the old barn

Here is a building from the past; a ghost really, since it no longer stands. It is the old barn that was once attached to the house and had to be torn down. It dared to fall down otherwise. I wonder what it looked like inside and the crew of people who built it. People don't build like this anymore. The wood was likely milled right here in Maine and some of it could have come right off the property. There used to be a long stone wall leading away from the house. That was all that remained of the old barn back in the early 1980s. Old tools, rusty nails, bits of glass and other odds and ends would turn up in the grass every now and then in the small field next to that stone wall. It only takes a little imagination to wonder what else is buried by the red house.

Good soil makes for bountiful harvest

Good soil and hard work produced bountiful fall harvests each year, for the Maguire family and for those who lived on this land in years past.
"We had a very productive garden in the field below the house," said Ann Marie Maguire. "Though my children said its best production was glacial leavings as they picked rocks in the spring!"

Built into the wall of the parlor is a corner cupboard. Attempts in early years to remove it failed and it remains with the Red House today. See the rippled, bubbled glass? It was likely hand made here in Maine over 200 years ago.

Keeping Room

Here is the Keeping Room. See the small, cast iron doors on the right of the fireplace? They are still operable and a nice place to bake bread, a pizza or keep food hot. Note the wrought iron hooks in the beams where the cook would hang herbs to dry in front of a roaring fire. The wood box to the right was built by a crafty visitor to the house one winter, Michael Goelet, with his wife, Hallie and their daughter Anne in 1970. Ann Marie Maguire says, "Under the disintegrating plaster and lathe in the keeping room lurked an original beaded paneling wall, painted with the old brick dust and buttermilk paint."

Red House, unrestored 1973

Here is an old photograph of the Red House at the time the Maguire family purchased the property, in 1973. Work had yet to commence. Much is hidden behind old apple trees, which still stand to this day.

 Swan's Island resident and current property owner, Ann Marie Maguire states the original owners had a large apple orchard. "I remember an old apple tree that had "walked" down the hill behind the house," she said. "It would grow old, die and fall over, and then a branch would grow roots from contact with the ground, and the cycle would resume. "You could trace it happening 3 or 4 times, and this may give some idea of the age of the orchard.  It may go back to the late 1700's."

Tearing off the old porch

Denis Maguire hard at work

Work on this old house has continued since the early 1970s. This front porch, not part of the original structure, was taken down. (photo courtesy Ann Marie Maguire)

Restoration

Restoration of the original house has been ongoing since the early 1970s. The Maguire family bought the house in 1973. (photo courtesy Ann Marie Maguire)