House of the Month

For $3.8 million, dare to be king and queen of mystical East Sebago as owners of this legendary 100-acre retreat.

EmpressThe of East Sebago EmpressThe of East Sebago

Dorothy Spaulding was a showgirl, and so is her house. After falling in love with her millionaire future husband, she e perienced the thrill of watching their romantic getaway, Rockcraft Lodge, take shape from 191 to 1920 on 100 pristine acres with 0 feet of frontage on Sebago Lake.

Leon C. Spaulding had snapped up the enviable address now styled No. 1 U.S. Route 11 in Sebago for ust $1 an acre.

Winters were spent at the Park Pla a Hotel in New York, in a year-round apartment overlooking Fifth Avenue and Central Park. Note to golddiggers It doesn’t hurt if your paramour has a turnpike in New Hampshire named for his family, who’s amassed a fortune developing Spaulding Fiber Co.

Here in Maine, 2 Italian stonemasons converged to create Rockcraft out of “stone walls from all over the countryside,” according to a lively history of the property by Cynthia J. Goheen.

Among their fanciful legacies is a pair of matched granite fireplaces bookending the 0-foot salon facing the lake. “Tourmalines, garnets, uart , and mica are embedded into each fireplace” to make them sparkle, says listing agent Carrie Colby from Premier Properties of Naples.

The visiting stonemasons were certainly entertained during their stay. According to Goheen, one “summer day, E. Sebago had one of its famous, e ceedingly dramatic thunderstorms. Work had not uite come to a halt when there was a flash of lightning followed by a deafening crash. Nicholas Richio, master stonemason, fainted dead away and had to be carried off the site. This amused the local workmen, who apparently were accustomed to the theatricality of Lake Sebago weather.”

“Since 19 , the house has been owned by United Church of Christ,” Colby says. “Cheverus High School,” among other UCC members, regularly hold retreats here. Prospective buyers include parties “who dream of making this a place like Migis Lodge.”

Listed for $ . million today after never being offered for sale for more than $1 before due to uirks of probate, generosity, and ta monkey business , “it’s the biggest parcel for sale on Sebago Lake in ages, including a chauffeur’s cottage, carriage house [once home to a French limousine and a Pierce Arrow, according to Goheen], and boathouse [their 0-foot yacht was lost in the Hurricane of 19 , Goheen writes],” all trimmed e uisitely in granite.

We’re not finished. “There’s a crypt with Dorothy and Leon buried inside,” Colby says without skipping a beat. Usually you ust get the cat

Ta es for 2009 were $0. ■

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