Bucksport’s small order of Franciscan friars has sold its home, completing a move south from the region where its members were well-known business owners for decades.
A local couple now plans to use the order’s home and monastery on Orcutt Mountain Road to help run their small businesses.
Kenneth Soucy and Donald Martel came to Bucksport in the late 1990s as the Franciscan Brothers of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a Catholic order.
They focused on love and public service, especially through labor, and saw the popular cafes they ran in Bangor and Bucksport as a ministry to the community.
Martel and Soucy opened Friar’s Bakehouse in downtown Bangor in 1999, serving baked goods, soups and sandwiches until moving closer to home in 2018 with a cafe and brewery on Bucksport’s Main Street that closed immediately after Martel’s sudden death in 2023.
Without income from their business, Soucy and another remaining member decided this spring to list their 15-room home and monastery. They also felt it was time for a fresh start, Soucy previously said.
The 34-acre property sold in late July to Diane and Richard Levitt of New Hamburg, New York, according to Hancock County deed records.
It will provide production space for local businesses run by Bucksport couple Hillie Bills, who is the Levitts’ daughter, and Jacob Lewin. Bills makes cosmetics using black bear fat as the brand BearFaced Skincare, along with European-style folk art; Lewin owns Timberline Residential Construction and will use part of the facility for carpentry.
“The spiritual thread of the monastery will be continued, and was the driving force behind our purchase,” Bills said.
While the sale process was standard, listing agent Jim Stoneton said marketing the property was unique because it included a chapel and was laid out for more dormitory-style living.
Soucy didn’t return a request for comment, but the brothers’ Facebook page now listed them as located in New Gloucester.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how the new buyers will use the property. It also mischaracterized the role of Diane and Richard Levitt in the transaction.