Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
A stately Augusta home with a more than 240-year-old historic mill next door is on the market for $950,000.
This four-bedroom, three-bathroom Colonial-style home in Augusta sits on nearly 21 acres on Leighton Road, roughly a five-minute drive from downtown. Built in 1836, the brick house offers more than 2,800 square feet of living space and backs up to more than 100 acres of protected wetlands.
The historic Coombs Mill on the edge of Bond Brook, first built in 1783, sits next door to the house.
The homeowners bought the mill a few months after buying the house in 2016 and rehabilitated the building to become a greenhouse and gathering space with a full bathroom and heated concrete floor, said Johnny Swan of Brookewood Realty, the listing agent for the property.
The property, which includes both the house and refurbished mill, hit the market on June 12 with an asking price of $950,000. That’s more than three times the median price of a home in Augusta, which Zillow placed at more than $283,999 as of last month.
The sellers, who specialize in interior design and engineering, renovated the house to add modern amenities and luxury finishes while keeping elements that maintain its historic character, Swan said. For example, the home still has its original wide wooden floorboards and four fireplaces.
“Sometimes when people remodel older homes, you lose sense of the history and the character,” Swan said. “When updates are done thoughtfully in a way that doesn’t take away the charm or the age of the property, it’s really special, and these folks have captured that.”
The home also has a three-car detached garage, outbuilding and back patio area.
The home’s large kitchen and dining area with a woodstove stands out as perhaps the grandest space in the house, Swan said. The sellers combined a few rooms to create the large space during the renovation process.
“They took it upon themselves to not cut any corners and do things the right way with every, every inch of this property,” Swan said. “It’s not often that we see properties with this level of character and history.”
The mill changed hands a few times before it washed down the river in a storm, according to Swan. In 1835, Abner Coombs bought the land, built the two-story brick-and-granite home and rebuilt the mill to be a grist and lumber mill.
The mill operated as a feed store at one point, and faced demolition when the city condemned it for being a hazard. Steel supports were then added under the building to prevent it from falling into Bond Brook.
An original saw from the mill was found in the 1980s and is now displayed in the lobby of the Maine State Museum, according to Swan.