Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum
Encyclopedia
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American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
general, Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
president, and Maine Governor
Governor of Maine
The governor of Maine is the chief executive of the State of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive....
Joshua L. Chamberlain for over 50 years. Located at the corner of Maine and Potter Streets in Brunswick
Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,278 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, , and the...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, the house is now open to the public and is in the process of being restored as it was when Chamberlain lived there.
1824 to 1859
Jesse Pierce most likely built the original south-facing Greek RevivalGreek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
cape that would become the Chamberlain Museum not long after he purchased a tract of land on Potter Street in 1824. After Pierce lost the property to creditors in 1829, the land and house were purchased by Mary Ann Fales in 1830, who owned the home until 1836. During this time, Fales rented out extra rooms in the home, including three rooms where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
and his first wife lived while Longfellow taught at Bowdoin College.
After the home passed out of the hands of Fales, it went through a steady succession of owners. A prominent local builder named Anthony C. Raymond lived in the home from 1836 until 1838, when it was purchased by David & Alice Dunlap. The Dunlaps kept the home until 1849 and were followed by Edward Fisher (1849–1851), George B. Upham (1851–1852), Roswell Hitchcock (1852–1856) and finally John Wild (1856–1859).
1859 to 1983
In 1859, Professor Joshua L. ChamberlainJoshua Chamberlain
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , born as Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, was an American college professor from the State of Maine, who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army...
purchased the home for $2,100 after renting an apartment in the building for two years with his wife Frances Caroline Adams
Fanny Chamberlain
Frances Caroline "Fanny" Chamberlain, née Adams was born in the Greater Boston area. She was shuffled to different family members until she settled with Rev. George Eliashib Adams, a nephew of her father, in Brunswick, Maine as a small child...
and their two children. After Chamberlain had returned from serving in the Civil War, in 1867 the family sold part of their property to Eldridge Simpson and moved their entire house down the street to the corner of Maine and Potter streets so that it faced east
East
East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the right side of a map is east....
. After the move, several architectural changes were made to the exterior, including the addition of a crenellated trim and chimneys decorated with Latin, Greek
Cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...
and Maltese
Maltese cross
The Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta and through them came to be identified with the Mediterranean island of Malta and is one of the National symbols of Malta...
crosses.
When Chamberlain was chosen as the president of Bowdoin College in 1871, he decided that rather than moving into the President's House on Federal Street he would renovate his own home to accommodate guests. Using equipment from local shipyards
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
, the entire home was jacked up 11 feet (3.4 m) into the air and a new floor built underneath it. This newly-added first floor is generally Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
in style, though there are elements of both Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
and Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
architecture as well.
During the 1890s, Chamberlain added a Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
piazza
Piazza
A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...
to the rear of the home, and in 1907 he had the crenellations removed. Upon Chamberlain's death in 1914 his daughter, Grace Allen inherited the home and its contents. Grace rented rooms in the home from 1916 until her death in 1937, when her daughter, Rosamond Allen, inherited the home. Rosamond sold the home and most of its contents to Emery Booker in 1939, who divided the building into seven apartments which were primarily used by Bowdoin College students. In 1983, the Pejepscot Historical Society
Pejepscot Historical Society
The Pejepscot Historical Society, located in Brunswick, is one of the oldest historical societies in the state of Maine. Founded in 1888, the Society's mission is to preserve and celebrate the history of the Pejepscot region, which includes the towns of Brunswick, Harpswell and...
purchased the building from Booker's estate for the price of $75,000, and opened the home as a museum in 1984.
Museum
The Pejepscot Historical SocietyPejepscot Historical Society
The Pejepscot Historical Society, located in Brunswick, is one of the oldest historical societies in the state of Maine. Founded in 1888, the Society's mission is to preserve and celebrate the history of the Pejepscot region, which includes the towns of Brunswick, Harpswell and...
currently operates guided tours of the museum from Memorial Day weekend to Colombus Day weekend. Rooms visited on the tour include the Dining Room, Curvy Room, Entryway, Longfellow Parlor, Library, Governor's Room, Architectural History Room, and Formal Parlor. Some of the items currently on display in the museum are the boots Chamberlain wore at the battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
, his ceremonial governor's chair & desk, Chamberlain's saddle for his horse Charlemagne, and the minié ball
Minié ball
The Minié ball is a type of muzzle-loading spin-stabilising rifle bullet named after its co-developer, Claude-Étienne Minié, inventor of the Minié rifle...
which nearly took Chamberlain's life at the battle of Petersburg.
See also
- Joshua L. Chamberlain
- Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
- Pejepscot Historical SocietyPejepscot Historical SocietyThe Pejepscot Historical Society, located in Brunswick, is one of the oldest historical societies in the state of Maine. Founded in 1888, the Society's mission is to preserve and celebrate the history of the Pejepscot region, which includes the towns of Brunswick, Harpswell and...