Courtesy / The Swan Agency Sotheby's International Realty
The interior of the Tremont home features limestone-tile floors and timber-framing.
November 10, 2017
Old-English-style home on Mount Desert Island listed for $2.9M
Courtesy / The Swan Agency Sotheby's International Realty
This old-English style home, built in 2002 using historic construction techniques, is on the market for $2.9 million.
A 3,200-square-foot house designed in the style of a centuries-old English Norman cottage but built only 15 years ago has gone on the market in Tremont on Mount Desert Island for $2.9 million.
Kimberly Swan of The Swan Agency Sotheby’s International Realty is handling the listing.
“I went there and felt like I was in England or France,” said Swan, describing the moment she first visited the property. “It looks like it’s out of the 1700s.”
The property is at 29/30 Gannfield Lane, down a spit of land that extends into Blue Hill Bay. It consists of 10 acres with 500 feet of ocean frontage and two houses. The European style main house, completed in 2002, features a two-story tower at one corner and has two large fireplaces, cathedral ceilings with exposed beams, tile roof, chef’s kitchen, wine cellar, library, four bedrooms and detached three-car barn.
The property’s caretaker, Peter St. Germain, helped build the house. Reached by phone, he explained the walls were constructed using a traditional process called “lime rendering” using natural hydraulic lime, which is produced by heating limestone and ultimately allows a building to breathe.
“It was how things were done hundreds of years ago, before the use of cement was developed,” he said.
St. Germain said Robert and Donna Gann designed the house with authenticity in mind, in terms of both style and materials.
The Ganns, who have since passed away, obtained white oak timbers for the framing and brown oak for the rest of the interior woodwork. Almost all of the interior stonework, including fireplaces and kitchen counters, is limestone; some of the stonework is granite.
According to Robert Gann’s obituary from 2003, the couple moved to Maine from the Chicago area in 2000. They had each worked at Northern Trust Co., according to their respective obituaries. Donna Gann died in June.
St. Germain said they had previously visited Mount Desert Island, fell in love with it, and decided that’s where they would retire.
'You expect Henry VIII to be there'
The tower, he said, is “an incredible place to have breakfast, among other things.”
The property went on the market mid-October, said Swan.
The style of the house has attracted a lot of attention, she said.
“When I started posting pictures on social media, I have never gotten as many private messages saying, ‘Where is this?’ ‘How much is this?’” she said. “I’ve had properties where people say, ‘Oh, cool, where is that?’ But this is way more than I’ve ever had. I think the uniqueness of the property is so intriguing. You expect Henry VIII to be there, sitting at a big table.”
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