KENNEBUNK – Loads of homes have a fascinating history. But this splendid condominium in the heart of downtown has multiple histories.

More than will ever be known, probably. Because the 2,574-square-foot, multi-level condo is outfitted with reclaimed, repurposed and reinvented features from homes all around southern Maine and beyond, and each such fixture must surely have a story (or stories) behind it. But it would probably take a team of antiquarians several years to trace all their origins.

What is known for certain is that the 1850 barn building was moved here 20 years ago by Tom Joyal, who in 1996 made it the shop for his business, The Old House Parts Company. Joyal explained that he paid $1,000 for the barn and was given six months to get it off the property, which was on Grant Road in Saco.

Formerly housed in the barn were trotters belonging to the Snow family, of Scarborough-based clam chowder fame. Joyal dismantled the barn and wanted to keep the horses’ stalls, but that didn’t work out. He moved everything to this then-vacant downtown lot, and put the barn back together again. (He estimates that he has moved 18 houses over the years.)

After a few years, Old House Parts (“Architectural Salvage from 1730 to 1930”) outgrew the barn and moved to an 1872 freight warehouse on Trackside Drive, just down Summer Street/U.S. Route 9A. Joyal applied his restoration and interior design skills, not to mention his vast inventory, to transforming the building into living space for his family, which included young daughters Lily and Grace.

The project took three of four months, Joyal remembered. He can’t give too many details about the home goods’ sources, but knows that  “parts of a house in Eliot … A house in Ogunquit, along Shore Road – I got a bunch of trim out of that, and doors … Transoms from a barn in Cumberland …” are all here in some form.

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Cool touches include an enclosed, cathedral-ceiling family room, which is up three steps from the condo’s main level, to allow space for a cathedral ceiling in the bakery underneath. Above the family room is the barn’s cathedral ceiling. “So it’s basically three gables, stacked on top of each other,” Joyal observed.

But perhaps the single coolest element is the “secret” room, an inspired installation by Joyal, with his daughters in mind, of course.

The home has belonged to new owners since 2011, and now they are moving. So begins a new historic chapter.

The condominium at No. 5 Nason’s Court in Kennebunk is listed for sale at $439,000 by Steven Chicoine of the Steven Chicoine Real Estate Team at Keller Williams Realty. It is in the Village Green Condo Association, with a monthly fee of $539.

For more information or to arrange a private viewing, please contact Steven at 446-8060, 615-9461, or at stevenchicoine@kw.com.

 

Photos by Lynn Dube, Wave5 Productions.

Produced by the Marketing Department of the Portland Press Herald, the Design feature is provided at no cost.

Send design feature suggestions to jrolfe@pressherald.com.


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