Other Old Houses

Anderson/Lord House

Maplewood Farm on the River Road

This property was submitted to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Located in the first settled area, it is still in possession of the descendants of the original families. Abraham Anderson (1705-1768) and his wife Anna Cloutman Anderson (1717-1802) were the original owners and acquired the property in 1738. They are buried in the small family cemetery on the River Road. The buildings and about 135 acres with frontage on the Presumpscot River are now protected in a family trust. Each summer, descendants of the family from all over the country, gather for an annual reunion.

The two and a half story home, built in the early 1700s has many interior Georgian features with 5-sided bay windows and a deep overhang to the roof with Gothic drip moldings and bargeboard (1840s-1850s). There is a separate c. 1850 barn with clipped gable roof and board and batten siding, another barn and a c. 1850s caretaker’s cottage across the street. A one story ranch, c. 1960s, caretaker’s house intrudes into the open space near the main buildings.

This property was the seat of a farm developed by John F. Anderson in the mid nineteenth cemetery. He was a noted agriculturist and civil engineer.

The early house was erected on this land for Edward Anderson, but Edward swapped the property for his brother Abraham’s land on Windham Center Road. Abraham was married to Lucy Smith, daughter of the Parson.

Abraham and Lucy had a son who was an important political figure (mayor of Portland) and he used this property as his summer home, probably adding the Gothic trim which makes the place unique.

Maplewood Farm eventually passed down through descendants to Annie H. and C. W. Lord. It continued to operate as a farm into the 1940s.

Goold House

Windham Center Road

In 1990, because of the unique history of the people who lived here, the William Goold House was entered on the National Register.

William Goold, son of Nathan and Betsey Gowen Goold was born in Windham in 1809 and apprenticed at the age of 14 to learn the trade of a tailor. He moved to Portland and by 1830 he had become a partner of the man who taught him. In 1837, because of ill health, he moved to Windham and then to Saco; he returned to Portland where he stayed until 1861 when he finally came home to Windham. He was a legislator and state senator and spent much of his time writing, publishing many historic articles and a book called Portland in the Past. He was very involved with Maine Historical Society, Portland.

William Goold died in 1890 at the age of 81 and is buried in an ancient family cemetery in back of the house, where veterans from five wars are also buried.

One of his children, Abba, became a famous women’s reform lecturer and writer, and lived for many years in Boston before returning to Windham.  She was the last of the family to live here; she died in the 1920s.

The house is an early Cape, built by Nathan Goold, on the northwest corner of Nash Road and Windham Center Road. William Goold salvaged many artifacts from early homes and churches in Portland and reused many carvings in the house. A late Victorian ell features a bell tower and a traditional ghost story. There are some Gothic Revival features. Patterned shingles are on the ell’s exterior walls. The Greek Revival porch has tall columns and is on two sides of the home.

Elizabeth Mayberry Home

Old Great Falls Road

Just off the hill at Great Falls, at the end of Windham Center Road, is a classic c1858 Greek Revival home with a recessed porch on two sides and unusual octagon columns supporting a broad pediment, which is triangular. There is flush boarding on the exterior to look like stone. It is on the National Historic Register because of its architecture, inside and out.

Inside, the home is in original condition with Greek Revival moldings, panels under the large 6/9 windows in the front parlor and fireplaces with Greek Revival mantels. A large barn, once on the property, is gone but there is still a portion of an early fence which went the entire way around the house. This home is at the foot of the hill where the John White farm is and overlooked the busy village of Great Falls before the power plant dam flooded the area in 1900.

This is one of three homes located in the Great Falls Historic District, added to the Registry in 1995. The district is along the Old Great Falls Road east of the Presumpscot River in the Great Falls section of Windham. There are 10 acres, three buildings and two barns in this district.