Location Blue Hill, Maine NRHP Reference # 74000153 Area 4,000 m² Added to NRHP 16 December 1974 | Built 1916 (1916) Opened 1916 Architectural style Prairie School | |
The Ward Hinckley House is a historic house in Blue Hill, Maine. Built in 1916 for Otis Ward Hinckley, a Chicago businessman with roots in Blue Hill, it is one of only two documented examples of the Prairie School of architecture in the state of Maine. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Description and history
The Hinckley House is set on the coast of Blue Hill Harbor, an inlet of the Mount Desert Narrows, the body of water separating Blue Hill from Mount Desert Island. It is a two-story building with a hip roof that has extended eaves, and a long single-story projecting section on one side. It has groups of diamond-paned windows and a stuccoed exterior.
The house was built in 1916 for Otis Ward Hinckley, a Chicago businessman who was part owner of the Hinckley & Schmitt bottling company, and whose ancestors included Blue Hill native Rev. Jonathan Fisher. Hinckley was said to be aware of Frank Lloyd Wright's design work, and sought his services to design the house, but balked at Wright's price. Instead he hired is nephew Wallace Hinckley, who created this design based on Wright's Willits House in Highland Park, Illinois. The house remains in private ownership.