Built in 1867 for Seth and Margaret Dyer
A large Italianate in the West End Historic District
Those windows sure are unique.
Seth & Margaret Dyer had been married 20 years when they built a new home in the, even then, desirable West End of Portland in 1866. With the Furbush, Storer, and Hersey house nearby, it was rarified air indeed. They had three children. Willie died in 1855 at less than a year old. Katie was 14 and James 4 in 1866. So, a ‘good sized’ house was warranted what with having servants and all. At 3 stories, 6 bedrooms, and 4600 square feet of living space, our subject is indeed ‘good sized’.
Seth Curtis Dyer was born in Bucksport ME in 1817. Margaret Holyoke Neal was born in Brewer ME in 1820. They married in Brewer in November of 1846. They lived in Brewer until 1857 when they moved to Portland appearing in the 1858 city directory. Seth was a lumber dealer and the Bangor/Brewer area was the center of the lumber industry. The move to Portland was made so Seth could start exporting lumber to South America.
336-338 Spring Street has no design attribution. This is not surprising as it has features that, in my eye, point to possibly 2 different designers. The entry portal, porch, and the window above are very much in Francis Fassett’s oeuvre. The massing, bracketed cornice, third story windows, and pronounced architrave line below those third story windows are more in line with Charles A Alexander. Fassett’s mature works would show some of these features but he was newly established in Portland at the time of construction and his works of the period do not show them.
Adding to the Alexander connection is the neighborhood. The houses I mentioned earlier were all Alexander designs. It doesn’t stretch the imagination too much to see the Dyer’s wanting a home like their neighbor’s. Another factor is, although he had moved to New York City by this time, Charles A Alexander was still working in Portland on the Falmouth Hotel so he was here at the time. The curve ball is those first story windows. But, we’ll get to them.
1876. University of Southern Maine. Osher Map Collection
In July of 1875 Katie Dyer died of consumption at the age of 21. She joined Willie, who was disinterred and moved with the family, in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery. Margaret Dyer died in January of 1907. Her cause of death was ‘senility’. Seth died in 1909. His cause of death is not clear as that line of his death certificate is illegible. James Dyer was president & treasurer of his father’s company after Seth retired in 1889. After SC Dyer closed, he then worked as treasurer for the FW Webb Company. He continued to live in our subject until he sold it in 1922. He died of a heart attack the following year.
About those windows. They’re quite large for a residence. For a building of the late 1860’s, even more so. They do resemble ‘Chicago Windows‘ with the tripartite arrangement of 2 narrow units flanking a larger central unit. ‘Chicago Windows’ were developed nearly 20 years after our subject was built. They normally saw the center unit being a single, fixed, pane with outer units being openable. Clearly, the center unit at 336 Spring Street is 2 panes.
Wikipedia
The full entablatures above the windows appear no where else on the house. The consoles on which those entablatures rest are much simpler than those of the second floor windows above which is inverse of the ‘norm’. Could the windows have been replaced? Perhaps when, as we shall see, 336-338 Spring Street was purchased by the Waynflete School? I considered this but the 1924 tax photo, taken 39 years before the school bought it, shows the windows in place. Other things I note are the lack of any signs of changes to the masonry indicating changes having been made and, the rhythm of the windows and sills is matched by the foundation stones and basement window below. It seems we’re left with a puzzlement.
Maine Memory Network
When James Dyer sold 336-338 Spring Street in 1922, the buyers were Ernest & Dora Soule. Ernest Soule was born in South Portland, then Cape Elizabeth, in 1871 and Dora Hanson in Unity Maine in 1878. They likely met around 1900 when both were living in John Leighton’s lodging house on Cumberland Avenue. Ernest was selling hats and Dora was working as a milliner. They married in 1903 and had 2 children, Maynard in 1909 and Phyllis in 1913. Ernest & Dora Soule ran a millinery store on Congress Street where Space Gallery is now located. Dora died in May of 1928. I have not found a death certificate but the Evening Express stated it came after an “illness of four months”. Ernest Soule sold our subject to Frances Fisher in 1929. Ernest died in 1962.
536 Congress Street was the location of the Soule’s Millinery Store. Maine Memory Network
Frances Darker Fisher was born in Portland in 1893. Stanwood, Stanley, Fisher was born in Portland in 1878. Both attended Portland High School. Stanwood received a medical degree although where from is unknown. He received his license to practice in Maine in 1906. They married in 1915 and had 3 children. Stanwood worked at Mercy Hospital for many years. He served in the aeronautics division of the Army as a doctor during WWI. The Fishers lived here until 1956 when they sold to Stanley and Martha Herrick in 1956.
Frances Fisher. Portland Sunday Telegram November 23, 1919. Newspapers.Com
Martha & Stanley Herrick were both born in 1894 in Waldoboro & Mars Hill respectively. They married in Portland in 1917 and had 2 children. Stanley was a physician who was involved in developing the field of nuclear medicine. The Herrick’s son, Stanley Jr, carried on this work after he became a physician as well. The Herricks sold 336-338 Spring Street to Waynflete School in 1963.
336-338 Spring Street is listed as a ‘Literary Institution’ building. The condition is very good.
Portland House Stories 