Gift Horse

from Portland Monthly Magazine December 2009

Fiction

Hewnoaks is owned by the University of Maine Foundation and is used by Camp Susan Curtis during the summer.

GiftHorse

When centenarian Jessie Volk tried to give beautiful Hewnoaks on Kezar Lake to nonprofit organizations in maine, Dan Willett of the University of maine Foundation jumped on the opportunity and hit jackpot.

By Leah WhaLen

In February 2005, Jessie Volk began casting about for a Maine organization willing to accept her in-laws’ fabulous Arts & Crafts mansion and compound on Kezar Lake. Despite the rich history of the site, demand for it wasn’t guaranteed, and rumor has it that several non-profits may have passed it up. “Not everyone wants to snowshoe in a quarter of a mile in winter to see a property,” says Dan Willett.

Not to mention the natural superstition people have about a gift horse.

For his part, Willett, planned giving officer for the University of Maine Foundation, had the daring to accept the gift of this stunning retreat near Lovell to the benefit of organizations such as the Susan Curtis Foundation, whose young artists’ paintings catch the sunlight off the lake here.

But what was Hewnoaks during its heyday to make it such a rewarding catch in the 21st century?

At the end of the 19th century, it was built as an artists’ colony centered on the extraordinary family of New York portraitist Douglas Volk (1856-1935) and his wife, Marion, both of whom were enchanted by the romantic imagery of the Aesthetic Movement in Britain. Strongly influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and William Morris, the cultural wave sought to restore to fine and decorative arts the human touch lost in the Industrial Revolution.

Having trained in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts, Volk and his work became household words when his portrait of

Abraham Lincoln, which still hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, was used as the basis for the three-cent stamp. Between 1898 and 1908 he primarily painted at his summer home in Maine.

The house earned its name when Marion told the Lewiston Journal in 1904, “The walls are thick, and tons of oak are in the heavy beams.” These beams are adorned with carvings made both by guest artists and young Wendell Volk, an extraordinary artist himself who often made ornate frames for his father’s paintings. Like chapters in a storybook of fairy tales, the Volks added gables, wings, and additions until it sprawled comfortably along the starry blackness of the lake.

Here, Marion established a rug-weaving cottage industry called Sabatos, after nearby Sabbatus Mountain. Weavers hand-wove rugs on an enormous loom with wool from local sheep, spun by local women. Inspired, Wendell experimented with Navajo-style patterns in his rugs and published a small number of pamphlets and newsletters under the imprimatur of Sabatos Press.

When Wendell married Jessie McCoig in 1931, and they acquired Hewnoaks after his father’s death, Jessie’s creativity was added to the mix: she painted elaborate murals on the ceilings of the cottage that transport the viewer to different worlds.

The cumulative sense of all this creative energy is still palpable at Hewnoaks. Most of the house and its original furnishings remained intact until Jessie’s death at age 100 in 2005. Jim Cyr of Cyr Auctions, who handled the lucrative art and frames auction for the University of Maine Foundation, recalls, “I walked through to the dining room, and I could see through to the living room fireplace: Everywhere you looked there were old paintings, interesting artifacts, carved furniture, Mission furniture, period furniture.”

Even without the furnishings, most of which were sold through Cyr (who laudably took no commission) to benefit the University of Maine Foundation, the house is stunning. Wood runs everywhere: along the floors, up the walls as panels, across the ceilings as rough-hewn beams, even as a nearly intact tree limb supporting the ceiling by the staircase. The living room fireplace still boasts an original fire screen and andirons, practically unchanged by a hundred years of use. The dining room panels glow with cheery yellow and red, making the most of the autumn light that streams in through the mullioned windows. Upstairs, small bedrooms nestle under the eaves, with views of the lake and pine trees outside their windows.

Those views, of course, are what is most unchanged about the property since its zenith as an Arts & Crafts colony: gorgeous long views over pristine Kezar Lake to the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the distance. Jessie Volk knew just how precious they were: Willett recalls that Mrs. Volk “especially wanted [Hewnoaks] to stay undeveloped.” The views inspired Douglas Volk over a hundred years ago; now, thanks to his daughter-in-law’s generous gift, they can inspire a new generation of artists:

The contents of Hewn Oaks raised over $700,000 for the University of Maine Foundation. The Foundation currently leases the property to Camp Susan Curtis as a summer arts center for their disadvantaged and at-risk young campers. n