Trebor Mansion Inn - Guilford, Maine
Click here to visit the Trebor Mansion Inn Website
Trebor Mansion was commissioned by David Robinson Straw to be built in 1830 by architect John Monroe, and expanded to 22 rooms in 1836 and 1849, but when the National Historic Registry began certification of the building in 1982, the Board in Washington ran into a little problem with the dates. To put it simply, if the house was built in 1830 (or 1836 or 1849) the building couldn't exist. The three architectural styles used in the construction, Stick, Queen Anne and Jacobean, came onto existence in 1858, 1874 and 1876, respectively. If the building DID exist, it couldn't have been built in 1830. The styles first came to be used in combination in the 1880's, and became known as the premier American style, the Queen Anne Stick Jacobean. But the evidence was overwhelming, and included photographs, and it agreed with the 1830 date. The Board's conclusions were based on Aristotle: When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, is the Truth. The building was certified as 1830, with the comment that "the builder must have been an extraordinary man to have built this structure 50 years before its time".
There is a photo of the mansion purportedly dating to 1849 showing it to be the same as it is today. Otherwise, of course, the rationalist would say that the house must have been completely rebuilt in the 1880's, effacing almost all traces of its former style, which was probably Greek Revival or Federalist similar to the west wing of the mansion as it appears today. Anyone who thinks that the most prominent piece of architecture in a small town can be transformed under the watchful eyes of its populace without anyone noticing it is welcome to their opinion, but they have obviously never lived in a small town! Besides which, the west wing was added in 1836---six years after the main structure was built.
Small town curiosity aside, there is a sort of conspiracy of silence about the Trebor Mansion in the village. Why the most distinguished piece of architecture in the most prominent setting in the village, housing the largest lodging business in the township and built by the most important family in Guilford barely rates a single mention in the Town's Centennial and Sesquicentennial Books is a mystery. Why the locals avert their gaze is just one more puzzling aspect of Trebor Mansion.
The owners of the mansion over the years have been equally eccentric. The last of the Straws to live in the mansion spent decades in an insane asylum before her death. The last owners to live in the mansion before its renovation in 1976, George and Helen Haley, lived for years in two rooms in the west wing, rarely entering the main house. Vines and undergrowth obscured the front of the house. They had inherited it from the family of a Unitarian pacifist United States Senator from Illinois who purchased the Mansion as a wedding gift---for his mother-in-law! (This must be the most elegant method known for removing an in-law.) When Senator Paul Douglas died, he was cremated and his ashes scattered in a Chicago suburb. The burial site of his wife, a US Congresswoman, is unknown. Local lore has it that Omar Lombard, of the famous inventors Lombard, was involved in the house's construction. He died in 1990 at the age of 101. There is no record anywhere of any architect practicing in Maine or the U.S. named "John Monroe". U.S. President James Monroe left office in 1825 and died July 4th, 1831. It would be a nice nom de plume for someone working in that era that didn't mind a little confusion about his name or his origins.
When the mansion burned with an estimated $600,000 in damages on 1-24-2004, interior and structural elements that had been hidden for more than a century were suddenly revealed. The State Fire Marshal discovered writing in the backplaster of the front parlor (more below), striking stencils were revealed on the walls of the 2nd floor hallway, and the beams in the ceiling of the first floor and the colonial corner posts of the original post and beam structure on the top floors were visible again.
The structural elements showed that the top three floors were of different materials and design from the grand Victorian first floor. The ceiling joists between the first and second floors were rough hewn, the lathe in the top floors hand carved out of hemlock logs “rolled” down the wall. The stencils on the second floor (revealed when the wallpaper covering them burned off) were confirmed to be Moses Eaton’s work, the most famous stencil artist in American history. The immature writing in the backplaster was that of a girl, “Grace Straw lives here”. The top of the house was post and beam, but the Victorian floor was balloon construction. The Guilford Historical Society records indicate that the house was "remodeled" in 1849 when the tower was added, which fits any of the spookier theories outlined above. But what if the numbers were transposed?
In 1894, when Grace Straw, the last Straw to live at Trebor and the youngest of David Jr’s children, was 14 years old, we now believe that David Jr. decided to build a house that would show the world that the Straws had indeed arrived. But the Yankee compulsion to “use it up, wear it out and make it do” led to very different outcomes from our modern, disposable outlook. Straw contracted with the Lombard family, who operated Guilford Lumber Company (1892-1906) to raise the ancestral home and build a grand Victorian incorporating the original structure.
Our investigation did not provide us with any evidence of paranormal activity, but we really enjoyed our stay at the Trebor Mansion and we are looking forward to a follow-up investigation.
There is a photo of the mansion purportedly dating to 1849 showing it to be the same as it is today. Otherwise, of course, the rationalist would say that the house must have been completely rebuilt in the 1880's, effacing almost all traces of its former style, which was probably Greek Revival or Federalist similar to the west wing of the mansion as it appears today. Anyone who thinks that the most prominent piece of architecture in a small town can be transformed under the watchful eyes of its populace without anyone noticing it is welcome to their opinion, but they have obviously never lived in a small town! Besides which, the west wing was added in 1836---six years after the main structure was built.
Small town curiosity aside, there is a sort of conspiracy of silence about the Trebor Mansion in the village. Why the most distinguished piece of architecture in the most prominent setting in the village, housing the largest lodging business in the township and built by the most important family in Guilford barely rates a single mention in the Town's Centennial and Sesquicentennial Books is a mystery. Why the locals avert their gaze is just one more puzzling aspect of Trebor Mansion.
The owners of the mansion over the years have been equally eccentric. The last of the Straws to live in the mansion spent decades in an insane asylum before her death. The last owners to live in the mansion before its renovation in 1976, George and Helen Haley, lived for years in two rooms in the west wing, rarely entering the main house. Vines and undergrowth obscured the front of the house. They had inherited it from the family of a Unitarian pacifist United States Senator from Illinois who purchased the Mansion as a wedding gift---for his mother-in-law! (This must be the most elegant method known for removing an in-law.) When Senator Paul Douglas died, he was cremated and his ashes scattered in a Chicago suburb. The burial site of his wife, a US Congresswoman, is unknown. Local lore has it that Omar Lombard, of the famous inventors Lombard, was involved in the house's construction. He died in 1990 at the age of 101. There is no record anywhere of any architect practicing in Maine or the U.S. named "John Monroe". U.S. President James Monroe left office in 1825 and died July 4th, 1831. It would be a nice nom de plume for someone working in that era that didn't mind a little confusion about his name or his origins.
When the mansion burned with an estimated $600,000 in damages on 1-24-2004, interior and structural elements that had been hidden for more than a century were suddenly revealed. The State Fire Marshal discovered writing in the backplaster of the front parlor (more below), striking stencils were revealed on the walls of the 2nd floor hallway, and the beams in the ceiling of the first floor and the colonial corner posts of the original post and beam structure on the top floors were visible again.
The structural elements showed that the top three floors were of different materials and design from the grand Victorian first floor. The ceiling joists between the first and second floors were rough hewn, the lathe in the top floors hand carved out of hemlock logs “rolled” down the wall. The stencils on the second floor (revealed when the wallpaper covering them burned off) were confirmed to be Moses Eaton’s work, the most famous stencil artist in American history. The immature writing in the backplaster was that of a girl, “Grace Straw lives here”. The top of the house was post and beam, but the Victorian floor was balloon construction. The Guilford Historical Society records indicate that the house was "remodeled" in 1849 when the tower was added, which fits any of the spookier theories outlined above. But what if the numbers were transposed?
In 1894, when Grace Straw, the last Straw to live at Trebor and the youngest of David Jr’s children, was 14 years old, we now believe that David Jr. decided to build a house that would show the world that the Straws had indeed arrived. But the Yankee compulsion to “use it up, wear it out and make it do” led to very different outcomes from our modern, disposable outlook. Straw contracted with the Lombard family, who operated Guilford Lumber Company (1892-1906) to raise the ancestral home and build a grand Victorian incorporating the original structure.
Our investigation did not provide us with any evidence of paranormal activity, but we really enjoyed our stay at the Trebor Mansion and we are looking forward to a follow-up investigation.