Built 1832 (1832) Opened 1832 Added to NRHP 21 January 1974 | NRHP Reference # 74000189 Area 4,000 m² | |
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Location 55 Summer St., Bangor, Maine Architectural style Greek Revival architecture Similar Acadia National Park, Collins Center for the Arts, Mount Hope Cemetery, Statues of Paul Bunyan, Bangor Public Library | ||
The Zebulon Smith House is a historic house at 55 Summer Street in Bangor, Maine. Built in 1832, it is one of the two oldest houses (along with the Charles Q. Clapp House in Portland) in the state of Maine to be built with a Greek Revival temple front. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Description and history
The Smith House is set on the northwest side of Summer Street, between it and Main Street (United States Route 202), overlooking Bangor's historic waterfront area. The house is a 2-1/2 story structure, with brick side walls, a matchboarded front facade, and clapboarded rear. It has a roof with the gable oriented toward the front, projecting over the front facade with four large fluted Ionic columns supporting it and an entablature. The gable end is fully pedimented, and is detailed with dentil moulding. A semi-oval fanlight window is located in the center of the recessed tympanum at the gable's center. The front facade behind this temple front has pilasters at the corner and dividing its three bays, with its center entrance flanked by sidelight windows. The side walls are essentially identical, each with a pair of brick chimneys rising above.
The house was built in 1832 for Zebulon Smith, about whom nothing is known; it is surmised that he was a substantial businessman, given the grandeur of the house. The house is, along with the Charles Q. Clapp House (also built in 1832 in Portland), one of the first temple-fronted houses in the state.