once-detached Shingle style cabins and a carriage house (now converted to a caretaker's quarters), all built in the late 19th century by Erastus Corning. The most unusual structure on the property is a large reinforced concrete bomb shelter, built in 1961-62 to design by William F. Pederson. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, for its exceptional collection of modern architecture, including the Cold War-era bunker and a rare Harrison design located outside New York.
Description and history
Sea Change is located just east of the tip of Sargent Head, a small peninsula jutting south from the larger peninsula of Mount Desert Island on which Northeast Harbor is located. The entire Sargent's Head area was acquired in the late 19th century by Erastus Corning, a prominent New York City businessman and politician, and it was his family that first developed Sea Change. In the 1880s they built a handsome Shingle style estate house, three guest cabins, and a carriage house. This portion of the Corning property was sold in 1944 to William A. M. Burden, a scion of the Vanderbilt family and longtime president of the Museum of Modern Art. The Burdens disassembled the Corning's main house (of which parts were reused by the Cornings for a more modest house on the remaining land), and commissioned New York City architect Wallace K. Harrison to design an International Style house as a replacement, which was completed in 1947. Harrison's design was hampered by the relatively small site and the existing buildings; the product was a structure that was scaled to harmonize with those, using their footprints and massing as a guide in designing portions of the house, and integrating them into what became a large indoor-outdoor living space.
In the 1950s Burden retained William F. Pederson to redesign the interiors of the cabins, and to refashion the carriage house into a caretaker's residence. Pederson's most unusual contribution to the complex, however, is the reinforced concrete bomb shelter, which Burden ordered designs for after return from Belgium after a stint as United States Ambassador to Belgium. Borden had for many years consulted for the United States government on military matters, including nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology, and was undoubtedly aware of Soviet advances in those areas. The first designs for the shelter are dated September 21, 1961; the Soviet Union detonated a hydrogen bomb the following October. It consists of a large central chamber from which two hallways radiate; it has a sleeping capacity of 24.
In 1999 the main house burned to the ground. It was rebuilt in 2005 from the original plans, under the guidance of architect Heinrich Herman, replicating virtually all of its interior and exterior features and furnishings. The only significant alterations were the provision of more modern kitchen appliances, and updates to the mechanical and electrical systems related to safety codes.