Courtesy / Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty
A central feature is the spiral staircase.
April 11, 2021
Playwright’s hideaway, near Madison's Lakewood Theater, sold after 15 years on market
Courtesy / Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty
The Colony House was built in 1929 for a Broadway playwright.
The buyers of a vintage bed-and-breakfast with plenty of history are looking forward to doing a period renovation and likely reopening it as an inn in a couple of years.
Paul and Paula Saunders bought the Colony House at 68 Beach Road in Madison from Robert Thompson and family for $570,000. John I. McCarthy of Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Real Estate represented both buyer and seller in the transaction. McCarthy also acknowledged Donna Mills Stevens at Skowhegan Savings Bank, Rebecca Cayford Esq. and Corson & Blaisdell P.A. in the deal.
The shingle-sided structure was custom designed and built in 1929 as a summer home for Broadway playwright John Bard Hymer, on the western shore of Lake Wesserunsett in Somerset County. Features include hardwood floors, working fireplaces and a spiral staircase. The main house has six bedrooms, five bathrooms and a sunroom overlooking the lake. The property also has an adjacent four-bedroom cabin that sleeps eight.
The inn is near Lakewood Theater. Founded in 1898, Lakewood is the oldest continually-running summer stock theater in the U.S. and was dubbed “Broadway in Maine.” The area is also popular for fishing, boating, the Lakewood Golf Course, hiking, hunting and whitewater rafting.
The property was on the market for years until McCarthy was retained several years ago. One challenge, said McCarthy, was that the area was too rural for most buyers. Another was that the inn was originally overpriced and needed renovations. The seller brought the price down, added a small waterfront parcel and included furniture and fixtures.
“The buyers got a very reasonable property for the money,” said McCarthy.
Family operation
The seller, Bob Thompson, ran the inn for 30 years with his late wife Rebecca, and her children, Rhonda Walters, Mike Higgins and Mark Higgins, and Mark’s wife Beth.
“We all worked on this together,” said Thompson. “It was strictly a family operation.”
The inn was just an empty building when the Thompsons bought it in 1991, and it needed considerable repairs.
“It’s all original woodwork on the inside,” he noted. “A lot of the lay-out is pretty much original from back in the heyday.”
During their ownership, notable guests included the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia.
Weekends were often devoted to weddings, complete with Friday night rehearsal dinner, Saturday wedding and reception, and Sunday morning buffet. Mother’s Day buffets would draw 200 people.
Thompson is an electrician who has traveled all over the country over the course of 45 years in the trade, but whose home has long been right across the street from the Colony. In 1991, the Colony’s then-owner, who was an out-of-state real estate investor, offered to sell the property to Thompson.
Jewel in the woods
“He said, ‘I’ll make an offer you can’t refuse,’” he recalled. “He did.”
The inn had been vacant a while and had a lot of broken windows. Kids used to play hide and seek in there and bats could be seen flying around the premises.
Still, the inn had a lot of history and seemed worth fixing up, he said.
“It’s a unique piece of property,” he said. “It’s a jewel in the woods.”
Because the Colony operated seasonally, from May through October, he could continue to work as an electrician while his family pitched in to run the inn.
Thompson credited his wife for getting the inn back up and running.
“She was a very talented lady,” he said. “Without her, it never would have happened.”
It quickly attracted a steady clientele, including a lot of whitewater rafters in the springtime, plus folks who attended Maine Grain Alliance events in Skowhegan and the summertime Skowhegan School Of Painting & Sculpture in Madison.
Most guests are those who are aware of the Colony, rather than drive-by vacationers, he added.
“A lot of repeat guests. People from all over the world,” he said. “We had groups from China, people from Australia, a lot from Europe. It’s mostly word of mouth. Never did a lot of big advertising.”
The property was on the market for 15 years, with the inn remaining operational throughout that time, he said.
“We finally got hooked up with John McCarthy. He went to bat for us,” he added. “It takes a certain individual who wants to do this. In season, it’s seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”
Now age 77, he decided it was time to retire, visit family and do more hunting and fishing.
“It’s not a job. It’s a way of life,” he said. “And I thoroughly enjoyed the people. They’re wonderful, coming from all over the world. They come back and become old friends.”
Lakefront property search
The buyers, Paul and Paula Saunders, are both Massachusetts natives. Paula is an emergency room nurse. Paul started his career as an emergency medical technician for the city of Boston, became a licensed paramedic, then became a police officer in the town of Bedford, Mass., where he’s held the rank of sergeant for the past 16 years. He’s been with the Bedford department for 33 years and is looking toward retirement while his wife continues to work for a few more years.
Courtesy / Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty
Hardwood floors and custom moldings will be retained in renovations.
As a child, Paul Saunders and his family would vacation at Sunnyside Cottages, on the shore Little Ossipee Pond in East Waterboro, and loved it. Paula wanted to have a lakefront home for their retirement. So they started to look for lakefront property in New Hampshire and southern Maine.
“But the prices were astronomical,” said Paul Saunders. “So we started searching online further and further out, and we saw the Colony House.”
They read about its history and about the history of Lakewood Theater. They took a virtual tour through the Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty website.
“Right on the lake and the history of the house and the area and Broadway in central Maine — we said, ‘This is unbelievable,’” he recalled. “It captured us.”
The couple called McCarthy, stayed at the inn a couple of nights to see if they liked it and met Thompson.
“We totally fell in love with property,” Saunders continued.
Renovations
But renovations are needed, he added. Overall, the mission is to retain the house’s character but replace heating and plumbing systems, install air conditioning, remediate the wet basement, change the lighting to LEDs, and build a place for storage — probably a garage hidden in the back.
“I don’t want to ruin the way it looks as you come down the road,” he said.
The furniture and linens were dated, so that’s being swapped out.
“I want to do period renovations and keep the character of the house,” he said. “I won’t switch out the windows, but I plan to repair the windows. Some probably haven’t been opened for 30 years.”
A new septic system was installed before the transaction.
A 10-burner professional chef’s stove that was put into a secondary kitchen will go into the main kitchen and be refurbished. The couple plans to consult with a designer for things like new wallpaper, paint and décor.
“This is all still in beginning and dreaming stage,” he added.
The couple financed the purchase and will finance renovations through their savings, a loan with Skowhegan Savings Bank and eventually with the sale of their Massachusetts home, with the goal of being at their new property in two years, he said.
Thompson, who still lives across the street, has brought over newspaper clips about celebrities who have been there, such as Betty White and her husband, game show host Allen Ludden.
Both Paula and Paul Saunders come from large families that have long vacationed together.
“Family has already been up there with us, pitching in, cleaning, making plans,” he said.
Paul also loves to cook.
“We’ve always had family living with us off and on through the years,” he continued. “We almost run the house like a hospitality business. So all the guys I work with joke with me, ‘You’ve been practicing for this all your life!’”
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